Tourists have thronged Beijing's Tiananmen Square amid tighter-than-usual security, although most visitors approached by Reuters said they were unaware of the bloody crackdown on student-led protests 30 years ago or would not discuss it.
The anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown, when Beijing sent troops and tanks to quell pro-democracy activists, is not spoken of openly in China and will not be formally marked by the government, which has ramped up censorship.
Among the students' demands in 1989 were a free press and freedom of speech, disclosure of leaders' assets and freedom to demonstrate.
However, exiled former protest leaders say those goals are further away in China than ever before because the government has in the past decade suppressed a civil society nurtured by years of economic development.
Tiananmen also remains a point of contention between China and many Western countries, which have implored Chinese leaders to account for giving the People's Liberation Army the order to open fire on their own people.
China has never released a final death toll from the events on and around June 4. Estimates from human rights groups and witnesses range from several hundred to thousands.
Security was heavy in and around the square itself, with no signs of any protests or memorials.
Hundreds of uniformed and plainclothes police monitored the square and its surroundings, conducting spot ID checks and inspecting car trunks. Thousands of visitors lined up at security checkpoints to enter the square, many carrying tour group flags.
Rights groups said authorities had rounded up dissidents in the run-up to the anniversary. Amnesty International said police had detained, put under house arrest, or threatened dozens of activists in recent weeks.
The United Nations had received reports of detentions, threats and increased censorship ahead of the anniversary, UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in Geneva.
"We have made our concerns known to the Chinese government and we are working to also verify these reports that we have received," she said.
While no public events to mark the anniversary will be tolerated in mainland China, demonstrators gathered in Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
There will also be events in self-ruled and democratic Taiwan, which China claims as its own.
