Seven members of the Tiananmen Mothers group have mourned the victims of the 1989 massacre at the Wan’an Cemetery in Beijing under surveillance.

The ceremony was led by the group’s spokesperson You Weijie on the 32rd anniversary of the incident. Huang Jinping, who lost her husband in the massacre, read the memorial speech saying that Communist Party leaders chose not to listen to demands to fight corruption from  peaceful protesters led by students. Instead, they shot them with live rounds and crushed them with tanks.

The loss of family was an unerasable pain and their memories of those who died would never fade, Huang said.

“Those alive would bear the heavy burden to fight for justice till death,” she said.

Zhang Xianling, a cofounder of the movement, told Apple Daily they were under surveillance just as in past years as they had to take a government car to reach the cemetery, and entered through the back door. The ceremony took around 90 minutes, with around 20 people monitoring them, she said.

She noticed some police officers in plain clothes walking around the cemetery, closer to members of the public, which was unlike the usual arrangement in which they would be closer to the Tiananmen Mothers, Zhang said. She speculated that the officers may have had a mission to block the public from getting close to them, or being able to hear or see what they were doing.

There were roadblocks on the way to and from the cemetery to check cars, i-Cable reported.

Security has increased at Tiananmen Square with police cars on site to check suspicious vehicles, according to i-Cable news. Tour groups and individuals could enter and leave the square freely.

Plain clothes officers were stationed at Muxidi where many died in the massacre. Some exits of the subway were closed.

A reporter for Taiwan’s Central News Agency went to Tiananmen Square as a tourist and found increased checks on passersby as the number of officers near the square almost doubled.

He showed his mainland travel permit during a security check and was told the machine could not read it. He was then taken to a guard post and officers asked him several questions. An officer told him to leave, citing the need to prevent crowds forming during the pandemic.

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