The Guardian

Tiananmen Square: China steps up curbs on activists for 30th anniversary

Government’s critics say controls are more severe: ‘They know the 30th anniversary means a lot’
A man stands blocking a column of army tanks on Changan Avenue east of Tiananmen Square in Beijing on 5 June 1989, the day after the crackdown began. Photograph: Reuters

Every year in late May, Hu Jia is taken on a mandatory holiday to Qinhuangdao, a port city almost 200 miles from his home in Beijing. He is accompanied by police on walks in the park or by the sea and is always in view of a minder. Hu returns to the capital only after 4 June, the anniversary of the Chinese government’s crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.

Hu, one of China’s most prominent political activists, has been under house arrest for years in part

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