From the June 5, 2014, Chicago Tribune "Tainanmen anniversary: 2 different scenes" by Barbara Demick and Julie Makinen.
At the scene of the student takeover and massacre on June 5, 1989, it was very quiet on the 25th anniversary. Two large video screens flashed Communist Party slogans and there were plenty troops and police in the area.
Very few foreign tourists were there as well. State-run media did not mention it and even the number "25" was blocked on social networking sites.
The scene was far different in Hong Kong where more than 180,000 people converged on Victoria Park for a candlelight vigil. A wreath was laid beside a replica of the Monument to the People's Heroes at Tiananmen Square and the "Goddess of Democracy Statue" that was seen so often during the stand-off.
It took me a long time to figure out how to spell Tananmen as we followed it in my classes at Magee middle School in Round Lake, Illinois.
Besides the opening of the Berlin Wall, I consider this a major victory for freedom and democracy over Communist dictatorships.
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