Police block events ahead of Tiananmen anniversary

Thursday, February 05, 2009

The Associated Press
by Anita Chang
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Gao Minglu, curator of the avant-garde exhibition reads his protest letter in front of an exhibition hall in Beijing, China, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009. Police barred organizers of an avant-garde art exhibit from hosting two events Thursday that marked 20 years since 1989 _ a sensitive date for China's Communist government as the same anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown approaches. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

BEIJING (AP) — Organizers said they were barred from commemorating a 1989 Chinese art exhibition on Thursday, an apparent sign of authorities' extreme sensitivity over the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests this year.

The move to ban a film screening and series of speeches appeared to be a step by Beijing to tighten control ahead of the June 4 anniversary of the student-led democracy demonstration.

Discussion of the protests and the subsequent military crackdown — in which hundreds, possibly thousands, were killed — remains taboo within China. The Communist leadership labeled the protest an anti-government riot and has never offered a full accounting of its response.

"I'm not disappointed for the exhibit, I'm disappointed because our system is still so out of date, still so conservative," curator Gao Minglu said. "It's been 20 years, and it's still the same."

Organizers of the "20 Year Anniversary of China/Avant-Garde Exhibition" had planned a series of speeches about the exhibit, which was shown in the National Art Gallery in 1989. Among the expected guests was the daughter of Zhao Ziyang, the former premier who supported the 1989 student protests.

But Gao said police called his assistant late Wednesday night and said they were barring the event because organizers had not properly registered it with authorities.

"They're nervous, I guess. Maybe because this year is an extremely sensitive year," Gao said, after addressing more than 100 people who had gathered for the event at the National Agriculture Exhibition Hall. "But what does an art exhibit have to do with that?"

Authorities also prevented an art gallery from showing a documentary film Thursday titled "Seven Deadly Sins," a movie about performance art in 1989 by filmmaker Wen Pulin, organizers said.

However, an art exhibit that featured photographs of the works shown from 1989 was held without police interruption at a gallery in central Beijing.

A woman in the Chaoyang District public security bureau said she had not heard of the commemoration. A woman at the Beijing Jinri Gallery, where the film screening was to be held, confirmed that the documentary was not shown but said she did not know why. Phones rang unanswered at the National Agriculture Exhibition Hall.