Chinese police Wednesday stopped three U.S. lawmakers who laid flowers and held up a banner in Tianan-men Square in honor of activists slain when the 1989 pro-democracy movement was crushed by the Chinese army.
The three - Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Rep. Ben Jones, D-Ga., and Rep. John Miller, R-Wash. - had been holding meetings with Chinese officials to press for human rights improvements."It was important for us to make a gesture in memory of those people," Jones said later. "We are a human rights delegation, after all."
They were allowed to leave the square after a short, confused exchange with police hampered by the language barrier.
Police scuffled with three U.S. television camera crews filming the incident and detained them for about 90 minutes, the crew members said.
The three legislators had held up a banner about three feet long saying in Chinese and English: "To those who died for democracy in China."
They also made short statements to the crowd that quickly gathered, then laid on the ground small white flowers they were wearing.
At a news conference at the U.S. Embassy shortly before the incident, the legislators said they had stressed in talks with Chinese officials that the country could lose its most-favored-nation trade status if it does not release people jailed for taking part in the 1989 democracy movement.
The group quoted Chinese officials as saying they are considering allowing international humanitarian groups to visit prisoners and monitor their conditions. That would be a concession, as China previously has allowed foreigners to visit only a few, select prisons and generally has barred access to political prisoners.