For most Chinese, the 36th anniversary of a bloody crackdown that ended pro-democracy protests in China has passed like any other weekday. And that’s just how the ruling Communist Party wants it. Security

University students occupied this symbolically important site in the spring of 1989. Their calls for freedoms divided the party leadership. In retrospect, the decision to send in the troops marked a decisive turning point in the evolution of modern China, keeping the party firmly in control as it loosened economic restrictions.

China has never provided a full death toll, but rights groups and witnesses say the figure could run into thousands. Public discussion of what happened is taboo in China, which blamed the protests on counter-revolutionaries seeking to overthrow the ruling Communist Party.