Tens of thousands joined a sombre candlelight vigil in Hong Kong on Tuesday to mark the 30th anniversary of Chinese troops opening fire on student-led democracy protesters in and around Tiananmen Square, as authorities in Beijing went into lockdown.

Demonstrators gathered in the financial hub’s Victoria Park, holding up candles and placards as others rallied next to a replica of the Goddess of Democracy statue, which was erected in Tiananmen Square during the 1989 demonstrations in Beijing and looked like the US Statue of Liberty. 

Nearby, a life-size replica of Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese Nobel Peace Prize-winning political dissident who died in 2017 while in custody, floated in a waterway adorned with flowers.

As tens of thousands thronged Hong Kong for the annual vigil, censors at Chinese internet companies said tools to detect and block content related to the 1989 crackdown had reached unprecedented levels of accuracy.

In the former British colony of Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a “one country, two systems formula” that guarantees rights and freedoms not seen on the mainland, organisers said 180,000 joined the peaceful vigil, filling six football fields.

Police authorities put the turnout at 37,000.

‘Frightened and scared’

Analysts believe the high turnout is a reflection of a common concern people share on a new extradition law coming up in China.

“Hong Kong is frightened and scared,” Keith Richburg, from the University of Hong Kong told Al Jazeera.

“People are really afraid of a new extradition law that is coming into effect that would allow people to be shipped over the border to mainland China to face trial … so people are [worried] that China has slowly been chipping away at Hong Kong’s rights, chipping away at Hong Kong’s legal system,” he added. 

In comparison, authorities in mainland China, where the anniversary remains taboo, deployed a security blanket in and around Tiananmen Square. China has never provided a death toll for the 1989 violence. Rights groups and witnesses say it could run into the thousands.

“Everybody is concerned about Tiananmen after 30 years,” Wei Fenghe, China’s minister of defence said on Sunday, in rare official comments about the repression. 

“[In the past] 30 years, China, under the Communist Party, has undergone many changes. Do you think the government was wrong with the handling of June 4th? There was a conclusion to that incident. That was a political turmoil, that the central government needed to quell,” Fenghe added.

But analysts believe that the course of action China has taken has not led to good changes.

Richburg said the Chinese government has been able to successfully control dissent through several means, including creating “a massive surveillance state.

“They have also been able to isolate themselves by wrapping themselves in the nationalist flag, so any criticism of China becomes a criticism of the Chinese people and the Chinese culture .. the government has also been insulated by a very strong economy, they have been saying … leave us alone to rule the country, and we will keep the economy growing … just don’t get involved in politics.”

The vigil in Hong Kong is the largest on Chinese soil. Smaller vigils are held in the former Portuguese territory of Macau and the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which China claims as its own.

Demonstrators gathered in the financial hub’s Victoria Park, holding up candles and placards [Tyrone Siu/Reuters]

Security blanket 

Tourists thronged Tiananmen Square earlier on Tuesday amid tighter-than-usual security, although most visitors approached by Reuters said they were unaware of the bloody crackdown on student-led protests 30 years ago, or would not discuss it.

The anniversary of the repression is not spoken of openly in China and is not formally marked by the government.

A 67-year-old man surnamed Li, sitting on a bench about a 10-minute walk from the square, said he remembered the events of June 4, 1989, and its aftermath clearly.

“I was on my way back home from work. Changan Avenue was strewn with burned-out vehicles. The People’s Liberation Army killed many people. It was a bloodbath,” he said.

Asked if he thought the government should give a full account of the violence, he said: “What’s the point? These students died for nothing.”

Tiananmen also remains a point of contention between China and many Western countries, which have implored Chinese leaders to account for giving the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) the order to open fire on their own people.

China’s foreign ministry denounced criticism by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who called for China to release all political prisoners and offered his salute to “the heroes of the Chinese people who bravely stood up 30 years ago in Tiananmen Square to demand their rights”.

The spread of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) appears to be accelerating with more than 2,000 cases recorded, two-thirds of them fatal, according to government figures, and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The number of confirmed cases reached the milestone three times as quickly as it took to reach 1,000, experts said on Tuesday.

Eastern DRC is now in the midst of the second-worst outbreak of the disease in history. Attacks by rebel groups have complicated health workers’ efforts to contain it.

In Beni, 16 people were killed in clashes with suspected Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels, 13 of them civilians, an official said on Tuesday.

Militia attacks have hindered treatment and complicated the United Nations‘s response to the crisis. Local mistrust of health workers has also contributed to an acceleration of the spread of Ebola.

‘Can’t vaccinate’

“Without access to communities, we can’t vaccinate those at risk,” Tedros Adhanom from the WHO wrote on Twitter.

“But we are determined that we can and will end this outbreak,” he added.

We have now passed 2000 #Ebola cases in #DRC. Insecurity continues to hamper the response. Without access to communities, we can’t vaccinate those at risk, treat those infected or trace contacts. But we are determined that we can & will end this outbreak. pic.twitter.com/MpHqYXLvaE

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) June 4, 2019

The outbreak reached 1,000 cases in March, more than seven months after it was first detected in August last year.

It took less than three more months to reach 2,000, according to the DRC’s health ministry. More than 1,300 people have died.

Responders face twin obstacles: resistance from communities who believe that Ebola is a conspiracy made up by aid agencies and the government, and from armed groups seeking to stoke instability for their own gain.

“The current response to tackle Ebola isn’t working,” Corinne N’Daw, Oxfam’s country director in Congo told Reuters.

“No matter how effective treatment is, if people don’t trust or understand it, they will not use it.”

The 2,000 figure is a “sad and frustrating milestone … the insecurity is holding us back,” said WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic.

A mob killed an Ebola health worker and looted a clinic in the village of Vusahiro earlier this month.

Between January and early May, there were 42 attacks on health facilities, with 85 workers either injured or killed, according to WHO figures from May 3.

“Every time there is an incident … we are not able to provide services and go into communities. We are not able to vaccinate, not able to treat those who are ill, we are not able to follow up on those who may have been exposed to the virus,” Jasarevic said.

Monday attack

The ADF fighting in Beni happened on Monday night, interim town Mayor Bakwanamaha Modeste told DPA news agency.

“We regret the death of 13 civilians and two military personnel,” he said, adding that a rebel was also killed.

The incident comes a few days after the Congolese army said they had killed 26 ADF members in the same region.

The ADF is one of the numerous rebel groups that are active in eastern Congo, primarily fighting over the area’s rich mineral resources.

The rebel group frequently launches attacks on civilians but recently has been responsible for attacks on United Nations peacekeepers as well.

Donald Trump, the president of the United States, hailed “the greatest alliance the world has ever known” after meeting British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday.

On the second day of his state visit to the United Kingdom, Trump also said the National Health Service (NHS) should be included in any post-Brexit trade deal with the US.

“I think we’re going to have a great and very comprehensive trade deal,” Trump told a gathering of press and officials at London’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, a short walk from the prime minister’s residence at Number 10 Downing Street, where the two leaders held talks in the morning.

“Everything with a trade deal is on the table,” added Trump. “The NHS or anything else, and a lot more than that, everything is on the table, absolutely.”

The remarks echoed much-criticised comments made by US Ambassador Woody Johnson at the weekend.

“Immediately, Theresa May had to row back and say that was just part of a negotiation process,” said Al Jazeera’s Laurence Lee, reporting from Downing Street.

“She knows that selling off any part of the National Health Service to American pharmaceutical companies is just absolute dynamite, and no politician here could countenance it. And this will be seized upon by anti-Brexit people here to say ‘if that’s the sort of trade deal that the US wants, is it worth bothering with at all?’”

Everything with a trade deal is on the table. The NHS or anything else, and a lot more than that, everything is on the table, absolutely

Donald Trump, US president

Trump also said reports of protests against his presence in London were “fake news”. He said he saw “thousands of people cheering” and waving the American flag when travelling through London yesterday.

“Where are the people protesting?” he asked. “There was tremendous spirit, tremendous love.”

Al Jazeera’s Paul Brennan was reporting from among the demonstrations on Tuesday morning.

“There certainly were protesters,” he said from Trafalgar Square. “Not as many as in 2018, when an estimated 250,000 turned out, and it is difficult to put an estimate on it, but definitely between 10 and 20,000 people.”

Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who boycotted Monday night’s state dinner thrown in honour of the president, addressed the rally of protesters and said he would never support a US trade deal that threatened the NHS.

“Protests are certainly smaller than when the president first visited,” added Al Jazeera’s Laurence Lee. “But if you take the polling as a guide, then Donald Trump is still very, very unpopular here in the United Kingdom.”

Limited power

The morning’s meetings were more in-depth than many had expected. In recent days, expectations of a grand summit had been downplayed by British officials following Theresa May’s announcement of her resignation.

“Theresa May has no real power any more, so it’s curious to see what exactly she can do,” said Al Jazeera’s Paul Brennan.

“But there is, of course, the matter of continuity. There will continue to be a relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States under a new prime minister, so they’ll be talking about all number of things, including Iran.

Britain is one of the countries that still supports the Iran deal, which the US has pulled out of. There are concerns about food standards, and there are concerns that if Brexit does go through, that there will be a need for a trade deal, so some of the fundamentals of those talks might be started today as well.”

In the press conference following the meeting, Trump praised May’s failed efforts at getting a Brexit deal through parliament.

“The deal is teed up now, and I don’t think you’ll get the credit you deserve,” he told May.

“I believe the prime minister has brought it to a very good point, and something will definitely happen.”

May and Trump glossed over the topics of Iran and China, and couched much of their prepared statements in the diplomatic language surrounding the commemorations of the Second World War’s D-Day landings.

But the public remarks will be most remembered for Trump’s comments about the potentially “phenomenal” trade deal.

“The question is: Does Donald Trump have the power to unilaterally get a trade deal with the UK? And the answer is no, because any such deal has to go through Congress,” said Lee.

“And if the UK imposed a hard border with Ireland as part of Brexit, for example, that deal would be likely be blocked by Congress.”

‘Special relationship’

Mark Shanahan, head of the University of Reading’s politics and international relations department, said the “special relationship” had been “a myth propagated by both sides when it’s been useful”.

“The relationship between the US and UK started with a war 240 years ago,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Some see Donald Trump as interfering too much in domestic politics, though populists over here, including such people as Nigel Farage, see him as an inspiration.

“He’s talking a good game, but he talks at a surface level – there’s not a lot of depth or intellect behind his statements, and he doesn’t have the power to push this trade deal through. Ths will be a Congressional deal if and when it happens.”

Trump ended the conference with one last interjection in domestic British politics, when asked if he would meet Boris Johnson or Michael Gove, two of the leading candidates, along with Jeremy Hunt and at least 10 others, to replace May as leader of the Conservative Party. On Saturday, Trump had appeared to endorse Johnson for the top job, and he has previously met Gove, when Gove interviewed him in the presence of Rupert Murdoch for Murdoch’s The Times newspaper. 

“I know Boris, I think he’ll do a very good job,” he said. “I know [Foreign Secretary] Jeremy [Hunt], I think he’ll do a very good job. I don’t know Michael.”

The president then turned to Jeremy Hunt, sitting in the front row of the audience. “What do you think, Jeremy? Think he’ll do a good job?”