Clinton Urges China to Release Names of Those Killed, Missing in Tiananmen Protests

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Beijing Wednesday to publish the names of those killed or missing in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the bloody crackdown.

"A China that has made enormous progress economically and is emerging to take its rightful place in global leadership should examine openly the darker events of its past and provide a public accounting of those killed, detained or missing, both to learn and to heal," Clinton said in a statement released Wednesday.

The secretary of state has also called on China to release those prisoners still detained for their involvement in the nonviolent pro-democracy demonstrations.

"China can honor the memory of that day by moving to give the rule of law, protection of internationally recognized human rights and democratic development the same priority as it has given to economic reform," Clinton said.

Chinese police aggressively deterred dissent on Thursday's 20th anniversary of the crackdown, ignoring calls from Clinton and even Taiwan's China-friendly president for Beijing to face up to the government violence that killed hundreds and possibly thousands two decades ago.

Foreign journalists were barred from the vast square as uniformed and plainclothes police stood guard across the area which was the epicenter of the student-led movement that was crushed by the military on the night of June 3-4, 1989.

Security officials checking passports also blocked foreign TV camera operators and photographers from entering the square to cover the raising of China's national flag, which happens at dawn every day. Plainclothes officers aggressively confronted journalists on the streets surrounding the square, cursing and threatening violence against them.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.