``China has to remain silent. But we, too, are now part of China. We have to make our voices heard,'' said Lee Cheuk-yan, a trade unionist and legislator active in a Hong Kong organisation that supported the Tiananmen students in 1989 and has worked to keep their cause alive. In Victoria Park, still adorned with the British queen's statue, the crowd sang in praise of a democracy movement extinguished by the People's Liberation Army.

The same force took command of Hong Kong's Prince of Wales barrackson July 1 last year but has studiously avoided displaying its power, even keeping the name of the headquarters inherited from a retreating British garrison.

Hong Kong officials stayed away from the commemoration, held around the controversial Pillar of Shame a plywood model of a Tiananmen memorial used by students as their command post in 1989. But they hailed the event as proof of the success of ``one country, two systems'', the formula under which Britain handed back its last big colony to China.

``Provided they act within the law, people are free to express their views on any issue under the sun,'' said Anson Chan, the territory's number two official. Speaking in Tokyo, she said the gathering in Victoria Park ``underlines the fact that there is no change to the rights and freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kong people, nor the lifestyle of the community at large''.

From a stage erected next to a basketball court hung a large black banner: ``Reverse the Verdict on June 4.'' Other banners vowed to ``fight tothe end'' and ``never forget June 4''. Huge loudspeakers broadcast at a deafening volume words that can barely be whispered in Beijing, where all public discussion of the events of 1989 is taboo.

The Communist Party defines the 1989 student movement as a ``counter-revolutionary rebellion''. Speakers included not only Szeto Wah, a former Hong Kong school teacher and democracy leader condemned by Beijing as a ``subversive'', but also China's two best-known dissidents, both now in exile in the US and barred from returning.

Wei Jingsheng, a key figure in the 1979 Democracy Wall movement, sent a pre-recorded video message. Wang Dan, a leader of the 1989 protesters, spoke live from New York. Hong Kong has held demonstrations every year since 1989, when more than a million took to the streets to condemn the Chinese army's assault on unarmed protesters. But last night's protest was the first such gathering on Chinese soil. Organisers put the crowd at 40,000, though this seems an over-estimate.

Last week therewas a record turnout in the first elections under Chinese rule, a sign that Britain's exit has, if anything, increased interest in politics. ``They are making history here today,'' said Robin Munro, the Hong Kong director of Human Rights Watch. ``This is the first time inside the People's Republic of China that so many people have insisted on sticking to their own version of history, to their own ideas, to their own anger and to their own sorrow.''

Hong Kong's first post-colonial governor, its chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, last year urged residents to ``set down the baggage'' of Tiananmen. This year, however, he stayed silent, as did China's senior officials in the territory. A foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing said China was not concerned by the Hong Kong protest. Martin Lee, head of the Democratic Party, applauded the low-key response from Beijing, saying it was ``much more positive'' than previous statements.

Hong Kong's determination to keep alive memories of Tiananmen punctures the amnesiaimposed on the rest of the country. ``We came here to remember all the people who died. It seems like only yesterday,'' said Debbie Yau, a Hong Kong office worker. ``The victims were our own flesh and blood. I'm now a mother so I feel the importance of what happened even more. I can never forget the tragedy of Tiananmen.''