China marks National Day, Hong Kongers protest Tiananmen massacre

Hong Kongers protested the Chinese army's 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators at Beijing's Tiananmen Square, in a demonstration Monday marking China's National Day.

Workers in the nearby gambling enclave Macau rallied against illegal workers and corruption.

Meanwhile, China celebrated the occasion with a flag-raising ceremony at Tiananmen Square, as scores of onlookers snapped photos in a light rain as the national anthem played, TV footage in Hong Kong showed.

The square was decorated with 400,000 pots containing 130 different species of flowers, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Tiananmen is the site of the bloody crackdown on student protesters on June 4, 1989, that killed hundreds, perhaps thousands.

In Hong Kong, radical lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung and seven others marched near the site of a government-sponsored China National Day reception. The protesters burned a photo of former Chinese Premier Li Peng to denounce his alleged role in ordering the Tiananmen crackdown.

Leung said he was blocked from entering the reception because he was wearing a T-shirt saying, "The People Will Not Forget."

He was allowed in after changing clothes and once inside chanted "End one-party rule," Leung said.

Police spokesman C. Cheung said the protest was peaceful and no arrests were made.

The Chinese government still views the 1989 uprising as a "counterrevolutionary riot."

In nearby Macau, hundreds of workers marked National Day by demonstrating to denounce the alleged increase of illegal workers and alleged government corruption.

About 900 people drove motorcycles or marched to the offices of Edmund Ho, Macau's leader, police spokeswoman Lou Sin Man said. She said the march was peaceful, although TV footage showed some police in riot gear holding shields as a precaution.

Organizers said in a statement issued before the march ordinary Macau workers have not benefited from the territory's economic boom amid the expansion of its casino scene in recent years. They accuse the government of not doing enough to crack down on illegal workers.

The scheduled demonstration comes after a rowdy Labor Day protest on May 1 involving more than 2,000 people.

Unlike Hong Kong, which has a healthy political opposition, Macau is controlled firmly by Beijing allies and rarely sees political unrest.

Ho said the territory "respects and attaches great importance to citizens' opinions and appeals expressed in a reasonable way," according to a statement on the government's Web site.