Nine of the top student leaders, who now live in exile, reunited at a Washington news conference where they observed a moment of silence for the hundreds, perhaps, thousands killed when the army sent in troops.

"It is our unfailing pursuit to build a democratic China," some 15 dissidents said in a joint statement read out by former student leader Wang Dan, who had topped Beijing's most wanted list.

"We are calling on the generation of the 1989 massacre, both in China and overseas, as well as those who came before us and those who will come after us to work together and combine our strengths," they said.

Key figures from the Tiananmen movement also enjoyed a show of support at the US Congress, where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi welcomed three men who defaced the giant portrait of Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square.

The three men, who now live in the United States and Canada, said they endured intense abuse in custody after their arrests.

"Imagine the courage against the regime that they continue to express at the expense of their lives and liberty," said Pelosi, who dressed in white as a sign of mourning in line with a call by dissidents.

Pelosi visited China last week, where she said she personally petitioned President Hu Jintao for the release of Tiananmen Square prisoners and detained human rights activists.

China has tried to block any commemoration of the anniversary, pouring police into Tiananmen Square and blacking out foreign media reports.

Congressman Jim McGovern, like Pelosi a member of President Barack Obama's Democratic Party, said the dissidents should be encouraged by Beijing's reaction.

"If the survivors of Tiananmen Square think they were somehow defeated, just look at the impact the very idea of remembering or talking about those events is having on the Chinese government," he said. "They are scared to death."

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday called on China to provide a public account of the dead, missing and injured and to release prisoners still being held for taking part in the protests.

China flatly rejected her call, with a foreign ministry spokesman saying that "on the political incident that took place in the 1980s, the party and the government have already reached a conclusion."

Wang Dan, the former student leader, said the comment showed that China's government has not changed.

"Many Western leaders and President Ma Ying-jeou in Taiwan believe that the leadership in China is not the same one as 20 years ago. I think that what this spokesperson said shows they're wrong -- the Chinese Communist Party has not changed one bit," Wang said.

Ma, who has championed reconciliation with mainland China, had said that Beijing is now willing to discuss human rights, pointing to a Human Rights Action Plan released earlier this year by China's cabinet.

The Tiananmen dissidents voiced optimism about movements such as Charter 8, a petition drive in which leading intellectuals at great risk to themselves pushed last year for democratic reforms in China.

"We believe that China's hope lies with the efforts of the Chinese people themselves and with political reforms, which are currently turning in the direction of the people," the statement said.

earlier related report
Chinese in US tread carefully on Tiananmen
For many Chinese-Americans and Chinese students living in the United States, the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown presented a dilemma.

They wanted to honor the fellow students who died two decades ago in Beijing, but were worried about repercussions.

At Stanford University, which has a large population of Chinese-American and Chinese students, one student decided at the last minute Thursday to hang up posters marking the anniversary. But he was concerned enough to ask that his name not be published.

"At first, I was pretty apprehensive about trying to organize anything at Stanford," the Chinese-American student said in an e-mail exchange with AFP.

"We live in the US, we aren't afraid for our lives. But with a sensitive event like this, why bring trouble on ourselves?

"A lot of us study in China, do internships there or travel there, maybe even intend to work there -- and we don't know if being associated with a commemoration could be a problem in the future."

The posters -- with the words "Remember Tiananmen" written in English and Chinese -- were mostly ignored by other students sipping morning lattes and studying for final exams. One featured the image of a tank, while other black-and-white posters were highlighted by a red flower.

The homemade signs were far outnumbered by surrounding posters offering summer jobs to students.

One Chinese-born Stanford student, who also asked that her name not be used, pointed out the posters were put up by Chinese-Americans.

"I feel that the students from the mainland are not aware of what happened 20 years ago; we were too young and we rarely talk about that," she said. "June 4 is like a normal day if you are in China."

It was a similar scene at the University of California in Berkeley, which also has many Chinese students, and in San Francisco's sprawling Chinatown -- where it was nearly impossible to find any sign marking the anniversary.

The only lunchtime protest in Chinatown, where crowds bargained over live fish and fresh vegetables at markets, was by a lone woman handing out literature of Falun Gong, the spiritual movement strictly banned by Beijing.

"It really is striking that not a single program on what happened 20 years ago in China is happening on a Bay Area campus," said John Kamm, executive director of the San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation, which has been working for the past two decades to free people jailed in China as a result of the Tiananmen crackdown.

"I'm surprised there has been so little -- in fact, nothing at all -- on the campuses. It's been a disappointment."

San Francisco has one of the largest and most historic Chinatowns in the United States. The local congresswoman, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is one of the most outspoken critics in Washington of Beijing's human rights record.

But mainland Chinese are increasingly connected to the diaspora thanks to the Internet and helped organize a massive show of support for China during the relay of the Beijing Olympic torch through San Francisco last year.

Zhou Fengsuo, one of the Tiananmen student leaders who now lives in exile, said that he was beaten up when he held a sign saying "Remember June 4" during the torch procession.

The student who put up the posters at Stanford said many of his peers are focused solely on school and career.

"What's sad is that 20 years ago, everyone on this campus, most particularly the overseas Chinese students, would have been fully supportive of a serious commemoration," he said.

"I know that for Chinese students today, June 4 is not something they really think much about at all.

"Today, the bottom line is, it is not a comfortable issue."

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