The world's first museum dedicated to China's Tiananmen Square crackdown will once again open its doors in Hong Kong after a months-long closure as the city prepares to mark the 20th anniversary of its handover to Beijing. The June 4th Museum closed its doors last July after organisers said they were being targeted for political reasons in the semi-autonomous city where concerns are growing that Beijing is tightening its grip.

Tenants in the commercial building which housed the museum from 2014 said the museum breached regulations that said the premises could only be used for offices. The museum, now housed at a new temporary venue, will open to the public at a time when Hong Kong is revving up the fanfare for the 20th anniversary of its handover to China by Britain, with expectations of a high-profile visit by Chinese president Xi Jinping. Organiser Lee Cheuk-yan told AFP this was an especially important time to reopen the museum.

"It's very important that this museum will be here to tell him (Xi) in his face that people in Hong Kong have not forgotten what had happened 28 years ago when the Communist Party decided to open fire and send in tanks against the people's aspiration for freedom," Lee said. Chinese authorities branded the pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989 a "counter-revolutionary rebellion" and many on the mainland remain unaware of the crackdown.

The cramped 100 square-metre (1,100 square-foot) space will be displaying newspaper clippings, large photographs and videos of tanks rolling down the streets of Beijing during the crackdown. The exhibit, which also displays a two-metre tall statue of the Goddess of Democracy, opens from April 30 to June 15 in the city's Shek Kip Mei residential region.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2017