Tens of thousands gathered in Hong Kong Wednesday to remember the dead on the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, the only major commemoration in China as authorities clamped tight security on Beijing.

"Vindicate 6/4!" crowds shouted, waving banners, as the initially somber candlelit vigil began in Hong Kong's Victoria Park.

In the Taiwanese capital Taipei, exiled Chinese dissidents and witnesses to the crackdown addressed a crowd of about 500 .

Thousands of police and other security forces, some armed with automatic rifles, have been deployed across the Chinese capital this week.

Among the crowds in Hong Kong were many from the Chinese mainland.

Under the deal governing Hong Kong's handover to China in 1997, the semiautonomous city has far greater liberties than the mainland.

On Hong Kong's harbor front a handful of pro-Beijing supporters were involved in angry confrontations Wednesday evening with a much larger crowd of those commemorating the crackdown.

Under pressure from authorities, Chinese online social networks quickly deleted any perceived references to the crackdown.

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