Tanks Removed From Square : Chinese Army Reduces Its Presence in Beijing

Tian An Men Square was not guarded by tanks today for the first time in 11 days, but banners supporting the army and wreaths honoring soldiers who died in the military crackdown appeared throughout Beijing.

Dozens of armored vehicles had been deployed in support of the military occupation of the square ever since troops of the People’s Liberation Army violently swept away thousands of pro-democracy students from the area early June 4.

A line of more than 36 tanks and armored personnel carriers had been parked Tuesday along the northern edge of the square in front of the Imperial Palace. Another dozen tanks were positioned at the southern end of the square, behind guarded lines of barbed wire.

Those armored vehicles were gone today, leaving just 20 canvas-covered armored personnel carriers hidden behind the Qianmen gate at the southern entrance to the square.

The removal of the tanks was the latest move to reduce the military presence in and around the square, which is the symbolic center of power in China. Although Tian An Men remained closed to pedestrians and guarded by a perimeter of martial law soldiers, traffic now flows on the four streets that surround the 100-acre square.

The number of soldiers stationed along Changan Avenue, the main east-west thoroughfare in Beijing, also appeared to thin today, with troops no longer at several positions they had occupied for more than a week.

Even the troop transports that continued to rumble through the city seemed less menacing, with soldiers no longer manning machine guns placed atop the cabs of the trucks or pointing automatic rifles at bystanders.