One-Man Protest Stifled in Beijing : China: The lone protester in Tian An Men Square seeks to commemorate last year’s pro-democracy victims. He is quickly taken away by police.

A single protester, realizing that he faced almost certain arrest, sought to honor the victims of last June’s Beijing massacre by displaying white paper flowers in Tian An Men Square on Sunday.

The man, who identified himself as a scientist from southern Guizhou province, briefly drew a small crowd of Chinese pedestrians and foreign correspondents, then was detained and taken away by police.

Attached to the white flowers, which are a symbol of mourning in China, were small banners declaring “Mourn Comrade Hu Yaobang” and “Heroes Who Died for Democracy and Freedom.”

The man staged his demonstration, which lasted about one minute, on the anniversary of the death last year of former Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang. Mourning for Hu, a reformist leader popular among intellectuals, provided the initial impetus for last spring’s student-led pro-democracy movement, which was crushed by the Chinese army with heavy bloodshed June 3-4.

Authorities, concerned that the anniversaries of key events of last spring might prompt renewed protests, have banned any unauthorized mourning activities. Many Beijing residents have been privately warned to stay away from Tian An Men Square on sensitive dates this spring.

Officials had closed off the main part of the square earlier this month on dates that were considered sensitive, but the huge plaza remained open to the public throughout the day and evening Sunday.

Security was heavy, however, and police blocked access to the Monument to the People’s Heroes, in the middle of the square, which during the early stages of last year’s protests was festooned with wreaths honoring Hu’s memory.

The man from Guizhou, who pulled baggage with him on a collapsible luggage carrier, initially tried to approach the monument, then backed off and pulled two white paper flowers from one of his bags.

“I’ve come all the way here to mourn,” he said, addressing no one in particular.

He then told people in the crowd that he had come to mourn “our great party General Secretary Hu Yaobang.”

As he attached one paper flower to his arm, a reporter asked him whether he wasn’t afraid of being arrested.

“I’m ready,” he replied, motioning to his baggage. “I brought everything with me.”

As uniformed police moved in on him, the man angrily protested, saying, “I’m a scientist” and arguing that he had only come to mourn. There was a brief tussle, and the man fell to the ground, but he then walked off with the officers to a nearby police vehicle.

During the incident, plainclothes police officers in the crowd took pictures of the man and journalists present. Uniformed officers confiscated a videotape filmed by a Cable News Network television crew.

About an hour later, police returned the video to CNN.

“They said this guy was not from Beijing and he was mentally ill,” CNN Beijing bureau chief Mike Chinoy said later. “The implication was very much, ‘Every society’s got its crazy people, and this is nothing to worry about.’ ”

Throughout the day Sunday, security forces maintained a heavy presence in the area of Tian An Men Square and the city’s northwest campus district.

Sunday morning, paramilitary forces carrying bayonet-tipped rifles could be seen drilling in the front courtyard of the Revolutionary History Museum, at one side of the square.

There were no reports of incidents on campuses. At Beijing University, a center of last year’s protests, numerous plainclothes security officers could be observed in an area of bulletin boards that last spring were plastered with protest posters.