Ma Lik, 55; doubted Tiananmen Square killings were a massacre

Ma Lik, 55, the head of Hong Kong’s leading pro-Beijing political party who questioned whether China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989 should be called a massacre, died Wednesday, party official Lam Yau-fa said in Hong Kong.

Ma underwent surgery for colon cancer in 2004, and the party later said it had spread to his respiratory system.

Although he was not known as an outspoken pro-Beijing hard-liner, Ma triggered a major backlash in May of this year when he disputed witness accounts of the June 4, 1989, crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, saying Chinese troops did not fire indiscriminately at demonstrators.

Journalists and other witnesses have said troops opened fire with machine guns and tanks ran over protesters, killing hundreds, maybe thousands. Numerous news photos showed bloody bodies crumpled in the streets. The Chinese government says it quelled counterrevolutionary protests that threatened national security.

Ma took over the pro-Beijing party from Tsang Yok-sing after Tsang resigned in November 2003 when the party suffered its worst defeat in district council polls. He also served as a Hong Kong delegate to China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress.