Most Hongkongers believe Beijing should reverse its stance on the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, a University of Hong Kong annual poll found ahead of the 23rd anniversary next week of the bloody incident.
More than 60 per cent of Hongkongers believe Beijing's stance on the incident should be reversed, 3 percentage points up from last year, according to the poll which has been conducted annually for 20 years.
The HKU public opinion programme poll, which interviewed 1,003 people last month, also found that for the first time in 20 years more Hongkongers think that their role in prompting democratic development on the mainland is more important than initiating any economic development.
When asked whether there should be a change in the official stance on the incident, 61 per cent of respondents in the phone survey said yes, compared with 58 per cent last year.
In April 1989, a wave of student-led mass gatherings and protests erupted following the death of deposed Communist Party secretary general Hu Yaobang . After martial law was declared on May 20, the central government ordered a military crackdown on democracy protests occurring in and around Tiananmen Square.
This led to the shooting of students and civilians, with the total number of deaths not known. Estimates range from the hundreds to the thousands.
