Beijing's Tiananmen Square was tranquil on the 25th anniversary of China's violent crackdown on protesters at the site, which became a global symbol of grassroots activism in the face of brutal suppression. 

On Wednesday, there was no evidence of the horrors that took place at Tiananmen Square 25 years ago, as police patrolled the square to ensure that people would not convene at the site to remember those lost. 

According to The Washington Post, Tiananmen Square was on lockdown Wednesday following weeks of tight security. Foreign journalists were warned of the crackdown, and informants looked for suspicious activity, as well as those likely to protest or criticize the government. 

When questioned by The Washington Post about the 1989 protests, people in the square were reluctant to talk about it. 

"Of course we know about June 4. It's an open secret in China," said one student in the square. 

The massacre occurred on June 4, 1989, when hundreds of people were killed by Chinese soldiers when they opened fire on unarmed protestors in the square, killing hundreds, if not thousands. People had came to the square to protest governmental corruption and demand democratic change, but were silenced with deadly force. 

The Chinese government currently teaches schoolchildren that the 1989 protests were perpetrated by counter-revolutionary forces who wanted to take over the country. Former Tiananmen protestors are angry that the government displays the same authoritarism as it did 25 years ago. 

"Each generation has its respective responsibility," former Tiananmen protester and current New Yorker Xiang Xiaoli, 57, told The Washington Post. "This is why we, the survivors, must try our best to tell the next generation about our experience and help them achieve progress without sacrificing as much as we did."

China also cracked down on forms of online dissent and discussions of Tiananmen this week by making Google and other search engines inaccessible. Some English web sites, such as The Wall Street Journal, were also blocked as of Saturday. 

Police also closed the subway exits in an area called Muxidi, west of Tiananmen, where the deadliest clashes occurred between Chinese soldiers and protesters in 1989. 

Human rights activist Hu Jia, 40, who participated in the Tiananmen protest, told The Washington Post that that he was put under arrest for the past three months leading up to the Tiananmen anniversary. 

"The dark side of society we are seeing today is the same that was shown 25 years ago," he said. "The government believed they could monopolize power by taking all those lives before. Now, they control the power by arresting people, killing the freedom of dissidents. Nothing has changed."

Yan Zhengxue, a Chinese painter who commemorates Tiananmen in his paintings, said authorities forced him to leave Beijing before the anniversary of Tianamen Square. 

But the security crackdown in Beijing did not stop Chinese citizens from commemorating the fallen protestors. 

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Victoria Park in Hong Kong late Wednesday to hold a vigil to remember those lost in the protest. 

Crowds of people held candles while listening to speeches about the Tiananmen massacre. 

The White House also implored China to come forward and report who had been killed, imprisoned or is missing in connection with the Tiananmen killings. China has never given an official death toll of those killed. 

A Chinese Foreign Ministry refused, accusing the United States of encroaching on China's sovereignty. 

"We demand the U.S. side respect China's judicial sovereignty and not make irresponsible comments on issues that are related to China's internal affairs," he told Voice of America. 

Shen Tong, who was a student at Beijing University when the massacre occurred, told Voice of America he never would have expected the protest to turn into a deadly bloodbath. 

"It is one of those things that the day before you think is impossible, [but] the day after it becomes inevitable," Tong said. "So in some larger sense, I would say nobody predicted that. But then when the moment actually was upon us, all the factors before that seemed to lead to that inevitable outcome."