Yuan li's grave is weather-beaten, 15 A years after he was shot in the neck during the crushing of the Tiananmen Square protests. But the bespectacled face of the 28-year-old scientist still stares out dearly from a black and white picture embedded in the stone. And so fresh are the authorities' memories of the student-led uprising in 1989 that every year on the anniversary of the bloodshed they send police to watch the grave and others like it for fear that the grief of mourners might turn into public protest. Most visitors to Wanan Cemetery at the foot of the scenic Fragrant Hills in western Beijing would see nothing unusual in the stone that marks the cypress-shaded spot where Mr Yuan's ashes are buried. Relatives avoided antagonising the government by making no explicit reference to the cause of death on the stones and plaques commemorating Tiananmen victims that are scattered around Wanan and other city cemeteries. An inscription on Mr Yuan's grave refers to the sudden and unjust nature of his death, but similar words might apply to a car accident.
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