Americans Create Stir With Tian An Men Memorial : China: Three members of Congress stage a brief ceremony for victims of 1989 protest. Police detain some journalists | LA Times - Sept. 5, 1991 |

Several visibly nervous young police officers then sought, with little success, simultaneously to disperse the crowd, keep the American politicians from leaving and prevent television crews from continuing to record the scene.

Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), Ben Jones (D-Ga.) and John Miller (R-Wash.) were allowed to walk away after a few minutes of confusion that was aggravated by the language barrier. Some American television journalists were detained for about 90 minutes.

The three began their demonstration near the Monument to the People's Heroes, in the center of the huge square; each of them held a white artificial rose. White, in China, is the color of mourning.

"These three flowers symbolize liberty, justice and democracy," Jones said, looking into the television cameras that the Americans had alerted. "Those who died here on June 4, 1989, did not die in vain. They were martyrs to these principles that we all hold dear, and they were catalysts to the extraordinary changes that we see taking place throughout the world.

Olympics 2008: Pelosi urges world to condemn China over crackdown in Tibet | The Guardian - March 22, 2008 |

'Sapere aude'