People in Taiwan have marked the 1989 deadly military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests at Beijing's Tiananmen Square amid Chinese moves to prevent any commemorations of the incident.

Civilians, including members of civic and human rights groups, converged at a Taipei square on Sunday to remember the tragedy.

Participants in the annual gathering arranged candle-shaped lights in the number "8964," which stands for June 4, 1989, when the crackdown unfolded. They also observed silence for 64 seconds from 8:09 p.m.

Organizers placed at the venue a replica of the "Pillar of Shame" statue, a column of anguished faces and twisted torsos of Tiananmen victims.

The 8-meter-tall original sculpture had stood on the University of Hong Kong's campus and served as a venue for an annual commemoration of the crackdown.

But the university removed the monument in December 2021 amid a wave of arrests in Hong Kong under the territory's national security law that authorities use to suppress activities they deem anti-government. Police seized the original last month.

The Taipei event was organized by a non-profit group called the New School for Democracy.

Its chairman Tseng Chien-yuan said civil society in China, including Hong Kong, has vanished completely. He added that he feels responsibility as Taiwan has become the only place in the Chinese-speaking world to hold remembrance events for the Tiananmen crackdown.

People in China regard publicly discussing the crackdown as taboo amid the authorities' efforts to stifle any criticism of the Chinese Communist Party and the government over the incident.