BEIJING — Guo Jian, a Chinese-born Australian artist and former protester in China’s 1989 prodemocracy movement, was taken away by Chinese authorities over the weekend, shortly after a profile of him appeared in the Financial Times newspaper.
The profile was in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the military clampdown on the student protest centered around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. As he was taken from his home in suburban Beijing on Sunday night, Guo said he would be held by police until June 15.
It is the latest in a string of detentions of artists, lawyers, scholars, and journalists ahead of the Tiananmen anniversary amid intense government efforts to deter coverage by foreign media of its remembrance.
After a stint as a soldier, Guo was studying art in Beijing when he was swept into the 1989 student protests and witnessed the military crackdown that began on the night of June 3, 1989.
‘‘I didn’t believe it, even though I had been a soldier,’’ Guo was quoted as saying in an article published in the Financial Times last week. ‘‘In the army I had never seen that sort of violence. Then I saw the tracers and people falling around me — they were just gone.’’
Discussions of the protest and its military suppression are taboo in China, and authorities tighten security ahead of the anniversary each year. But this year’s suppression has been harsher than in previous years, as police round up activists who had received no more than warnings in the past.
Since early May, the authorities have detained or put under house arrest dozens of people, including human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, in an attempt to prevent any commemoration. Other activists have been warned by the authorities not to speak to foreign media.
Police also have cautioned foreign journalists not to cover any sensitive issues leading up to the anniversary or face ‘‘serious consequences.’’
In response, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China said: ‘‘This effort to deter news coverage is a gross violation of Chinese government rules governing foreign correspondents, which expressly permit them to interview anybody who consents to be interviewed.’’
The European Union also expressed its concern.