In the weeks running up to the sensitive anniversary on June 4, police have repeatedly visited dissidents at their homes across China, detaining them for varying periods and warning them against taking any form of political action.

``The government's attitude towards dissent has not changed a jot in the past 10 years,'' Shenzhen-based activist Miao Xike told AFP by telephone.

Miao said he had received a written police warning every time he tried to leave the southern city.

In the central city of Wuhan, Xiao Shichang -- a close associate of jailed opposition activist Qin Yongmin -- said he had been warned to stay at home.

``The atmosphere for pro-democracy activists is getting more and more hostile,'' he said.

For a while last year following the summer visit of US President Bill Clinton, it seemed as if thegovernment, which has been pressing ahead with radical economic reform, might be accommodating the idea of political change.

Some even hoped that a bold attempt to register the fledgling China Democracy Party (CDP) as the first opposition group recognised since communist rule began in 1949 might be tolerated by the authorities.

But Beijing launched a decisive crackdown on dissent last December, handing out stiff jail terms to four activists in quick succession on charges of attempting to subvert state power.

It reminded people that China was -- and would continue to be -- a one-party state which would, in the words of the leadership, ``nip in the bud'' any threat to social stability.

Xu Wenli was sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment in Beijing, Qin Yongmin was jailed by a court in Wuhan for 12 years and Hangzhou-based CDP founder Wang Youcai for 11 years.

Hunan-based labour activist Zhang Shanguang was sentenced to 10 years in jail for setting up an organisation to help laid-off workers, and forgiving an interview to a US radio station on peasant unrest.

As well as more drastic action such as long prison terms for subversion, or sentences of up to three years in labour camp which can be handed out without trial, the authorities employ a range of ``softer'' measures to keep dissidents on a tight leash.

``The police often get in touch with us and warn us that they have a strategy for controlling us,'' Beijing CDP activist He Depu told AFP, adding that other activists in the capital had been followed on a daily basis in the run-up to the Tiananmen anniversary.

Three dissidents are reportedly still in detention in the northeastern town of Acheng after police raided a meeting they were holding to discuss plans to commemorate the anniversary.

``Leng Wanbao, Tang Yuanjun and Quan Li are still in detention but have not been formally arrested,'' dissident Wang Zechen told AFP.

He said he and fellow activist Wang Wenjiang were being taken nightly for a meal by police and then shut inseparate hotel rooms under police guard.

``They let us go home in the morning, and in the evening they take us away again,'' Wang Zechen said. ``Last night the section chief slept in the same room with me.''

The government has also warned its opponents not to try to use NATO's bombing earlier in May of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade as an excuse to stage protests or memorial activities.

While Beijing gave its blessing to three days of angry protests at the attack, which killed three Chinese journalists, it later issued statements and reports of NATO apologies in a move to calm anger.

China has repeatedly vowed to stamp out any unrest ahead of June 4, when 10 years ago army tanks swept into Beijing's Tiananmen Square to end weeks of protests at the cost of hundreds, even thousands, of lives.

The government on Tuesday reiterated its view that the 1989 protests were a ``counter-revolutionary rebellion.''

``On the political turmoil which took place in the summer of 1989, the party and government havereached a correct conclusion,'' foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said.

``This is also a conclusion that has been supported by all Chinese people. It will never be changed.''