BEIJING: Chinese relatives of passengers on board missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 gathered under a heavy police presence Sunday to mark one year since the plane disappeared.

About two thirds of those on board the jet were Chinese, but relatives say they have faced harassment from authorities in their own country as they seek answers on the world's biggest aviation mystery.

Access to the Malaysian embassy was blocked off by dozens of uniformed security, but in the afternoon as police watched, around 30 relatives mounted a small protest in the area, shouting slogans including “Fight to the End” and “Malaysian Government — apologise to us! “China's ruling Communist Party commonly clamps down on organised gatherings or collective expressions of anger as it seeks to enforce stability.

The relatives got into brief arguments with security, but concluded the protest in the evening by leaving in a bus organised by police after shouting slogans praising Chinese President Xi Jinping, Mao Zedong and the Communist Party.

In the weeks following the plane's disappearance, the relatives of the missing passengers regularly clashed with Malaysia Airlines staff and Kuala Lumpur's diplomats, accusing them of incompetence and deceit.

Some families still hope their loved ones could be alive, clinging to conspiracy theories of hijack and kidnapping. Earlier Sunday, the relatives visited the Lama Temple, a popular Tibetan Buddhist place of worship and tourist site, with around 10 entering the site in groups of two or three to pay their personal respects, as if attempting to keep a low profile.

The remainder waited outside the complex in a group, wearing T-shirts saying “Pray for MH370”, and waving placards to photographers reading “MH370 — Tell us Truth”. But most media had been moved on from the area by police, with one officer telling AFP that it was a regulation enforced by the temple. “The ones wearing the clothes with the words 'Pray for MH370' would find it hard to get in (to the temple),” relatives' leader Steven Wang, whose mother was on board the Boeing 777, told AFP. Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a press conference on the sidelines of the National People's Congress, China's Communist-controlled parliament, that the search effort for MH370 would continue. “Today will be a tough day for the next of kin of passengers on board the flight, our hearts are with you,” he said, telling the relatives Beijing would “help safeguard your legitimate and lawful requests and interests”.