With Tiananmen gatherings banned, Hong Kongers remember in private
Last edited Sat Jun 4, 2022, 02:55 PM - Edit history (1)
As Saturday night fell in Hong Kong, democracy activist Chiu Yan-loy turned off the lights, lit a number of candles and observed a moment of silence to commemorate those killed in China's Tiananmen crackdown 33 years ago.
For the first time since 2000, when he started attending an annual vigil to mark the anniversary alongside tens of thousands of fellow Hong Kongers in the city's Victoria Park, Chiu was performing this ritual alone.
Hong Kong used to be the notable exception to an effective blanket ban in China on discussing the events of June 4, 1989, when the government set tanks and troops on peaceful protestors.
But in 2020, Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law to snuff out dissent after widespread and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests the year before. Since then, large-scale public remembrance in the city has been wiped out.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/with-tiananmen-gatherings-banned-hong-kongers-remember-in-private/ar-AAY5hSN
Police patrol Hong Kong park to enforce Tiananmen vigil ban
HONG KONG (AP) — Heavy police force patrolled Hong Kong’s Victoria Park on Saturday after authorities for a third consecutive year banned public commemoration of the anniversary of the deadly Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, with vigils overseas the only place marking the event.
For decades, Hong Kong and nearby Macao were the only places in China allowed to commemorate the violent suppression by army troops of student protesters demanding greater democracy in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. Hundreds, if not thousands, were killed.
The ban is seen as part of a move to snuff out political dissent and a sign that Hong Kong is losing its freedoms as Beijing tightens its grip over the semi-autonomous Chinese city.
The vigil organizers, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, disbanded last year after many of its leaders were arrested on suspicion of violating the national security law, which was imposed following massive pro-democracy protests in 2019.
https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-china-hong-kong-beijing-7d8ded1810b53a7b2bfa2d0670b425e5
