Hong Kong police have arrested dozens of people accused of “breaching the public peace”, including a woman carrying a bouquet of flowers and a man holding a candle, during a crackdown on the anniversary commemorations of the spill of blood in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
Restrictions in Hong Kong have drowned out what were once the biggest vigils to mark the anniversary of Chinese troops’ bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, leaving cities including Taipei, London, New York and Berlin to keep alive the memory of June 4, 1989. .
Near Victoria Park on Sunday night, the previous site of the annual vigil, hundreds of police carried out stop-and-search operations and deployed armored vehicles and police vans.
Police took away more than a dozen people from the scene, according to the Reuters news agency, including activist Alexandra Wong, 67, who carried a bouquet of flowers, a man holding a copy of “May 35”, a play about the Tiananmen crackdown and an old man alone on a street corner with a candle.
“The regime wants you to forget, but you can’t forget… This [China] he wants to whitewash the whole story,” said Chris To, 51, who visited the park wearing a black T-shirt and was searched by police.
“We have to use our bodies and word of mouth to tell others what happened.”
In a statement, police said 11 men and 12 women aged between 20 and 74 were arrested on suspicion of “disturbing the public peace at the scene”.
Four more people had been arrested on Saturday for “seditious” acts and “disorderly conduct”, and four more on suspicion of breach of peace.
“Shameful Campaign”
Discussion of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, when the Chinese Communist Party sent in troops and tanks to quell peaceful protests, is highly sensitive to Chinese authorities and the commemoration is banned on the mainland.
Hundreds – according to some estimates, more than 1,000 – were killed.
Commemorations of the event have also become increasingly banned in Hong Kong since China imposed a sweeping national security law in 2020, effectively banning anyone from holding commemorative events.
After the promulgation of the security law, Tiananmen-related visual spectacles, including statues in universities, were also removed. Three leaders of the group that used to organize the vigil were charged with subversion under the law. The group itself disbanded in 2021 after being told by police that it was under investigation for working on behalf of foreign groups, an accusation the group denied.
More recently, books featuring the event have been pulled from public library shelves.
Ahead of the anniversary, senior Hong Kong officials warned people to abide by national security law, but declined to clarify whether commemorative activities were illegal under the law. Authorities also beefed up security across Hong Kong, deploying up to 6,000 police, including riot and counter-terrorism officers, according to local media.
After Sunday’s arrests, the office of UN human rights chief Volker Turk said in a tweet that it was “alarmed by reports of arrests” in Hong Kong and called for “the release of any arrested for exercising freedom of expression and peaceful assembly”.
Amnesty International also condemned the arrests, saying the use of colonial-era sedition charges against activists and the persistence of dissenting voices “exposes the futility of the authorities’ attempts to impose silence and obedience”.
He added: “The Hong Kong government’s shameful campaign to stop people commemorating this anniversary reflects the Chinese central government’s censorship and is an insult to those killed in the Tiananmen crackdown.”
Despite the crackdown on the anniversary, some people and businesses in Hong Kong quietly marked June 4.
A shop gave away candles, while a bookshop displayed archive material from Tiananmen Square. Jailed Hong Kong activist Chow Hang-tung, one of the leaders of a group called The Alliance, which used to organize the June 4 vigils, said on Facebook that she would go on a 34-hour hunger strike.
“Clear conclusion”
Meanwhile, in Beijing, Tiananmen Square was packed with tourists taking photos under the watchful eye of police and other personnel, but with no obvious sign of increased security.
Ahead of the anniversary, a group of mothers who lost their children in the Tiananmen crackdown called for reparations and issued a statement renewing their call for “truth, compensation and accountability.”
“Although 34 years have passed, for us as family members of those killed, the pain of losing our loved ones that night has haunted us to this day,” the group said in a statement released by the organization. of New York Human Surveillance. Rights in China.
Asked about the government’s response to events around the world to mark the anniversary, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said in Beijing on Friday that the government had already reached a “clear conclusion on the political turmoil at the end of the 1980s”.
In democratically-ruled Taiwan, the last part of the Chinese-speaking world where the birthday can be freely celebrated, hundreds attended a memorial in Taipei’s Freedom Square where a statue of the “Pillar of Shame” was displayed “.
Kacey Wong, an artist who is among dozens of Hong Kong residents who have moved to Taiwan, said more than 30 years of commemorating the 1989 protests had become part of her life.
[“Detained” below]
Wong said an artist friend, Sanmu Chen, had been detained along with others while trying to stage a street show in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay.
“So it’s all ingrained in our subconscious that we need to care and practice our sympathy for other people who yearn for democracy and freedom,” Wong said.
Taiwan Vice President William Lai, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s presidential candidate in next January’s election, wrote on his Facebook page that the memory of what happened in Beijing in 1989 must be preserved.
“The June 4 commemoration event has continued to be held in Taipei, which shows that democracy and authoritarianism are the biggest differences between Taiwan and China,” he said.
Vigils were also held around the world, from Japan to Australia, with people holding candles next to images of the brutal crackdown.
In Sydney, dozens of protesters gathered at City Hall, chanting “Free Hong Kong” while holding yellow umbrellas, a symbol of pro-democracy protests since 2014, and banners.
US Consulate in #HongKong light candles in all the windows of the building in memory of #Tiananmen Massacre activated #4 of June.
“The only place in Hong Kong where you could light a candle #4 of June.” Thanks @USAinHKMacau. #mourning of innocence #Tiananmen1989 #6434 pic.twitter.com/XkNimPgtyq
— Frances Hui 许颖婷 (@frances_hui) June 5, 2023
And in London, before marching to the Chinese embassy, protesters staged a re-enactment featuring a flying tank and women dressed in white, emulating a Statue of Liberty installed in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
A 59-year-old poet from China’s Sichuan province told AFP news agency during the Trafalgar Square rally that his family fled shortly after the Tiananmen crackdown.
“The Chinese of my generation know what happened, but the younger ones, not really,” said the man, who declined to be named for fear of Chinese retaliation.
“Their parents, their grandparents, need to keep the knowledge and we all need to remember that at overseas events like this.”
