Hongkonger Remembers Tiananmen Victim, Worries About Future

Pun Tin-chi was teaching in a primary school in Hong Kong Tiananmen crackdown that happened in Beijing in June 1989. He went to all demonstrations in Hong Kong supporting the student-led movement and he never skipped the annual candlelight vigils remembering the victims. “It was a very great tragedy in my memory, that the government was killing students,” said Pun.

This year, he was like thousands of others who gathered across Hong Kong to commemorate victims of China’s military crackdown in Tiananmen Square 31 years ago, defying an unprecedented ban on congregating for this year’s vigil.

People skirted around metal barricades to assemble in Victoria Park -- where the annual event is held -- with many clustering into small groups to adhere to social distancing rules. In the residential area of Sai Ying Pun, scores of people lit candles and chanted slogans outside a subway exit.

While the number of people gathering paled in comparison to past years, the assembly was notable because Hong Kong’s police earlier this week banned the event for the first time, fueling concern about the city’s dwindling autonomy from China. That left activists to plan a range of alternative events, from online vigils to smaller rallies, including in front of the Legislative Council. One group encouraged people to post photos and comments on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram using the hashtag “#6431truth.”

Though law enforcement officers weren’t clearly visible at the main gathering point in Victoria Park, at least five police vans were stationed at Fortress Hill a short distance from the vigil. Police said in a statement that they arrested four men between the ages of 21 and 70 for assaulting police officers, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct at a protest in Mong Kok, an area that has seen many clashes over the past year.

Hong Kong is facing renewed tensions following months of unprecedented pro-democracy protests that kicked off soon after last June’s vigil. Demonstrations have again increased in recent weeks as China announced that it would impose sweeping national security legislation on the city, raising concerns about whether it would maintain key freedoms from the mainland.

The city’s legislature on Thursday passed a controversial bill, which has also fueled protesters’ anger, to outlaw disrespecting China’s national anthem.

Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed administration has said the rally couldn’t go forward because of a ban on gatherings of more than eight people, citing the Covid-19 pandemic. But activists, opposition politicians, and critics have called it a deliberate attempt to stifle free speech, pointing out that the virus is mostly under control in the city and that larger groups regularly gather in public without any issues from the authorities.

Mass Vigil

For the past 30 years, residents of the semi-autonomous city had held a candlelight vigil that draws tens of thousands of attendees for an annual memorial to those who lost their lives when China’s leadership ordered troops to fire on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s central square and the nearby streets. Estimates of the dead have ranged from hundreds to thousands: there’s never been an independent investigation.

Last year’s vigil drew more than 180,000 participants to Hong Kong’s Victoria Park, according to the organizers -- the largest turnout since the vigils began in 1990. Police downplayed that figure, saying 37,000 attended at its peak.

China’s surprise move to introduce new rules outlawing subversion, sedition, secession and foreign influence in the financial hub has prompted concern from foreign governments and threats by the U.S. to retaliate -- including revoking Hong Kong’s special trading status.

The ban on the June 4th vigil has also struck many as an extreme application of the city’s social distancing restrictions. Hong Kong’s containment of the virus has been one of the world’s best, with just over 1,000 cases and only four deaths despite intimate economic, social, and transport links with mainland China.

There has been no lockdown, while restaurants and shops have remained open with some restrictions in place. And nightlife hotspots on Hong Kong Island are often packed with patrons.

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