A heavy police presence has been deployed in and around the former Hong Kong memorial site The Tiananmen crackdown vigil.
Scores of uniformed and plainclothes officers were seen in Victoria Park – where Tiananmen vigils were held for decades – and around Causeway Bay on Thursday, the 37th anniversary of the 1989 crackdown.
A Sabertooth police armored vehicle was spotted in the afternoon near Times Square as officers set up a roadblock at the intersection of East Point Road and Great George Road.
Exits from Causeway Bay MTR Station were also guarded by officers.
The Tiananmen crackdown occurred on June 4, 1989, ending months of student-led demonstrations in China. It is estimated that hundreds, possibly thousands, died when the People’s Liberation Army cracked down on protesters in Beijing.
At around 5pm, activist Luk Yuk-lin walked from Great George Street in Causeway Bay towards Victoria Park. She pressed her hands, wrapped in a black cloth, in a gesture of prayer as she chanted the Great Mantra of Compassion.
Bowing every few steps, Luk walked through the park towards Tin Hau and back to Causeway Bay. The activist said she bent over 37 times during the 40-minute walk.
Several police officers followed the activist and occasionally held a cordon around her as she walked and sang. They took no further action.
Another woman was seen making ‘six’ and ‘four’ gestures with her hands at around 6pm on Great George Street in Causeway Bay, The Collective reported. Police officers at the scene warned her that her behavior could be “rebellious”. They crushed his hands and took him away in a police car.
Around 6:30 p.m., Chan Po-ying, chairman of the now-defunct League of Social Democrats, a pro-democracy party, appeared in Causeway Bay with a yellow paper flower.
Police at the scene warned Chan that her behavior could amount to “disorderly conduct in public places” and told her to put the flower in her bag. The officers then took him away in a police vehicle.
Meanwhile, a patriotic food carnival held at Victoria Park for the fourth year in the week of the anniversary of the strike.
It was the site of the city’s annual candlelight vigils to commemorate the Tiananmen crackdown before Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020.
Vigilance leaders on trial
The leaders of the group that organized the vigils for decades are now trial for “inciting subversion” under the national security law. They face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Rights group Amnesty International on Thursday urged the Hong Kong government to release vigilante activists Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan ahead of their verdict, which is expected in July.
The group said a global petition with more than 52,000 signatures had been submitted to the Hong Kong government, calling for the couple’s immediate release.
“This is the seventh year that the candlelight vigil in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park has been extinguished by the authorities. But it cannot be extinguished worldwide. From Hong Kong to diaspora communities around the world, people continue to keep the memory of June 4 alive with creativity and persistence,” said Fernando Cheung, a former speaker of Hong Kongty International Hong Kongsson.
In Beijing, authorities reportedly prevented families of victims who died in 1989 from visiting their graves at Wan’an Cemetery, an action by Amnesty International. CALLED “A callous act.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that “no amount of censorship can erase the past,” according to AFP.
Beijing said Thursday that Rubio’s comments “distort historical facts, tarnish China’s political system and development path, and interfere in China’s internal affairs.”
On Wednesday, Hong Kong performance artist Sanmu Chan was stopped and searched by plainclothes police after performing in Causeway Bay. holding a red string 6.4 meters long before the anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown.
Another artist, Chan Mei-tung, was also searched and escorted out of Causeway Bay by police after she appeared with balloons – one shaped like a golden question mark – in the shopping area on Wednesday night.
