No more candlelight vigils that until 2019 brought together tens of thousands of people, on June 4 in Hong Kong. The police announced that they had arrested, on Sunday June 4, 23 people, between the ages of 20 and 74, for having “disturbed public order”, on the occasion of the 34th anniversary of the bloody repression in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

Police were in force in and around Victoria Park this weekend to question anyone suspected of participating in any form of public commemoration of the events of June 4, 1989.

On Sunday, League of Social Democrats official Chan Po-ying held up a small LED candle, an accessory often used at vigils marking June 4, 1989, and two flowers. Police immediately arrested her before accosting her in a van.

Her party said she was released two hours later.

Alexandra Wong, a 67-year-old pro-democracy activist, was also arrested while holding a bouquet of flowers in tribute to the victims of the 1989 crackdown, as was journalist and former president of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, mak. yin ting

Another woman was also arrested after shouting “Raise sails! Cry 4/6!”, in reference to June 4, 1989, the date of the repression of tiananmen in Beijing.

Dressed in black, a young man carried the book titled “35 de mayo” at the time of his arrestanother way of referring to the Tiananmen events that took place four days after May 31.

After being briefly questioned, searched and then released, a woman told AFP with a shrug: “Everybody knows what day it is today.”

On the eve of the 34th anniversary of Tiananmen, Hong Kong police had already arrested four people for “disorderly conduct on public roads” and “acts for seditious purposes”, and another four for “disturbing public order”.

National Security Law

For more than 30 years, tens of thousands of people have gathered each year in Victoria Park in Hong Kong for a candlelight vigil in memory of the victims of Tiananmen in Beijing.

But in 2020 Beijing imposed a national security law on the former British colony to muzzle any dissent after the massive pro-democracy rallies of 2019.

Since then, the Hong Kong authorities have ended vigils that were never allowed in mainland China.

This year, the giant park gathering in the central Causeway Bay district has been replaced by a trade fair dedicated to mainland Chinese goods and hosted until Monday by pro-Beijing groups to celebrate the 26th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China. .

“Today Hong Kong is a different city,” said Wong, 53, who only agreed to give his last name, as he praised the pro-China fair.

Hong Kong, returned to China by the UK in 1997, was long the only Chinese city to host a Tiananmen candlelight vigil.

It was also a key indicator of the freedoms and political pluralism that its status as a semi-autonomous territory confers on it.

erase memories

In mainland China, all traces of the Tiananmen events have been erased by the authorities. History textbooks do not mention it, online discussions on this subject are systematically censored.

This is demonstrated by the misadventure of the British Embassy in Beijing, which posted on social networks on Sunday a cover dated June 4, 1989 of the “People’s Daily”, the official propaganda organ of the Chinese Communist Partywhich described the influx of wounded to hospitals after the repression.

“Within twenty minutes, the censors removed our post from Weibo (Chinese social media),” the British embassy tweeted on Sunday.

Chinese police this year also monitored several milestones of the bizarre anti-Xi Jinping regime that broke out last fall.

Thus, a large police force was deployed around the Sitong Bridge in Beijing, the scene of a demonstration at the end of November where a banner had been displayed demanding more freedom.

“Prepared to face the consequences”

In Hong Kong, most of the figures in the pro-democracy movement have been detained or have taken refuge abroad since the entry into force of a national security law.

This is particularly the case for the leaders of the association that organized the Victoria Park vigil, Hong Kong Alliance.

However, the authorities still appeared to be on high alert for possible expressions of dissent.

The city’s chief executive, John Lee, warned that all Hong Kong residents must obey the law and be “prepared to face the consequences” if they violate it.

In other parts of the world, June 4 commemorations will take place in Japan, Sydney, New York and London, where a re-enactment of the Tiananmen events will take place in Trafalgar Square.

In Taiwan, a play by Hong Kong author Candace Chong, titled “May 35”, will also be performed this Sunday at a theater in the capital.

“History and memory will not be easily erased,” said Hong Konger Sky Fung, secretary general of the Taipei-based NGO Hong Kong Outlanders. “The spark is still in our hearts.”

with AFP