Activists defy police to commemorate Tiananmen Square

As China tightens its control over Hong Kong, activists in the city defied a police ban and broke through barricades Thursday evening to mark the 31st anniversary of the crushing of a democracy movement centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

With democracy all but snuffed out in mainland China, the focus has shifted increasingly to semi-autonomous Hong Kong, where authorities for the first time banned an annual candlelight vigil marking the anniversary of the 1989 crackdown.

Police cited the need for social distancing during the coronavirus outbreak and barricaded sprawling Victoria Park to prevent people from gathering there. Beijing is taking a tougher stance following months of anti-government protests last year, in what activists see as an accelerating erosion of the city’s rights and liberties.

“We all know the Hong Kong government and the Chinese government really don’t want to see the candle lights in Victoria Park,” said Wu’er Kaixi, a former student leader who was No. 2 on the government’s most-wanted list following the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Hundreds and possibly thousands of people were killed when tanks and troops moved in on the night of June 3-4, 1989, to break up weeks of student-led protests that had spread to other cities and were seen as a threat to Communist Party rule.

“The Chinese Communists want us all to forget about what happened 31 years ago,“Wu’er told the AP in Taiwan, where he lives. “But it is the Chinese government themselves reminding the whole world that they are the same government ... doing the same in Hong Kong.”

China did not intervene directly in last year’s protests, despite speculation it might deploy troops, but backed the tough response of the Hong Kong police and government. It then announced last month at the annual meeting of its ceremonial legislature that it would impose national security laws on Hong Kong, circumventing the city’s legislature and shocking many of its 7.5 million residents.

Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, where thousands of students had gathered in 1989, was quiet and largely empty Thursday. Police and armored vehicles stood guard on the vast space. Few pedestrians lined up at security checkpoints where they must show IDs to be allowed through as part of mass surveillance nationwide.

CHIANG YING-YING / AP A candlelight vigil at Democracy Square in Taipei, Taiwan, on Thursday marks the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square revolt.