At least 16 detained amid tight security near Victoria Park
League of Social Democrats leader and a former unionist among those taken away by police
At least 16 people were taken away by police patrolling an area that previously hosted the June 4 candlelight vigil marking the Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing more than three decades ago.
Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung had earlier warned authorities would take “resolute action” against anyone threatening national security as the date approached, and hundreds of officers fanned out across Victoria Park and nearby streets in Causeway Bay yesterday, checking bags of passers-by and cautioning residents who stopped to linger.
On the international front, the diplomatic missions of the United States and European Union displayed electric candles in the windows of their offices in Central, while the consulates of Australia, Britain and Canada released messages commemorating the anniversary.
The June 4 vigil in Victoria Park, which regularly attracted tens of thousands of residents in past years, has not been held since 2019. Authorities denied permission to stage it the following two years, citing risks to public health amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The organiser disbanded in August 2021, pointing to the changed political environment in the wake of the national security law, and this year pro-Beijing groups are holding a carnival in the park celebrating the nation’s diversity.
Among those detained by officers yesterday was Chan Po-ying, the leader of the League of Social Democrats opposition political party and who was carrying an LED candle and yellow paper flowers.
Leo Tang Kin-wah, former vice-chairman of the disbanded Confederation of Trade Unions, was escorted into a police vehicle after being searched by officers and taken to the station in Wan Chai. He was wearing a black T-shirt with a print of the front page of the Chinese-language newspaper Wen Wei Po from June 5, 1989.
Police also led away the former chairwoman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, Mak Yinting, and activist Alexandra Wong Fung-yiu, known as “Wong Po Po” or “Grandma Wong”, as she stood on Great George Street holding a bouquet of flowers. Some passersby chastised police for taking action against an elderly woman.
Officers detained a man carrying a book about the play May 35 by Candace Chong Mui-ngam, which tells the story of a woman seeking to hold a vigil for her son killed in Tiananmen Square during the protests in 1989.
Police also took away a woman wearing a yellow mask, a colour associated with the antigovernment protests, who was carrying a small card bearing the word “conscience” in Chinese, and a man wearing a black shirt with yellow Chinese characters that read “I’m called Hongkonger”.
A man surnamed Pang, 35, said he was searched after taking pictures of police vehicles out of curiosity. An attendee of past vigils, Pang said he would commemorate the event in his own way.
“I have told my children about the incident,” he said. “No one can change history.”
Political activist Frances Hui said Chow Hang-tung, who belonged to the now-disbanded vigil organiser, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China,
had been placed in solitary confinement for staging a 34-hour hunger strike.
Chow is serving 4½ months in prison for refusing to assist a police investigation into the alliance’s alleged breaches of the national security law. She is also facing a separate trial at the High Court involving the group.
On Saturday, police arrested four protesters on suspicion of disrupting public order and sedition near the park.
A 54-year-old woman was arrested for carrying two straps with seditious wordings and laying out items with seditious intent, according to police. Another woman, 50, and a man, 51, were arrested for holding papers featuring seditious phrases and refusing to cooperate after repeated warnings, the force said.
Ronny Tong Ka-wah, a member of the chief executive’s key decision-making body, the Executive Council, advised residents to avoid taking part in any organised commemoration.
But Tong said he believed Hong Kong remained a diverse and free society under the “one country, two systems” governing principle and he respected everyone’s right to mark such events as they saw fit.
Bishop Stephen Chow Sauyan of the Catholic diocese of Hong Kong posted a prayer on social media and described June 4 as “a particularly thoughtprovoking day” for many residents.
“Pray for those whose hearts have hardened that they will gradually be softened and relieved from deep-seated fears and anxieties,” he wrote.
The carnival, staged by 26 pro-Beijing groups, features 200 booths offering traditional snacks and folk art performances, as well as music and dancing.