Hongkongers defy Beijing ban on Tiananmen vigils

Defiant Hong Kong residents chanted and lit candles while churches held special services on the 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre overnight Friday, despite the deployment of 7000 riot police to stamp out any commemoration of the tragedy.

Double the estimated number of officers were deployed across the city by the pro-Chinese government, while Victoria Park, where a candlelit vigil has usually been held on June 4, was closed with metal barricades and stood empty for the first time in 32 years.

The authorities, citing the pandemic, had banned the gathering at the park for the second year in a row, and for the first time since

Beijing imposed a draconian national security law. Last year, thousands of residents defied the ban and showed up at the park. Police later arrested 20 prominent figures for appearing.

This year police threatened to arrest anyone who showed up to remember victims of the crackdown on pro- democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, in 1989. Undeterred by the threat of up to five years in prison, residents gathered outside the park and elsewhere, prompting police warnings and orders to disperse.

Alexandra Wong, a 65-year-old protester, showed up outside a department store in Causeway Bay. She was wearing a yellow mask, holding up a yellow umbrella in one hand and in the other a placard that read: ‘‘Do not let the truth sink’’.

A man, clad in black, was seen holding a candle in the shopping district.

He told local media he had been to the annual vigil in past years and said that this year’s ban was unreasonable, saying: ‘‘As a free society, Hong Kong should not rationalise unreasonable acts by the government.’’ He added that he was prepared to be arrested, and said: ‘‘Hongkongers must struggle in the tight space.’’

At about 8pm, local time, about 100 protesters in black marched along Great George Street, chanting the protest slogan of ‘‘Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times’’. In response, police raised a purple flag warning the participants that they might be violating the national security law.

A similar scene played out in Mong Kok, where some protesters called for Hong Kong independence.

Although the crowds were much reduced from previous years, residents also held quieter demonstrations and acts of defiance across the city.

AP People light LED candles to mark the anniversary of the military crackdown on a pro-democracy student movement in Beijing, outside Victoria Park in Hong Kong.

AP Police officers in Hong Kong blow out candles lit by people marking the anniversary of the military crackdown on a pro-democracy student movement in Beijing.