Hundreds gather near Hong Kong park despite vigil ban
HONG KONG — Hundreds of people gathered near a Hong Kong park Friday despite a ban on an annual candlelight vigil to remember China’s deadly crackdown in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, and the arrest earlier in the day of an organizer of previous vigils.
Hong Kong police banned the vigil for a second straight year, citing coronavirus social distancing restrictions, although there have been no local cases in the semi-autonomous Chinese city for about six weeks.
Police closed off parts of Victoria Park — the venue of past vigils — in the city’s Causeway Bay shopping district and warned people not to participate in unauthorized assemblies, which is illegal with punishment of of up to five years imprisonment.
Despite the ban and a heavy police presence, hundreds of people still showed up Friday night to walk along the park’s perimeter.
Many illuminated the flashlights on their smartphones while others lit candles in remembrance of the hundreds, if not thousands of people who lost their lives when China’s military put down student-led pro-democracy protests in Beijing at Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
In past years, tens of thousands of people have gathered in Victoria Park to honor the dead. Thousands attended last year despite the ban, lighting candles and singing songs. Police later charged more than 20 activists with participating in the event.
Edward Yeung, one of those participating in Friday night’s event, flicked on a lighter instead of a candle. “They’re scared that people will remember all this. They want to wash it all away,” he said.
China’s ruling Communist Party has never allowed public events on the mainland to mark the anniversary and security was increased at the Beijing square, with police checking pedestrians’ IDs as tour buses shuttled Chinese tourists in and out.
Chinese officials have said that the country’s rapid economic development since what they call the “political turmoil” of 1989 proves that decisions made at the time were correct.
Efforts to suppress public memory of the Tiananmen events have lately turned to Hong Kong. Apart from the vigil ban, a temporary June 4 museum closed after a visit from authorities earlier this week.
The efforts came amid sweeping moves to quell dissent in the city — including a new national security law, election system changes and the arrest of many activists who participated in pro-democracy protests that swept Hong Kong in 2019.
Earlier Friday, police arrested Chow Hang Tung, a vice chair of the Hong Kong Alliance which organized Hong Kong’s annual candlelight vigil, the group said.
Although police did not identify Chow, they said they arrested a 36-year-old woman from the Hong Kong
Alliance as she was publicizing an unauthorized assembly via social media despite the police ban on the vigil.
After the ban was issued, Chow urged people to commemorate the event privately by lighting candles wherever they are.
Chow, a lawyer, said in an earlier interview with The Associated Press that she expected to be jailed.
Two other key members of the Hong Kong Alliance — Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho — are behind bars for joining unauthorized assemblies during the 2019 protests.
At the University of Hong Kong on Friday afternoon, students took part in an annual washing of the “Pillar of Shame” sculpture, which was erected to remember the victims
of the Tiananmen crackdown.
“In cleaning the Pillar of Shame, we shall learn how our predecessors defended the freedom of expression before, and we shall not easily give up,” said Charles Kwok, the president of the students’ union.
Some gathered in churches Friday night to mark June 4 and pray for the victims.
Clare Ho, a postgraduate student, said she participated in previous vigils but decided to attend Mass this year to pray for the victims because the vigil was banned. “I feel like the least I can do as a Hong Konger, and as a Catholic, I just feel like coming here to pray for them is something I should do,” she said.