A performance artist in Hong Kong who tried on Wednesday to honour the victims of Beijing’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown was quickly stopped by plainclothes police, the latest sign of the city’s shrinking freedom of expression.
Sanmu Chen tried to tie a symbolic red thread to a street signpost in Causeway Bay, a shopping district close to a park that previously hosted an annual candlelight vigil on 4 June to commemorate those who died in the 1989 student-led protests.
Hong Kong was for decades the only place in China where a large-scale public commemoration of the killings was held, with 4 June vigils that drew hundreds of thousands of people to Victoria Park each year. But such gatherings have been banned since 2020, when Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law to tighten its control over the city.
Chen said his thread was 6.4 metres long – an apparent reference to 4 June.
Police stopped Chen and searched his bag before letting him go. When asked by a reporter about his gesture with the red thread, Chen said it was to express condolences for those who died.
“It’s abnormal when people monitor you when you are saying or doing something,” he said.
Chen has been detained at least twice in recent years
In 2024, Chen was briefly detained on 3 June after appearing to write the Chinese characters of “eight nine six four” – a set of numbers referencing the date of the crackdown – with his hand in the air.
The year before, he was detained on the same date in the same neighbourhood, after chanting: “Hong Kongers, do not be afraid. Don’t forget, tomorrow is June 4.”
As night fell on Wednesday, another artist, Chan Mei-tung, stood outside a nearby department store holding up a question-mark-shaped balloon. Police officers also stopped her quickly and escorted her back to a subway station.
Police did not immediately comment on Wednesday’s actions.
In Taiwan, on a night battered by torrential rain, hundreds of people including some Hongkongers gathered in Taipei for a vigil to mark the 37th anniversary of the massacre.
At 8.09pm, the crowd was asked to observe 64 seconds of silence – the numbers pointing to the date of China’s crackdown.
One Hongkonger holding a candle at the event said: “I came here mainly because it’s now completely impossible to hold any kind of commemoration of 4 June in Hong Kong. That makes it even more important to be here.” She asked to remain anonymous because of safety concerns.
Another Hongkonger at the vigil said that after Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement in 2019, the Tiananmen Square massacre had become more relevant to him. “People in Hong Kong were left with this deep sense of regret that the democracy movement had come to a halt … just like with 4 June,” he said.
Taiwan is now the only part of the Chinese-speaking world where the massacre can be remembered openly. There has been a noticeable increase in turnout at 4 June commemorations in recent years, with participation peaking at more than 6,000 in 2024, according to organisers.
This year, however, the turnout was much reduced and estimated at about 200, with the weather likely to have been a factor.
Despite the smaller crowd, Lee Ming-che, a Taiwanese human rights activist who was imprisoned in China for five years on subversion charges, emphasised the importance of continuing to hold the event.
“This is a battle over memory,” he said. “Those of us outside China still need to keep writing this history down. Because if we don’t record the real history, then after China erases people’s memories, it will give them new ones.”
In 1989, under then-leader Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese military was sent to Tiananmen Square to end weeks of student-led protests on the night of 3-4 June. Soldiers fired live rounds. Hundreds and possibly thousands of people were killed, including dozens of soldiers.
Since the introduction of the national security law in 2020, many leading activists in Hong Kong have been arrested and some vocal media outlets shut down. Dozens of civil society groups have been disbanded, including the one that organised the vigils.
Three former vigil organisers were charged in 2021 with inciting subversion under the national security law. Two have gone on trial and are waiting a verdict, possibly in July. If convicted, they face up to 10 years in prison. The third organiser entered a guilty plea, which can typically result in a sentence reduction.
The Hong Kong and Beijing governments say the security law is crucial for the city’s stability. Hong Kong authorities say the law stipulates that human rights shall be respected and protected in safeguarding national security.
With Associated Press and Agence France-Presse
