Hong Kong authorities on Saturday detained multiple people as they pounced on any attempt at public commemoration of the 33rd anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown, as China vies to remove all reminders of the deadly event.
Discussion of June 4, 1989, when China set troops and tanks on peaceful protesters, is all but forbidden on the mainland. Hundreds, by some estimates more than 1,000, were killed in the crackdown on demonstrators calling for political change and curbs on official corruption.
Semi-autonomous Hong Kong had been the one place in China where large-scale remembrance was still tolerated — until two years ago when Beijing imposed a national security law to snuff out dissent after huge pro-democracy protests in 2019.
AFP reporters saw at least half a dozen people being taken away by police on Saturday, the majority in the evening, including activist Yu Wai-pan from the League of Social Democrats (LSD) party.
LSD said Yu was later released without charge, while fellow member Lau San-ching was arrested for wearing a shirt with a portrait of late Chinese democracy activist Li Wangyang with a mask that read “mourn June 4”.
Police confirmed that an 80-year-old man was arrested for obstructing officers earlier in the day, but have yet to confirm the number of arrests made after nightfall.
Authorities had warned that “participating in an unauthorised assembly” on Saturday risked the maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment.
They also closed large parts of Victoria Park, once the site of packed annual candlelight vigils.
The park and adjacent Causeway Bay shopping district were heavily policed on Saturday, with multiple people targeted for searches.
Yu and two other LSD members, all wearing white masks with a black cross across the mouth, came to Causeway Bay in the evening and stood silently on the street.
Within 30 seconds, police had taken them away for a search.
They were released but as they approached Victoria Park they were stopped and Yu was taken away.
“For 33 years it has always been peaceful, but today it’s like (police) are facing a big enemy,” Chan Po-ying, head of the LSD, said.
“The candlelight will not go out; the hearts of people will live on.” (Story continues below)
‘Hong Kong is dead’
Near the park in the evening, dozens of people turned on their phone lights.
Over a megaphone, police said to turn them off, warning the people they risked breaching the law against unauthorised assembly.
When asked why that would constitute a crime, an officer told AFP he would “leave it to my colleagues to explain in a press conference”.
Earlier, police had also told people turning on LED candles to desist.
Police searched one man for over 20 minutes and then told him to leave.
“They’re even afraid of an old person like me, I’m over 60,” said the man, surnamed Chan. “Hong Kong is already dead.”
Others were stopped and searched for carrying flowers, wearing black and in one case, carrying a toy tank box.
Some people left candles in phone booths or on street corners, or distributed small stickers with candles drawn on them.
“We can’t make a big fuss, but there are still small ways … to tell everyone they are not alone,” one young woman told AFP.
One woman told AFP earlier that she had lit a candle at home instead and placed a replica of the Goddess of Democracy statue, the original of which stood in Tiananmen Square in 1989, on her windowsill.
“For me and many Hong Kongers of my generation, June 4 was our political enlightenment,” said the 49-year-old public relations professional, who used to volunteer for the organisers of annual vigils.
China has gone to exhaustive lengths to erase the crackdown from its people’s collective memory, omitting it from history textbooks and scrubbing references to it from the Chinese internet and social media platforms.
On Saturday in Beijing, authorities set up facial recognition devices on roads leading to Tiananmen Square and stopped passersby to check their identification.
The security presence in the area was noticeably bulked up, with two to three times the regular number of officers visible.
‘Memories systematically erased’
In Hong Kong, all signs of decades of commemorations have been wiped away in just the past few months.
Since last September, the vigil’s leaders have been arrested and charged with subversion, their June 4 museum has been closed, statues have been removed, and memorial church services cancelled.
Commemoration events in Macau were also cancelled this year.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday released a statement pledging to continue to “honour and remember those who stood up for human rights and fundamental freedoms”.
“While many are no longer able to speak up themselves, we and many around the world continue to stand up on their behalf and support their peaceful efforts to promote democracy and the rights of individuals,” he said, specifically mentioning the situation in Hong Kong.
Multiple Western consulates in Hong Kong on Saturday posted Tiananmen tributes on social media as well.
“The collective memories of June 4 in Hong Kong are being systematically erased,” said Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in a statement. “But we believe that such coarse and unreasonable measures cannot wipe away people’s memories.”
Vigils were being held globally, with Amnesty International coordinating candlelit ones in 20 cities “to demand justice and show solidarity for Hong Kong”.
At Victoria Park on Saturday morning, photographer Kityee was confident that people would not forget the events of 1989.
“I think most people will not insist on coming here in defiance,” she said. “But they will find their own ways of commemoration.”
