Hong Kong authorities have arrested several people. This is to make it clear that a commemoration of the bloody Chinese intervention with tanks in Tiananmen Square (Tiananmen) in Beijing, now 33 years ago, will absolutely not be tolerated.
Meetings in memory of the victims, who then peacefully demonstrated for democratic reform, have also been banned in Hong Kong for a year.
Many Western missions ignored the call not to openly commemorate the army’s crackdown on civilians in 1989. As darkness fell on Saturday, lights and candles appeared in the windows of several foreign offices, including the US Consulate. This also happened on street corners in the city.
Victoria Park, where many thousands of people had a vigil on June 4 in the past, was largely closed off. Police also patrolled en masse throughout the day in the nearby Causeway Bay shopping center, one of Hong Kong’s busiest areas.
Held to toy tank
People wearing flowers and black clothes were stopped and searched. That fate also befell someone with a toy tank box under his arm. This passer-by would refer to the iconic photo of the man holding up a tank with shopping bags in his hand.
Reporters from the AFP news agency saw that at least five people were taken. Among them the activist Yu Wai-pan of the social democratic party LSD. A party spokesman later said Yu had been released without charge. Another LSD member was arrested for wearing a T-shirt depicting Li Wangyang, the late defender of democracy in China, and a mask that reads “Sorry on June 4.”
Potentially thousands dead
The Chinese army opened fire 33 years ago to end demonstrations in and around Tiananmen Square in central Beijing. China has never released a full death toll, but human rights groups and witnesses say the figure could be in the thousands. The government last year imposed a strict security law on Hong Kong that could punish “subversive activities, terrorism and collusion with foreign armed forces” with life imprisonment.
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