several people arrested in Hong Kong, including a pro-democracy figure

An anniversary passed over in silence. Hong Kong police on Sunday (June 4th) arrested a prominent figure in the pro-democracy movement and at least 7 other people on the 34th anniversary of the bloody crackdown in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. This weekend, the police took up position in force in Victoria Park and its surroundings to question anyone suspected of taking part in any form of public commemoration of the events of June 4, 1989.

Aged 67, Alexandra Wong, a pro-democracy activist better known as “Granny Wong”, was notably arrested at the end of the afternoon, according to AFP journalists. Another woman was also arrested after screaming “Raise candles! Cry 4/6!”, in reference to June 4, 1989, the date of the Tiananmen crackdown. Dressed in black, a young man carried the book entitled “May 35” at the time of his arrest, another way of referring to the Tiananmen events that took place four days after May 31.

On the eve of the 34th anniversary of Tiananmen, Hong Kong police had already arrested four people for “disorderly conduct on public roads” and for “acts for seditious purposes”and four others for “disturbance of public order”. For more than 30 years, tens of thousands of people have gathered each year in Victoria Park in Hong Kong for a candlelight vigil in memory of the victims. But in 2020, Beijing imposed a national security law in the former British colony to muzzle any dissent after the gigantic pro-democracy demonstrations of 2019.