The facts go back a year and a half. On June 4, 2020, like every year, activists in Hong Kong commemorate the Tien an Men massacres, which saw the deaths of hundreds of people, perhaps more in 1989 in Beijing. Three days before, the gathering is prohibited, due to the pandemic. Jimmy Lai still goes to the fountain in Victoria Park where the demonstration is scheduled. He lights a candle, lets himself be photographed, leaves immediately. In the calm.
For this single gesture, he is now sentenced to 13 months in prison. The justice, now controlled by the Chinese power, considers that it was an “incitement to participate in an illegal gathering, an act of defiance against the police”. The press boss, now 74, arrived in court handcuffed like a common law detainee, pleaded not guilty. And he had his lawyer read a handwritten text, in which he wrote “Let me endure my pain, so that I may share the burden and the glory of these young men and women who shed their blood on June 4, 1989”.
Lai, whose Apple Daily newspaper was closed a few months ago, has just extended the list of opponents sent to prison: the sentences are systematic. And the argument of the health situation serves as a permanent alibi to justify the repression, even though the pandemic is under control in the large megalopolis of 7.5 million inhabitants.
It is also the illustration of the extreme sensitivity of Chinese power on everything related to the events of 1989: it is the taboo subject par excellence. Hong Kong was the last place where the events of 1989 could still be remembered. From now on, even there it is prohibited, including for next June, it is already official: unauthorized gathering. In all the rest of China, it’s simple: the drama of Tien An Men does not exist. Officially, there were no pro-democracy demonstrations for two months, nor repression. Nothing. Everything has been removed from history textbooks. A young Chinese under the age of 30 cannot have any knowledge of these events.
Moreover today the official Chinese press only evokes the sentence of Jimmy Lai briefly and justifying it by the simple formula “participation in an unauthorized demonstration”. No mention of Tien An Men. At the same time, in Hong Kong, history textbooks are in turn being overhauled and broadcasting archives being redacted. It is the organized erasure of History. The screed of lead is accentuated day by day.
It means that there is no real solution for pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong. Option 1: prison. And the convictions will continue. Jimmy Lai, for example, faces life imprisonment in another procedure. Option 2: shut up and hide. No longer express the slightest opinion. Option 3: flee. This is the solution adopted by some leaders of the protest, such as Nathan Law, who left for the United Kingdom.
In 18 months, more than 100,000 people have already left the city. Lots of qualified professionals, lawyers, teachers, doctors. And according to a survey by the University of Hong Kong, more than 40% of residents are seriously considering the exodus.