Hong Kong police on Sunday arrested a prominent figure in the pro-democracy movement and at least 7 others on the 34th anniversary of the bloody crackdown in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
67-year-old Alexandra Wong, a pro-democracy activist better known as “Mamie Wong”, was notably arrested late Sunday afternoon, along with 7 other people according to AFP journalists.
The police first surrounded her, then Ms. Wong followed them without resisting, brandishing her bouquet of flowers in the air.
Another woman was also arrested after she shouted “Raise candles!” Cry on 4/6! », in reference to June 4, 1989, the date of the Tiananmen crackdown in Beijing.
Dressed in black, a young man was carrying 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.
After being briefly interrogated, searched and then released, a woman told AFP with a shrug: “Everyone knows what day it is today”.
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 “disturbing public order”.
Silence all dissent
This weekend, the police took up positions 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.
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 of Beijing’s Tiananmen.
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.
Hong Kong authorities have since ended vigils that were never allowed in mainland China.
This year, the giant park gathering in the central Causeway Bay district has been replaced by a trade fair devoted to products from mainland China and organized until Monday by pro-Beijing groups to celebrate the 26th anniversary of the return of Hong Kong to China.
“Hong Kong is a different city today,” said Ms Wong, 53, who only agrees to give her last name, while praising the pro-China fair.
Hong Kong, returned to China by the United Kingdom in 1997, was thus for a long time the only Chinese city to organize a candlelight vigil in memory of Tiananmen.
It was also a key indicator of the freedoms and political pluralism conferred on it by its status as a semi-autonomous territory.
Erase the memory
In mainland China, all traces of the Tiananmen events have been erased by the authorities.
History textbooks do not mention it, online discussions on this subject are systematically censored.
This is evidenced by the misadventure of the British Embassy in Beijing, which posted on Sunday on social networks the front page dated June 4, 1989 from People’s Dailythe official propaganda organ of the Chinese Communist Party, which described the influx of the wounded into hospitals following the crackdown.
“Within twenty minutes, censors deleted our Weibo (Chinese social media) post,” the UK Embassy tweeted on Sunday.
Within 20 minutes, censors have removed our post on Weibo, censoring the news as reported by the Party’s most authoritative news outlet on the day of the massacre.
At thread: https://t.co/dfgPmzdhoj
— UK in China ???????? (@ukinchina) June 4, 2023
This year, Chinese police also monitored several landmarks of the rare anti-Xi Jinping regime that erupted last fall.
A large police force was thus deployed around the Sitong Bridge in Beijing, the scene of a demonstration at the end of November where a banner demanding more freedom had been unrolled there.
In Hong Kong, most of the figures of the pro-democracy movement have been arrested or have taken refuge abroad since the entry into force of a law on national security.
This is particularly the case of the leaders of the association which organized the vigil of Victoria Park, Hong Kong Alliance.
However, the authorities still seemed to be on high alert in the face of possible expressions of dissent.
” Assume the consequences “
The city’s chief executive, John Lee, has warned that every Hong Kong resident should follow the law and be “ready to face the consequences” if they violate it.
Elsewhere in the world, June 4 commemorations will take place in Japan, Sydney, New York and London where a re-enactment of the Tiananmen events will be held in Trafalgar Square.
In Taiwan, a play by Hong Kong author Candace Chong, entitled “May 35”, will also be performed this Sunday in a theater in the capital.
“History and memory will not be easily erased,” said Hong Konger Sky Fung, secretary general of the Taipei-based NGO Hong Kong Outlanders. “The spark is still in our hearts.”