Today is the 33rd anniversary of the deadly violence by the Chinese military in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The incident has long been noticed in Hong Kong – but now such vigils are banned in the city.
Dozens of police patrolled Hong Kong’s Victoria Park on Saturday. This is after the authorities for the third year in a row banned public commemorations of the anniversary of the massacre at Tiananmen Square in 1989.
The reason for the ban is attributed to the coronavirus, but several critics believe that the pandemic is used as a pretext to prevent people from demonstrating.
In China in general, the authorities have long since put the lid on the incident 33 years ago. However, Hong Kong has much greater freedom of expression, and it has been possible to teach about the massacre in schools. For a long time now, an annual candlelight vigil has been held in Victoria Park to commemorate the Chinese military’s attacks on the student-led protests.
Tens of thousands of people have previously participated in those gatherings.
But much has changed in the previously highly self-governing Hong Kong since a new security law was introduced two years ago. Earlier this week, police warned that anyone gathered in a group “in the same place, at the same time and with a common purpose to express certain opinions” could be considered part of an unauthorized gathering.
The decision to ban gatherings has been criticized internationally:
“Today, the struggle for democracy and freedom continues to echo in Hong Kong,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement, announcing that the United States will continue to pay attention to the massacre and demand responsibility from the Chinese state.
Taiwan’s foreign minister also wrote about the anniversary on a Facebook page, urging the Chinese to use the VPN connection to the internet to search for information about the incident and “see what their country is hiding from them”.