HONG KONG: On Sunday, June 4, Hong Kong increased surveillance around a park where tens of thousands of people had gathered for an annual commemoration of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, preventing any protests on the occasion’s 34th anniversary.
Hong Kongers used to congregate in Victoria Park and the Causeway Bay neighborhood in the past to remember the tragic events of June 4, 1989, whether it was by attending candlelight vigils or watching achievements.
However, this weekend, the park hosts a” hometown carnival fair” organized by pro-Beijing groups. A day after four people were detained for” seditious” behavior and” disorderly conduct ,” dozens of police were stationed in the nearby shopping area.
On Saturday, police searched consumers in Causeway Bay and moved swiftly to replace activists and performance artists.
Additionally, four people were detained on suspicion of” breaching the peace.”
Sanmu Chen, an actor, was seen by AFP saying,” Don’t forget June 4!” prior to being loaded onto a police vehicle.
It is extremely vulnerable to China’s communist authority to discuss the Tiananmen crackdown, and commemoration is prohibited on the mainland.
The government ruthlessly crushed a weeks-long flood of demonstrations calling for democratic change 34 years back when it sent troops and tanks to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to tear up peaceful protests.
Thousands, or possibly more than 1, 000, were killed.
For many years, Hong Kong was the only Chinese city to hold a significant commemoration of the incident. This was an important testament to the freedoms and democratic pluralism that its semi-autonomous status provided.
However, the Victoria Park celebration has been outlawed since Beijing enacted a comprehensive national security law in 2020 to put an end to dissent following significant and occasionally violent pro-democracy demonstrations.
When asked about the celebration, Wong, a 53-year-old woman who just gave her previous name, said it was an event from the past but praised the environment of the good at Victoria Park.
” Hong Kong is a different city today.”
Obliterate REMEMBRANCES
The Taiwanese government has gone to great lengths to completely remove the incident from mainland residents’ memories.
The internet in China has completely removed any mention of the onslaught.
A protester had hung a banner on Sitong Bridge in October calling for” freedom ,” and this year authorities also targeted the Beijing bridge that had been the scene of one of the rare protests last year.
Over the weekend, protection around the bridge was strengthened, the road sign was removed, and the map apps’ directions were ineffective.
The most important democracy activists in Hong Kong have either left the country or been apprehended since the passage of the safety rules in 2020.
However, in the weeks leading up to Sunday, the state’s government continued to appear to be watchful.
A celebratory” Pillar of Shame” statue was taken into custody by the police for a security trial, and novels about the Tiananmen assault were taken out of the city’s public library and canceled during private screenings.
A worker who asked for privacy reported that a thank-you letter dated Jun 6, 1989, to the show’s reporters who remained in Beijing to report the assault, appeared to have been taken down from their business at Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK.
It was a component of the” various tasks to maintaining its business premises ,” according to RTHK.