TAIPEI, Taiwan – For decades, a large candlelight vigil has been held in Hong Kong every June 4, in memory of those killed when Chinese soldiers crushed Protests on Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
On Saturday, smaller crowds gathered in Taipei and other cities around the world – this time mourning not just those who were killed 33 years ago, but also the fate of Hong Kong, place extinguishing of dissent ended a vigil in Victoria Park, the world’s most famous public memorial to the victims of 1989.
“Now it’s about two things together – Hong Kong as well as what happened on June 4,” said Francis Tse, a former Hong Kong resident who was one of about 400 people taking part in the celebration at the center. City of Sydney, Australia. He and many others carried signs calling for the release of imprisoned activists in Hong Kong.
“We don’t get the chance to go to Victoria Park anymore,” said Mr Tse, “but now there are many Victoria Parks like this around the world.”
Since 2020, when Beijing imposed a far-reaching national security law in Hong Kong, the local government has essentially banned the public from commemorating the 1989 murders, wipe out the student-led protest movement calling for democratic change in China. Taipei – the capital of Taiwan, yes against China’s sovereignty claims for decades – has since emerged as a new center to commemorate the massacre.
On Saturday, participants in celebrations in Taipei, Sydney and elsewhere – another is expected to arrive in London – said they had also come to denounce the abolition of political freedoms in Hong Kong. , as well as China’s draconian policies in two other regions, Xinjiang and Tibet.
“Now that Hong Kong can no longer tell the truth and real history, we have to pass on this history more in Taiwan,” said Henry Tong, 41 years old from Hong Kong, who moved to Taiwan last year. and attend this year. vigil in Taipei. “Due to Hong Kong’s prohibition and repression, it has blossomed everywhere.”
At sunset in Taipei, hundreds of people gathered in the city center, placing electric candles on a banner stating June 4, 1989. Crowds spoke in Cantonese – Hong’s language. Kong. Organizers in Taipei also screened a film, banned in Hong Kong, about Pro-democracy protests swept the city in 2019before the authorities use security laws to stop them.
Kacey Wong, an artist from Hong Kong, whose work was featured in an exhibition held in conjunction with the Taipei celebrations, said: “Although the city of Hong Kong has fallen, we have fallen. not fail for nothing”. He said the 2019 protest movement had “served its purpose: to warn other countries to watch out for the Chinese Communist Party.”
In 1989, many Hong Kongers were stimulated by pro-democracy protests in mainland China – centered on Tiananmen Square but spreading across the country – creating a political crisis for the Party. Communist rule.
The army began flooding into Beijing on the evening of June 3. They shot dead hundreds, some say thousands, before reaching the square and clearing it. Murders and bloody fighting with protesters also broke out in other Chinese cities.
The Hong Kong vigil, the only major memorial to the victims on Chinese soil, has long been seen as proof that civil rights have been preserved in the former British colony since it was granted. returned to China in 1997. Every year, tens of thousands of people gather to light candles and listen to speeches by local pro-democracy figures, Tiananmen activists, and relatives of the people. was killed in 1989.
Such combinations are now unimaginable. Are from 2019 rally, the city government has launched an all-out campaign against dissidents, empowered by the new security law. It banned the June 4th ceremony in 2020 (although many people defied the ban) and again last year, citing Covid-19 social distancing restrictions.
Prominent activists, whether congregated or tried, are jailed under the illegal assembly law. The organizer of the vigil, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of China’s Patriotic Democratic Movements, disbanded last year.
“There is this mixing going on between the Hong Kong story and the Beijing story,” said Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, a historian of modern China at the University of California Irvine. author of “The Watch”, a study of the persecution in Hong Kong.
“Hong Kong is where you keep the memory of what happened in Beijing in 1989. But now June 4 is also turning attention back to Hong Kong at a time when the world is transitioning from there,” he said. “It also becomes the anniversary of the Hong Kong celebration.”
This year, the Hong Kong government seems determined to prevent any public commemoration of Tiananmen. Outdoor public gatherings continue to be limited to four people according to coronavirus pandemic measures. Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, warned that any such gathering would be subject to both security laws and social distancing restrictions.
Authorities have closed much of Victoria Park, and police have warned that anyone trying to meet there could face charges of unlawful assembly.
Local leaders of the Catholic Church said memorial services would not be held on Saturday, for fear of violating security laws. The Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong said: “Just praying for the deceased privately or in small groups would also be very meaningful.
Lee Cheuk-yan, a former leader of the Hong Kong Union who is currently serving time in prison for illegal assembly, planned Saturday fasts and evening light matches in memory of those killed. in 1989, he said in an article. Interview with Ming Pao.
Over the past year, universities in Hong Kong have dismantled prominent Tiananmen memorials. In December, the University of Hong Kong knock down “Pillar of Shame”, a 26-foot statue of Danish artist Jens Galschiot. Depicting writhing corpses denoting those killed in 1989, it has been on campus since the late 1990s, become a symbol of defiance against the Chinese government.
Since being removed, Prague and other cities archived copies of the statue and a smaller version of it has been named debut in Taipei on Saturday.
Another statue – modeled on the “Democracy Goddess” erected by students in Tiananmen Square in 1989 – was removed from the Chinese University of Hong Kong campus late last year. In recent days, anonymous activists, determined to celebrate June 4th but they can’t, have left four-inch copies of it around campus.
John Liu report from Taipei, Chris Buckley from Sydney, Australia, and Austin Ramzy from Hong Kong. Isabella Kwai Contribution reports from London.
