HONG KONG:Â Hong Kong police on Sunday (Jun 4) detained several key pro-democracy figures attempting to commemorate the 34th anniversary of the bloody Tiananmen crackdown in China.
For years, Hong Kongers would converge on the city’s Victoria Park and its surrounding neighbourhood to commemorate the events of Jun 4, 1989 – taking part in candlelight vigils.
But since Beijing’s imposition of the national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 to quell dissent, the annual vigil was banned, and the organisers were charged under the law.
This weekend, scores of police were deployed in the area, stopping people to search their belongings and question them.
By late afternoon, AFP reporters witnessed at least 10 people taken away by police in vans – including Chan Po-ying, the leader of the city’s League of Social Democrats, one of the last few remaining opposition groups.
The veteran activist was holding a small LED candle and two flowers, before she was immediately seized by police.
Other prominent figures detained were Alexandra Wong, a well-known activist nicknamed “Grandma Wong”, former chairwoman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association Mak Yin-ting, and Leo Tang, a former leader of the now-disbanded Confederation of Trade Unions.
Wong, 67, was carrying flowers as police surrounded her and escorted her away.
At Victoria Park, a man sitting on a bench holding an unlit candle was surrounded by cops. As he was led to a police van, he said, “I raised a candle … I was (taken) for just sitting there”.
Another young man dressed in black carrying a book titled “35th of May” – a covert reference to Jun 4 in China – was also detained.
One woman who was briefly questioned, searched and then released, shrugged and told AFP: “Everyone knows what day is today.”
Police arrested four people on Saturday for “seditious” acts and “disorderly conduct”, and another four were detained on suspicion of breaching the peace.
Source: CNA
