DIASPORA PRESSURE
Security in China tends to intensify in the run-up to Jun 4 every year. Authorities have imposed travel curbs on some activists, according to a Human Rights Watch report.
China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the southern city of Zhuzhou on Saturday, activist Chen Siming was detained after he sent a tweet commemorating Jun 4, Human Rights Watch said.
Calls to the Zhuzhou public security bureau seeking comment went unanswered on Friday. Reuters could not reach Chen but confirmed the incident with a friend who said he remains in detention.
In Hong Kong, an annual candlelight vigil in a downtown park that used to attract tens of thousands was prohibited from 2020 to 2022 due to COVID-19 restrictions.
No organisation applied to host a vigil this year. The park will host a Chinese food carnival on Sunday, organised by dozens of pro-China groups.
Hong Kong leader John Lee, asked this week if it was legal to mourn in public those killed in 1989, said, “everybody should act in accordance with the law”, without giving specifics.
Under Hong Kong law, police permission is required only for public processions of more than 30 people or public meetings of more than 50.
The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which organised the city’s annual Tiananmen candlelight vigils, disbanded in 2021 after the arrests of its key leaders, including barrister Chow Hang-tung.
A Tiananmen memorial museum was reopened by overseas activists in New York this week after one in Hong Kong was closed in June 2021.
Three public sculptures marking June 4 have been dismantled in Hong Kong since 2021, and all books on the crackdown have been removed from public libraries over the past year.
Danish sculptor Jens Galschiot, whose “Pillar of Shame” was taken down in 2021 from the University of Hong Kong, installed a replica in a Berlin square this year.
“The Chinese people around the world who escaped China, they are being connected and make pressure for China to change the system,” Galschiot said. “This is the only way we can change China in the end.”
Source: CNA
