On the anniversary of the massacre in Tiananmen Square, police in Hong Kong detained pro-democracy activists.
China’s 1989 tanks and troops crackdown on Beijing’s nonviolent protesters is banned from public memory.
Nonetheless, scores of candlelight vigils are expected to be held in cities across the globe.
Among those detained was the 67-year-old activist known as “Grandma Wong,” Alexandra Wong.
She was arrested while carrying flowers near Victoria Park. Where vigils had been held for decades, during a fraught evening in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong’s leading opposition party leader was arrested and placed in a police van.
Chan Po Ying, the leader of the League of Social Democrats and a veteran pro-democracy activist, was born with an LED candle and two flowers.
There are also allegations that former Hong Kong Journalists Association president Mak Yin Ting has been detained.
Events commemorating the 1989 tragedy in Beijing are prohibited on the Chinese mainland.
Hong Kong was formerly the only Chinese city where these commemorations were permitted, by the city’s semi-autonomous economic, political, and legal structure – known as “one country, two systems” – established when the UK handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997.
Since the Chinese government enacted a stringent national security law prohibiting numerous forms of dissent in 2020, public commemorations of the anniversary have been prohibited.
Since 2019, the annual commemorations have not been conducted, as they were initially prohibited by Hong Kong’s Covid regulations.
This year, a funfair in support of Beijing is being held in Victoria Park.
Ms. Wong was swiftly surrounded by police and driven away from the Causeway Bay neighborhood of Hong Kong on Sunday.
Since 1990, the nearby Victoria Park has hosted annual candlelit vigils to commemorate Tiananmen Square, attracting tens of thousands of people to observe the day, known as the Fourth of June in most of China.
Tens of thousands of Hong Kong Police officers stop and interview people at the city’s most iconic landmarks.
Outside the metro station near Victoria Park, officers set up checkpoints to examine pedestrians, including journalists.
In an apparent show of force, two Chinese-made “Sabre-tooth Tiger” armored vehicles have also been stationed in the vicinity.
The city government announced before the protests that they would detain anyone they believed to be violating the law.
According to reports, at least 12 individuals have been arrested.
One of those arrested was a woman who yelled, “Raise the candles!” Mourn 64!” while another was a man carrying a book with the title “May 35th” – both allusions to the date of the murders on June 4th.
Others were detained while holding unlit candles or wearing yellow apparel, the color associated with the now-defunct pro-democracy movement.
Four people were arrested Saturday for disrupting public order or seditious intent, new offences under the controversial 2020 law.
On Sunday, dozens of candlelight vigils were planned worldwide to honour those killed by the Chinese military during the crackdown.
Hundreds of people gathered in Taiwan, the democratic, self-governing island China claims as its territory and has sworn to seize by force if necessary, to commemorate the anniversary.
Crowds in the capital Taipei chanted “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong” in front of a replica of the “Pillar of Shame” – a statue at the University of Hong Kong commemorating the deceased at Tiananmen Square that was removed in 2021.
Many participants also hope that the vigils will preserve the ethos of Hong Kong’s once-vibrant civil society and political community, which has largely died out because so many have been imprisoned under the national security law or have fled the city.
In 1989, the protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square became the focal point for nationwide demonstrations advocating for greater political freedoms.
Before the military moved in on 4 June and opened fire. Tens of thousands of people, the majority of whom were students, camped for weeks in the famous Beijing Square.
One anonymous protester stopping a tank column became a global emblem of protest.
According to the Chinese government, 200 civilians and dozens of security personnel perished. Other estimates range from hundreds to tens of thousands.
Activists view the actions of the authorities as part of China’s broader plan to eliminate political dissent in Hong Kong.
