Hong Kong Police Make Arrests on Tiananmen Square Massacre Anniversary Key organizer of the banned rally detained after asking people on social media to turn on the lights everywhere by Elaine Yu
HONG KONG—Police arrested two people they accused of using social media to promote a banned candlelight vigil commemorating the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, an annual event that is now seen as testing the limits of China’s crackdown on dissent.
One of those arrested Friday morning was Chow Hang-tung, a lawyer and human-rights activist, who is a senior member of the group that organized previous vigils. The group had canceled the vigil after police banned it citing social-distancing rules tied to the coronavirus pandemic.
Pro-democracy groups say the government is trying to dim the flames of the only mass Tiananmen remembrance held on Chinese soil. Restrictions on gatherings remain in place in Hong Kong, which hasn’t recorded a local and untraceable Covid-19 infection for more than a month.
Tensions were high in parts of the city Friday after police said they would put the vigil’s traditional venue of Victoria Park on lockdown and local media reported 7,000 officers, or more than a fifth of the force, would be deployed to avert protests Friday evening. Officials have warned that anyone attending or publicizing unlawful assemblies faces arrest and up to five years in jail.
Every year since the 1989 gunning down of student-led protesters by Chinese troops around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, crowds have gathered in the park, exercising freedoms that were enjoyed for decades by residents in the former British colony, in contrast with their mainland counterparts.
Police Senior Superintendent Law Kwok-hoi said a woman surnamed Chow and a man were arrested Friday because they had used their social-media accounts to advertise or publicize an unauthorized assembly. The two were “extremely irresponsible” and could cause others to break the law, he said.
Ms. Chow, who is 36 and serves as vice chairwoman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which organizes the vigil, was filmed being led into a car by what appeared to be plainclothes officers outside her office in the downtown Central district of Hong Kong. The police described the other detainee as a 20-year-old food-delivery worker named Mr. Cheung.
When pressed by reporters to explain what their social-media posts said, Mr. Law said the case was still under investigation and declined to elaborate on their content or when they were posted. On Thursday evening, Ms. Chow wrote a public post on Facebook, saying “turn on the lights everywhere,” whether it was light from a mobile phone, a real candle or an electronic one. She didn’t mention Victoria Park or the banned gathering in the post.
Ms. Chow remained in custody and couldn’t be reached for comment. Richard Tsoi, a member of the Hong Kong Alliance, said it was worrying that the police didn’t provide any concrete evidence in arresting the pair. He added that the police appeared to be trying to intimidate the public through the arrests.
The Tiananmen vigil had long been a fixture on Hong Kong’s political calendar. It was a somber spectacle, as tens of thousands of people—among them mainland Chinese visitors—sang songs, listened to impassioned speeches denouncing China’s Communist Party rule and observed moments of silence as they turned the vast park into a sea of candles.
Police banned the gathering for the first time last year, citing the pandemic. But thousands of people defied warnings and streamed into the park anyway, in a sign of defiance after a year of social unrest and antigovernment protests. Some were arrested and later jailed.
The stakes are even higher now. This is the first year the anniversary of the crackdown has been marked in Hong Kong since Beijing imposed a national security law last summer aimed at silencing dissent.
By now, many of the vigil’s key organizers, including former lawmakers Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho, are in jail. The banning of the vigil has left the city without an official memorial event: The remembrance typically featured a large stage, concert-like screens and a blaring sound system.
Seven Catholic churches in Hong Kong planned to offer a special Mass on Friday with live streaming, although they were careful not to explicitly reference the military crackdown in a promotional poster. Banners branding the churches as part of an evil cult appeared outside the buildings on Thursday.
On the eve of the anniversary, a typically crowded street near Victoria Park fell quiet as several artists commemorated the Tiananmen victims. One artist laid 64 chrysanthemums—symbolizing the date—across the road and slowly picked off their white petals, which will be brought to the gravestone of a Chinese revolutionary.
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