Police stationed throughout the city even block ‘potato candles’… “Silence for fear of arrest”
“Requesting diplomatic embassies not to speak publicly”… Only in foreign countries such as Taiwan and Australia
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(Shanghai = Yonhap News) Correspondent Cha Dae-woon = On the night of the 3rd, the day before the anniversary of the June 4 Tiananmen Democratization Protest, a performance artist cut potatoes into candle shapes on Causeway Bay Street in downtown Hong Kong.
The moment he pretended to light a ‘potato candle’ with a lighter, he was arrested and loaded into a police car and left.
The small commotion on Friday night’s bustling streets highlights how publicly remembering the Tiananmen pro-democracy protests and commemorating the victims was no longer possible, even in Hong Kong, a special administrative region where one country, two systems was allowed.
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Hong Kong authorities closed Victoria Park from 11pm on the 3rd to 0:30am on the 5th, the day before the anniversary of the Tiananmen protests.
Victoria Park candlelight vigils were not allowed in 2020, but on the evening of the 4th, regarding 20,000 people (police estimates) gathered in Victoria Park to light candles, and last year, Victoria Park was completely sealed off. Citizens protested once morest this and lit candles all over the city.
The police also blocked Victoria Park this year and deployed police all over the city to block the source of ‘illegal protests’.
Earlier, Hong Kong Police said at a press conference on the 2nd, “Encouragement to participate in the illegal rally around Victoria Park on the 4th is being done online.” “Don’t try to test your vigilance. Don’t test our resolve to enforce the law.” ‘ he warned.
Victoria Park has been the site of a large-scale rally to commemorate the victims of the Tiananmen pro-democracy protests on June 4 every year since 1990.
Even that night, it was impossible to publicly remember the Tiananmen pro-democracy protests, under the control of police officers stationed in large numbers around the city center, including around Victoria Park.
AFP reported that a man dressed in black and holding a white chrysanthemum was searched by the police on the street as a memorial.
“The policeman warned me not to do anything that might get people’s attention,” the man said.
Police officers opened the bags of passing citizens and checked for ‘protest items’ such as candles. Some citizens quietly placed LED candles on public phone boxes or on sidewalks, but the police collected them as they appeared.
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Many Hong Kong citizens are unable to participate in public mourning, even if they have the will, as they can face heavy legal punishment for violating the National Security Law if they are caught doing public commemoration.
“Everyone is silent for fear that everyone will be arrested,” Victor told Archyde.com.
The act of making ‘potato candles’ by a performance artist on a Causeway Bay street who was taken away by the police is to reveal the reality of Hong Kong, where even a single candle cannot be lifted on the street.
As the citizens commemorating the Tiananmen pro-democracy protest in the city center on the evening of the 4th disappeared under strict police control, 2022 will be the first year in which the candles of the Tiananmen pro-democracy protest in Hong Kong have been ‘sinicized’.
On June 4, 1989, the Chinese Communist Party and the government mobilized the People’s Liberation Army to suppress one million students and citizens demanding democracy in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square with force, and many people lost their lives.
Mentioning the Tiananmen pro-democracy protests in China is taboo.
Although part of China, with some freedom of speech and assembly, Hong Kong was the only place in China to publicly commemorate the Tiananmen pro-democracy protests and pay tribute to the victims.
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The candlelight vigil in Victoria Park, attended by hundreds of thousands of people every year on June 4th, was a representative event symbolizing Hong Kong’s one country, two systems (one country, two systems).
However, with the introduction of the Hong Kong National Security Law in 2020, the “sinicization of Hong Kong” has rapidly progressed, effectively destroying the democratic camp and civil society.
The Hong Kong Citizens Support Patriotic Democratic Movement Association (Jiryeonhoe), which led the memory of Tiananmen, was dissolved and several executives were imprisoned.
The Tiananmen Memorial Hall in downtown Hong Kong has been closed, and the Tiananmen Democratization Protests Memorial Monument on the university campus has also been demolished.
Despite the government’s ban, the civil society camp pushed through the Victoria Park candlelight vigils in 2020 and 2021, but as a result, politicians and activists from the democratic camp were arrested and legally punished.
This year, even religious mourning has disappeared. The Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong has announced that it will not hold a mass to commemorate the Tiananmen protests this year due to concerns regarding violating the National Security Law.
“The ban appears to be part of a move to completely eliminate political differences,” the Associated Press reported. .
Authorities have demanded not only Hong Kongers but also diplomats from other countries not to express their views on the Tiananmen incident.
According to the SCMP, the Hong Kong Correspondent Office, the Hong Kong office of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, has asked Western diplomatic missions, including the US Consulate General in Hong Kong, not to make any public statements regarding the Tiananmen incident.
However, the US Consulate General in Hong Kong, like last year, lit several candles by the window so that it might be seen from the outside and joined the Tiananmen protests.
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The Hong Kong government is going one step further by failing to publicly commemorate the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen, and is also trying to drastically reduce Tiananmen technology in history education.
According to the SCMP, following obtaining and analyzing revised history textbooks to be used by middle school students in Hong Kong since September, they briefly mentioned the Tiananmen pro-democracy protests and made no mention of the commemoration activities held in Hong Kong.
One textbook described the Tiananmen protests in one paragraph, but it did not even mention the fact that there were deaths in the process of suppressing the protests.
At a time when public commemoration of the victims of Tiananmen was no longer possible in Hong Kong, memorial ceremonies were held overseas.
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On that day, a public commemoration ceremony was held at Freedom Square, the capital city of Taipei, in the presence of regarding 2,000 people, including Taiwanese activists and Hong Kongers living in Taiwan.
Some Hong Kongers waved black flags with the words ‘Hong Kong Independence’ written on it at the event.
About 50 people lighted candles in front of the Chinese Consulate General in Sydney, Australia, and held a public memorial service, according to the Associated Press.
In addition, commemorative events were held in Dharamsala, India, where the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, and Tokyo, Japan.
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2022/06/04 23:01 Send
