Hong Kong police arrested two people accused of using social media to promote a banned vigil commemorating the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre, an annual event now seen as testing the limits of China’s crackdown on dissent
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.
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