HONG KONG: Ending one of the final reminders of China’s bloody suppression of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, for the first time in 33 years church services commemorating the crackdown will not be held in Hong Kong.
Since the imposition by Beijing of a sweeping national security law in 2020 aimed at suppressing pro-democracy demonstrations, once-packed candlelit vigils have been banned, a Tiananmen museum has been closed and memorial statues have been removed.
The annual Catholic masses were one of the last public gatherings for Hong Kong residents to remember the deadly clampdown on 4th June, 1989 when the Chinese government set tanks and troops on demonstrators in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
However, the church commemorations were canceled this year over fears of action by Hong Kong authorities.
“We find it very difficult under the current social atmosphere. Our bottom line is that we don’t want to breach any law in Hong Kong,” said one of the organizers, Rev. Martin Ip, chaplain of the Hong Kong Federation of Catholic Students, as quoted by The Guardian.
Discussion of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown is virtually forbidden in mainland China, but in Hong Kong its was often taught in schools, until the imposition of the security law, which is aimed at maintaining tight control over Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong Alliance, the most prominent Tiananmen advocacy group and the candlelight vigil organizer, has been prosecuted for subversion and classified as a “foreign agent.”
Events remembering the crackdown are now mostly held outside Hong Kong, with exiled dissidents establishing museums in the U.S. and activists planning to resurrect the Pillar of Shame statue in Taiwan.
This week, vigils will be held in many countries, with rights group Amnesty International coordinating candlelit gatherings in 20 cities “to demand justice and show solidarity for Hong Kong.”
