The streets of Hong Kong were filled this Saturday with police to prevent the traditional vigil commemorating the 33rd anniversary of the crackdown in Tiananmen Square, when China sent tanks against peaceful protesters demanding change. The mobilization of a large number of police officers forced those who wanted to commemorate the event to do it secretly or in a subtle way.
On June 4, 1989, the communist regime sent tanks and soldiers to crack down on peaceful protesters who had occupied Beijing’s iconic central square for weeks, demanding political change and an end to systemic corruption. The crushing of the movement killed more than a thousand peopleaccording to some estimates.
In 1989, many people in then-British Hong Kong supported the protest movement unleashed in Beijing, and for 30 years straight, held a candlelight vigil in honor of the victims of bloody repression and calling for democratic mechanisms in China.
Even after handing over sovereignty to the Asian country in 1997, Hong Kong managed to maintain the historic event by virtue of its semi-autonomous status, which distinguishes it from the rest of mainland China. But The Chinese authorities have been trying to erase the memory of Tiananmen from the collective memory for more than 30 years.with no textbook mentioning the episode and online discussions of this topic are systematically censored.
In Beijing, the authorities installed facial recognition devices on the streets leading to the square and also mobilized a large number of police, carrying out demanding identity checks.
In the year 2020, the Chinese authorities found in the combating the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic a reason to also prevent demonstrations in Hong Kong and imposed a draconian national security law in the semi-autonomous region, which stifles all forms of dissent, after the massive pro-democracy protests of 2019. Since then, local authorities have worked to erase all traces of the memory of Tiananmen. .
US accuses China of wanting to ‘erase memories’ of Tiananmen
The police warned that participating in an “unauthorized meeting” would be punishable by up to five years in prison, a warning that applies in particular to Victoria Park, where the vigil of thousands of people used to take place on June 4. A large part of this park was closed on Friday night when the police invaded the surrounding area.
A former leader of the Hong Kong Alliance, the association organizing the vigils, was surrounded by police officers while walking through the neighborhood with a bouquet of red and white roses in hand, your suitcase has been thoroughly searched, reports the French news agency AFP. According to the same source, a man dressed in black was also recorded holding a chrysanthemum in his hand and later claimed that the police had ordered him not to do anything that would incite people to gather.
People pass by on their way to work, I just walk with a white chrysanthemum,” he said.
In the Causeway Bay shopping district, which borders Victoria Park, a street artist who had carved a potato into the shape of a candle was arrested on Friday by more than a dozen police officers. “EITHER The Government is very afraid of a possible demonstrationsaid Dorothy, a 32-year-old woman living in Hong Kong, adding that the end of the vigils is “a great loss for society.”
Another Hong Kong woman said that lit a candle at home and placed a replica of the ‘Goddess of Democracy’the statue that has become a symbol of the Tiananmen movement, on the windowsill.
Vigils had already been banned in 2020 and 2021 in the name of fighting Covid-19, but last September the Hong Kong Alliance was dissolved and the June 4 Museum dismantled, while those responsible were arrested.
Several Western consulates in Hong Kong have posted Tiananmen-related messages on social media, although, as confirmed by officials from the European Union delegation, Chinese authorities have demanded that they refrain from doing so.
In the twitter, which is blocked in China, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken paid tribute to the “courageous protesters” who “peacefully demanded democracy in Tiananmen Square” 33 years ago. “Despite the removal of monuments and attempts to erase history, we honor their memory by promoting respect for human rights wherever they are threatened,” he wrote.
“The collective memory of June 4 in Hong Kong is systematically erased,” said Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, guaranteeing, however, that “such rude and irrational measures cannot erase the memory of the people“.
It has been 33 years since the world saw brave protesters and bystanders peacefully demand democracy in Tiananmen Square. Despite the removal of monuments and attempts to erase history, we honor their memory by promoting respect for human rights wherever they are threatened.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) June 4, 2022
However the The association of the “Mothers of Tiananmen” called, once again this year, for the facts of what happened on the night of June 3 to 4, 1989 to be clarified.The number of deaths caused by the military repression is still unknown and varies between hundreds and thousands of people, according to the source.
The authorities and the official press remained silent one more year after the tragedy that shocked the world and continues, even today, without giving explanations or guaranteeing the relatives – who live under surveillance, especially in the anniversary seasons of the event – the right to remember to the victims.
Chinese government spokesmen never referred to the massacre, except on the 30th anniversary, when then Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that in those days of “political turbulence,” the CCP (Communist Party) had reached a conclusion: “The enormous economic success that the country has achieved shows that the development path chosen was the correct one”.
Source: Observadora
