Police arrested 4 folks in Hong Kong for “seditious” acts and “disorderly conduct” on Saturday, on the eve of the thirty fourth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
The bloody 1989 clampdown in Beijing is a extremely delicate subject for China’s communist management, and commemoration of the a whole lot killed — by some estimates, greater than 1,000 — has lengthy been forbidden within the mainland.
For a long time, Hong Kong was the one Chinese metropolis with large-scale public Tiananmen commemoration, however the annual vigil has been banned following the imposition of a nationwide safety regulation on the town in 2020.
Around the busy procuring district of Causeway Bay on Saturday, AFP reporters witnessed police bundling a number of efficiency artists — a few of whom gave the impression to be doing nothing — into police vans.
Late Saturday night, the police stated 4 folks have been arrested “for disorderly conduct in a public place” and “doing acts with seditious intent.”
Four others had been suspected of “breaching the peace” and had been detained “to assist with the investigation,” the police stated on its official Facebook web page.
They didn’t identify the folks arrested and detained.
Earlier, artist Sanmu Chen had repeatedly chanted “Don’t forget June 4! Hong Kong people, don’t be afraid of them!” at a bustling Causeway Bay road.
An officer shouted at him to “stop doing seditious acts” earlier than authorities bundled him right into a police bus.
Another well-known efficiency artist Chan Mei-tung was additionally taken away, with police refusing to supply the rationale for her detention.
Chan was wandering round earlier than she was stopped and searched by police, AFP reporters witnessed.
She was detained final 12 months as nicely on the anniversary’s eve. Her offending piece final 12 months was whittling a potato into the form of a candle and holding a lighter to it.
Thousands of candles can be distributed on the now-banned annual Tiananmen vigil.
Local media reported that two different well-known activists — Lau Ka-yee and Kwan Chun-pong — had been faraway from Victoria Park by police.
Photos revealed confirmed that the activists had lined their mouths with purple tape whereas holding a bit of paper.
It learn that they had been fasting “in mourning for the deceased and victims of 64 (June 4) in respect for Tiananmen Mothers.”
AFP reporters also witnessed police detaining a young couple dressed in white and holding white chrysanthemums — a flower and color typically used to signify loss and mourning.
When asked if they were being arrested, the flower-wielding man said “I don’t know” as he was taken away.
Banned vigil
Chinese troops and tanks broke up peaceful protests in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, brutally crushing a weeks-long wave of demonstrations calling for political change.
For decades, the annual candlelight vigil in Victoria Park drew tens of thousands until its ban in 2020.
Outside the park in Causeway Bay, artists would do interpretive performances about the crackdown and the apparent erasure of memorials happening in the mainland.
The vigil’s organizer, Hong Kong Alliance, and its leaders were charged with “incitement to subversion” under the security law, which was imposed to quell the massive and often violent pro-democracy protests that shook the city in 2019.
Former Alliance member Chiu Yan-loy told AFP the police had repeatedly asked him about his June 4 plans.
“They instructed me a number of occasions to not go away house on that day,” he said.
On Saturday, Victoria Park — which was blocked with metal barriers for the past three years — had a “hometown truthful” launched by pro-Beijing groups to promote products from the mainland. It will run until Monday.
There was a heavy police presence at Victoria Park and around the Causeway Bay area on Saturday.
Officers stopped and searched people walking around the bustling shopping district, while an armored vehicle was spotted parked outside a mall.
One performance artist — who was tailed closely by authorities on Saturday — took a quieter approach, carrying a foldable chair to sit on and take a selfie, moving from street to street in the area around the park.
“My thought was that I would not stand nonetheless until the police cease me,” the artist, who gave his name as Tung, told AFP.
Leading up to the anniversary on Sunday, officials repeatedly refused to confirm if public Tiananmen mourning was illegal, only saying that “everybody ought to act in accordance with the regulation.” — Agence France-Presse
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
