Hongkongers determined to hold Tiananmen crackdown vigil despite police ban

Hong Kong, June 1 : For the second straight year, Hong Kong police have cited public health risks from the COVID-19 pandemic to ban the annual Tiananmen vigil held on June 4. Despite this, many people are determined to hold it one way or the other.
The annual vigil is observed to remember the thousands killed when Chinese soldiers cracked down on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing on June 4, 1989.
Since the imposition of the draconian national security law last year that bans acts of subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, concerns have mounted that organisers and attendees of the vigil risk being held in breach of the law, reported South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Even so, there are many Hongkongers who are determined to head to Victoria Park again on June 4 to commemorate the 1989 massacre, while others say they will stay away and light candles at home or elsewhere in the city.
Meanwhile, the fate of the vigil organiser, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, is currently in the balance, with critics suggesting that even its aims might be against the law.
The alliance, set up in May 1989, comprises of 200 civil groups, has always espoused five 'operational aims' - the release of dissidents on the mainland, vindication of the 1989 pro-democracy movement, accountability for the crackdown, the end to one-party dictatorship in China, and building a democratic country. These goals have sparked concerns that the alliance would be in breach of the national security law, SCMP reported.
Despite last year's ban, thousands of people, including alliance leaders, flooded Victoria Park to mark the 31st anniversary of the crackdown. A total of 26 opposition figures have been charged with offenses including organising or taking part in an unauthorised assembly and incitement.
The alliance's vice-chairman Albert Ho told SCMP before a court in May ordered he be held in remand over another unauthorised assembly that he believed it should not surrender its basic principles.
"Our narrative is clear. [The alliance] is an advocate for peaceful and orderly constitutional reform. We are not advocating violence. We are just trying to persuade the Chinese Communist Party," he added.
In April, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor declined to say directly if the June 4 vigil would run afoul of the law, but stressed that in respecting the Chinese constitution, Hong Kong should also respect the ruling Communist Party.
With the Communist Party celebrating its 100th anniversary on July 1, Lau Siu-kai, vice president of Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said that Beijing might not want to take any chances and have 'anti-China' forces stirring trouble.
Yan Jiaqi, a Tiananmen Square movement leader who escaped to the US, said this year's ban on the Victoria Park vigil showed that the freedoms protected under the Sino-British Joint Declaration before Hong Kong being returned to China in 1997 had "all disappeared", reported SCMP.
He lamented that even after 32 years of the crackdown, the incident had not yet been exposed fully on the mainland. "Truth has not been revealed, justice has not been served, and there will not be light in China," Yan said.
Earlier, the administration that manages Victoria Park, had already effectively banned the vigil. Back in April, it had suspended processing applications from all organisations for the leasing of its facilities, due to COVID-19 concerns.
Hong Kong Alliance's vice-chair Chow Hang-tung last week had said that the group would "still organise some sort of vigil to commemorate June 4," even if police were to ban the annual vigil.
"You can go down to the street and light a candle - that cannot be in any way against the law," Chow said. "We are asking Hong Kong people to light a candle at 8 pm, wherever you are. It is a different way of organising."