Hong Kong activist detained amid Tiananmen vigil clampdown
June 4, 2021
Chow Hang Tung was reportedly arrested for organizing and promoting what police say was unauthorized assembly. Authorities had banned the annual vigil to commemorate the victims of the deadly Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Chow Hang Tung is the vice-chairwoman of a group that organizes vigils to the victims of China's deadly 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdownImage: Rafael Wober/AP/picture alliance
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Hong Kong police arrested lawyer and activist Chow Hang Tung on Friday morning, media reported.
According to reports and statements from fellow activists, Chow was arrested outside her office over an annual vigil to commemorate the victims of China's deadly Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Four police officers dressed in plainclothes said that she was being detained under section 17A of the Public Order Ordinance, which involves promoting unlawful assemblies, reported news agency AFP.
Hong Kong marks Tiananmen anniversary — in pictures
Despite a ban on vigils by Beijing, Hong Kong residents found ways to remember the massacre that took place in Tiananmen 32 years ago.
Image: Isaac Lawrence/AFP
Cleaning the Pillar of Shame
Hong Kong students clean the Pillar of Shame statue on the 32nd anniversary of the massacre on Tiananmen Square, which officially left 300 people dead, according to government statistics, after the Chinese military brutally suppressed protests in support of democracy. Independent international estimates put the toll at several thousand.
Image: Lam Yik/REUTERS
Police march on Victoria Park
Police warned Hong Kong residents not to attend the banned Victora Park memorial event Friday. In years past, tens of thousands of people gathered in Victoria Park to honor the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre, which occurred 32 years ago.
Image: Vincent Yu/AP Photo/picture alliance
Police warning
Police officers banners referenced the national security law imposed by Beijing. They warned that Hong Kong residents gathering in Victoria Park to mark the anniversary could face prosecution. Officers arrested an organizer of the annual candlelight vigil.
Image: Vincent Yu/AP Photo/picture alliance
Vigils with smartphones ...
Historically, candles were lit at 8 p.m., with a minute's silence at 8:09 p.m. to signify the year 1989. After police closed Victoria Park, people used the lights on their cellphones (seen here in the Causeway Bay district) to signal their support for democracy commemoration of the Tiananmen victims in China.
Image: Isaac Lawrence/AFP
... and traditional candlelight
A woman holds candles in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong to remember the Tiananmen Square victims. After police closed Victoria Park, Hong Kong residents around the city found their own ways to mark the massacre of students.
Image: Isaac Lawrence/AFP
Disrupting memorial gatherings
Police move to disperse Hong Kong residents gathering in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong. Authorities had cordoned off the traditional gathering place Victoria Park, citing fears over coronavirus.
Image: Isaac Lawrence/AFP
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Why was Chow targeted?
Chow is the vice chair of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which operates the June 4 museum and organizes the annual vigil in the city's Victoria Park.
Though the alliance said it would not run the vigil this year, Chow — a prominent figure in the city's pro-democracy movement — had previously indicated that she would go to Victoria Park on Friday night in a personal capacity.
"As long as they haven't said candles are illegal, we will light a candle," she said earlier this week. "It's a sign of whether we can defend our bottom line of morality. ... That's the test."
"There will obviously be fear and people cannot just assume that they can come and express their remembrance for the Tiananmen massacre victims and be unscathed," she had said.
Chow added that she hopes for democracy in Hong Kong and China. "This is something worth fighting for. If one day we cannot talk about Tiananmen that would signify that Hong Kong is totally assimilated into Chinese society."
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What is the June 4 anniversary?
On June 4, 1989, Chinese troops crushed protests in and around the Tiananmen Square in Beijing, leaving hundreds of — and by some estimates more than 1,000 — peaceful protesters dead.
The protesters, who were mostly students, had been demonstrating for week. Many of them had gone on hunger strike to demand democracy and freedom and an end to state corruption.
Wu'er Kaixi, one of the student leaders in 1989, told DW: "We never thought the Chinese government would actually mobilize standing troops against peaceful demonstrators ... to imagine the Chinese regime open fire at its own people."
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Hong Kong: Distant focal point of commemoration
Hong Kong, where people have enjoyed more freedom than those in China, has seen huge crowds gather each year for the past three decades to mark the anniversary of the bloody crackdown.
The city's Victoria Park was where one of the biggest candlelit vigils typically took place to remember those killed and to call on China to embrace democracy.
For the past two years, authorities had denied permission for the vigil, both times citing the pandemic. But last year, thousands defied the ban in a show of resistance to Beijing.
This time, many of the key figures who had been organizing the vigil for decades were sentenced to more than a year in jail for allegedly participating in an "unauthorized assembly" in 2019.
Victoria Park in Hong Kong was where one of the biggest candlelit vigils typically took place, this image is from the 30th anniversary in 2019Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/K. Cheung
Authorities shut Victoria Park
On Friday, a large swathe of the park was closed off for the first time in 32 years. Police said the reason for the closure was that many on social media called on people to defy the ban and rally in the area.
Police said they had the right to remove anyone from the area with "necessary forces," and added that those who break into the closed off area could face up to 12 months in jail.
Many activists and pro-democracy supporters were planning to visit the park to pay their respects.
Dodging the restrictions
Despite these measures, many are planning creative ways to mark the anniversary.
Chow Hang Tung called on people to light candles in their own homes or neighborhoods on Friday evening, or post commemoration messages on social media.
"Turn on the lights wherever you are — be it torchlight on your phone, real candles or electronic candles," she had said on Facebook, just hours before her arrest.
DW reporter Phoebe Kong observed some Hong Kong residents shining the lights on their cell phones in Victoria Park. Others lit candles wherever they stood at 8 p.m. local time in memoriam.
Commemorating the June 4 anniversary in China has always been banned. The day is usually marked with heightened security at Tiananmen square and the area being cordoned off.
There's also increased online censorship, with Chinese social media taking down all reference to the events, including June Fourth and "May 35th" (adding 4 to the 31 days of May, to avoid writing June 4), among others.
Police patrolled the square on Friday, checking IDs of people at each point of access, according to news agency AFP.
The anniversary of the Tiananmen square massacre is marked with heavy security in ChinaImage: Ng Han Guan/AP Photo/picture alliance
What have foreign leaders said?
China's efforts to snuff of the remembrance of the massacre has drawn international criticism.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said his country would "honor the sacrifices of those killed 32 years ago, and the brave activists who carry on their efforts today in the face of ongoing government repression."
Chinese policemen patrolled the area around the Tiananmen Square on the June 4 anniversaryImage: Ng Han Guan/AP Photo/picture alliance
"The Tiananmen demonstrations are echoed in the struggle for democracy and freedom in Hong Kong, where a planned vigil to commemorate the massacre in Tiananmen Square was banned by local authorities," Blinken said.
Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen also said that her people would not forget what had happened in and around Tiananmen Square 32 years ago.
"We will also not forget about the young people who sacrificed themselves on Tiananmen Square on this day 32 years ago, and that year after year, friends in Hong Kong who always mourn June 4 with candlelight," she said.
Remembering Tiananmen Square, 1989
Chinese authorities tried to suppress all images of events in and around June 1989 at Beijing's Tiananmen Square. But a few journalists, including AP photographer Jeff Widener, managed to capture historic images.
Image: Jeff Widener/AP
Goddess of Democracy
As the sun rises at Tiananmen Square, protesters build a 10-meter (33-foot) Goddess of Democracy statue out of foam and paper-mache over a metal armature. In the early morning of June 4, soldiers backed by tanks and armored cars toppled the statue, which had stood directly facing the Mao portrait at the Forbidden City.
Image: Jeff Widener/AP
Singing Police Woman
In the often tense days leading up to the Chinese government crackdown, local citizens often gave gifts to soldiers and police officials. Sometimes troops would sing patriotic songs with demonstrators. In this picture, a policewoman sings out loud in Tiananmen Square a few days before troops retook control of the area and crushed the democratic movement.
Image: Jeff Widener/AP
Struggle
A woman is caught in the middle of a scuffle between pro-democracy protesters and People's Liberation Army soldiers near the Great Hall of The People on June 3, 1989, the day before one of the bloodiest military crackdowns of the 20th century. Later that night, the 38th Army would open fire on unarmed civilians overtaking the occupied Tiananmen Square.
Image: Jeff Widener/AP
Captured weapons
Thousands of protesters surround a bus with a display of captured weapons just days prior to the crackdown. During the government's enforcement of martial law, soldiers and the public performed a delicate dance of give and take. Sometimes protesters offered gifts to soldiers and sometimes troops withdrew.
Image: Jeff Widener/AP
Fight for democracy
In the late evening of June 3, a group of protesters cornered an armored personnel carrier at the gates of the Great Hall of The People. It had just crashed through barricades of street dividers, which the crowds had put up to stop the advance of military vehicles. At the same time, soldiers were preparing to open fire on the demonstrators a short distance away.
Image: Jeff Widener/AP
Burning APC
On the late evening of June 3, protestors set fire to an armored personnel carrier on the Chang'an Avenue near Tiananmen Square. The picture was the last image before photographer Jeff Widener was struck in the face by a stray protestor brick. Though he sustained a serious concussion, The Nikon F3 titanium camera absorbed the blow sparing his life.
Image: Jeff Widener/AP
Firing on crowds
On June 4, a truck manned by People's Liberation Army troops patrol down the Chang'an Avenue in front of the Beijing Hotel the day after the bloody crackdown on student-led pro-democracy supporters. A similar truck full of soldiers had shot tourists standing in the lobby of the Beijing Hotel that day.
Image: Jeff Widener/AP
'Tank Man'
A lone man with shopping bags walks to the center of Beijing's Chang'an Avenue and temporarily stops the advance of Chinese tanks a day after the crackdown. Over two decades later, the fate of the man is still a mystery. The incident has come to symbolize the events at Tiananmen Square and is considered one of the most iconic images ever taken.
Image: Jeff Widener/AP
Dead heroes
On June 5, a group of people at the Chang’an Avenue show a picture of protesters lying dead at a local morgue after having been shot by Chinese soldiers of the 38th Army during the recapture of Tiananmen Square. The troops used expanding bullets which created larger wounds. At least 300 civilians were killed, according to Amnesty International.
Image: Jeff Widener/AP
Sweepers
The remains of a burned-out bus on Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue as two women sweep up debris following the massacre. The demonstrations led to widespread burning of buses and military vehicles, which left several soldiers dead or injured.
Image: Jeff Widener/AP
Guarding Mao
Soldiers and a tank stand guard in front of the Forbidden City and across from the occupied Tiananmen Square a few days after the riots.
Image: Jeff Widener/AP
Brothers in arms
Associated Press photographers Jeff Widener (left) and Liu Heung Shing pose in front of Beijing's Forbidden City in late May 1989 just days before the Chinese government's military crackdown at Tiananmen Square.
