University students place flowers on the “Pillar of Shame” statue, a memorial for those injured and killed in the Tiananmen crackdown
Thousands of people took part in a candlelight vigil in Victoria Park to remember the victims of the 1989 Beijing massacre.
The protestors called for an “end to one-party dictatorship” despite warnings from pro-Beijing officials of potential repercussions.
The former top Beijing official in charge of Hong Kong’s affairs said in April that people who call for an “end to one-party dictatorship” are breaking the law and should be barred from running for political office in Hong Kong.
According to a RTHK report, the rainy weather did not deter people from turning up to the vigil, “even though this meant they had to stand on the football pitches after a heavy shower instead of sitting on the ground.”
The annual event was organized by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China. This year’s themes are: “the struggle against authoritarian rule and mourning victims of the 1989 crackdown.”
Perry Dino, a painter, told RTHK that he attends the vigil every year to capture what he sees with his brush. “I can capture the moment of Hong Kong people, because the freedom of Hong Kong has now become squeezed and decreased. Two years before, I can draw on the flyover near the public library, but now it cannot,” he said.
Another participant, surnamed Law, brought her two-year-old son to the vigil: “It is very important to pass the history on, and let more young people know about what had happened in China in 1989,” she said. “That’s why I bring my son here and hope to encourage all the young people that we need to keep fighting for democracy. I hope we can uphold Hong Kong’s core values. I will keep coming. I’m scared about that because that’s our freedom of speech will be limit[ed].”
According to a speech released ahead of Monday’s event, Chow Hang-tung, a vice-chairwoman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, will urge participants to resist pressure not to use the political slogan.
“They want us to accept this reality: China is under the rule of the Communist Party, and the regime is going to last forever,” Chow’s speech says.
“We must clearly tell them, we will never accept,” the text says.
Concerns have grown in Hong Kong that Beijing is eroding the semiautonomous southern Chinese city’s civil liberties despite promises to maintain them following its 1997 handover from Britain.
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