Hong Kong opposition leader arrested on Tiananmen anniversary

Hong Kong police arrested opposition party leader Chan Po-ying today on the 34th anniversary of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing. This was confirmed by an AFP journalist. According to reports, the woman was holding a small LED candle - a common scene in the commemorative vigils of June 4, 1989 - and two flowers. The police immediately grabbed her and dragged her into a van.

Yesterday, Hong Kong police arrested some artists, at least four, on the eve of the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown on students demonstrating in Beijing for democratic change. The anniversary once again highlighted the changes on freedoms in the former British colony after China imposed the national security law, in June 2020, pushing local authorities to suppress all public events dedicated to the bloody events of June 4, 1989, as well as all dedicated artistic production and candlelight vigil organized for thirty years in Victoria Park. Avant-garde street performances, politically engaged theater, pro-democracy music and poetry have usually accompanied Hong Kong on the eve of Tiananmen Square. While for decades tens of thousands of people gathered on June 4 in Victoria Park to give life to the candlelight vigil in memory of the victims. The former British colony has long been the only Chinese city to publicly commemorate the bloody crackdown. Yesterday, however, on a busy street in the Causeway Bay shopping district, artist Sanmu Chen repeatedly chanted 'Don't forget June 4! People of Hong Kong, don't be afraid of them!' ending up being first picked up by police officers and then taken away. The same fate for another well-known figure, Chan Mei-tung, arrested already on the eve of the anniversary in 2022. Local media also reported that two other well-known activists - Lau Ka-yee and Kwan Chun-pong - were forced by officers to leave Victoria Park which, surrounded by metal barriers for the past three years to avoid gatherings, this time hosted a fair at the initiative of pro-Beijing groups to promote products from China in the city.