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HKFP
2 days ago
- Politics
- HKFP
2 arrested, 10 taken away by Hong Kong police on Tiananmen crackdown anniversary
Hong Kong police have said they arrested two people and took away 10 others on Wednesday, the 36th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown – the youngest being a 15-year-old. In Wan Chai and Eastern District, five men and five women aged between 15 and 69 were taken to police stations for investigation on suspicion of breaching the peace, police said in an emailed statement shortly after midnight on Thursday. Another two people were arrested in Central and Causeway Bay after they were found 'behaving suspiciously,' the force also said. HKFP saw several people being taken away on police vans on Wednesday evening, including activist Lui Yuk-lin and performance artist Chan Mei-tung in Causeway Bay, near Victoria Park, the venue where Hong Kong's annual Tiananmen vigils were once held. In the park, a man holding an electric candle, a man standing silently in the rain, and two women, including a girl holding flowers and dressed in a school uniform, were also taken into police vehicles. Pro-democracy activists intercepted Members of the pro-democracy League of Social Democrats (LSD) were intercepted on their way to Causeway Bay, according to the party's social media posts. The LSD said that its chair, Chan Po-ying, brought yellow paper flowers to mourn the victims of the Tiananmen Square crackdown on Wednesday. She was surrounded by more than 20 plainclothes officers when she got off the bus at the Sogo department store at around 7pm. When asked to surrender the flowers, she refused to do so. Chan was taken to Wan Chai Police Station in a police vehicle and released at around 9pm. Yu Wai-pan, internal vice-chair of the LSD, was also intercepted at East Point Road on his way to Victoria Park. He was taken to the same police station and released at 11pm. Hundreds of police officers – both in uniform and plainclothes – were deployed in Causeway Bay on Wednesday evening, stationed in the MTR station, outside the Sogo department store, as well as in and around Victoria Park. According to the police statement, three of the 10 people taken away were detained for investigation, while the remaining seven were allowed to leave. One of the two people arrested was a 26-year-old mainland Chinese woman who allegedly failed to produce proof of identity on Garden Road in Central. She was taken to the police station for further investigation and subsequently allowed to leave. The other was a 24-year-old local man whom police approached near Hing Fat Street in Causeway Bay in the evening. The man was 'emotionally agitated and refused to cooperate,' the police statement said. 'He was arrested on suspicion of 'obstructing police officers in the performance of their duties' and is currently being detained for investigation.' Authorities banned the Tiananmen vigil gathering at Victoria Park for the first time in 2020, citing Covid-19 restrictions, and imposed the ban again in 2021, nearly a year after a national security law imposed by Beijing came into effect. The vigil organiser – the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China – voted a year later to disband after its former leaders Lee Cheuk-yan, Albert Ho, and Chow Hang-tung were charged with incitement to subversion under the national security law.
HKFP
3 days ago
- General
- HKFP
Heavy police presence on eve of Tiananmen anniversary, performance artist escorted away by officers
A heavy police deployment has been spotted in Causeway Bay on the eve of the Tiananmen crackdown anniversary, with a performance artist being searched and escorted to an MTR station. Police officers patrolled Victoria Park – the former site of the city's annual vigils for the Tiananmen crackdown – and its vicinity on Tuesday, one day before the 36th anniversary of the crackdown. Outside the Sogo department store, plainclothes officers stopped and searched performance artist Chan Mei-tung as she was chewing bubble gum. The officers set up a cordon and told reporters to stay on the other side of the road as they warned Chan and filmed the scene. They then escorted Chan to the Causeway Bay MTR station and waved goodbye to her as she walked through the station's gates, photos from local media outlets showed. Chan was arrested for disorderly conduct on the eve of the anniversary in 2022, after standing outside Sogo and peeling potatoes. Hometown Market Meanwhile, a patriotic food carnival called the Hometown Market in Victoria Park attracted 100 to 200 visitors on Tuesday afternoon. Booths manned by pro-Beijing groups sold food like broth packs and roasted lamb, while visitors played with virtual reality headsets and robots. The five-day event, which began on Sunday, will continue until Thursday. According to the organiser, the market features nearly 300 booths involving 30 clan associations representing provinces across mainland China, such as Guangdong, Fujian, and Guangxi. This is the third year that the Hometown Market has been held in Victoria Park on the Tiananmen crackdown anniversary. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Beijing-imposed national security law, tens of thousands of Hongkongers gathered for an annual candlelight vigil in Victoria Park on June 4 to mourn the bloody crackdown on student-led protests at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The number of deaths is not known, but it is believed that hundreds, if not thousands, perished during the People's Liberation Army's dispersal of protesters, which ended on June 4, 1989. Police banned the Tiananmen vigil gathering at Victoria Park for the first time in 2020, citing Covid-19 restrictions, and imposed the same ban in 2021, nearly a year after the national security law came into effect. The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which organised the vigils, disbanded in September 2021 after several of its members were arrested. Commemorations by small shops While there have not been any major commemorations of the Tiananmen crackdown in recent years, small shops have taken it upon themselves to mark the anniversary. Heung Together, a shop in Sham Shui Po selling incense and fragrances, published a post on Instagram, saying that it was selling tea candles for '$6.4.' Tea candles have 'multiple uses,' the post on Monday read, including for mourning victims, serving as a light source during blackouts, and warming up teapots. The shop is run by former Tsuen Wan district councillor Katrina Chan. AsOne, a shop owned by another ex-district councillor, Derek Chu, posted on Instagram on Monday that it would display candles on June 4 to 'mourn the students and citizens who sacrificed themselves for the pro-democracy movement.' Chu has also staged commemorations in previous years. Last year, he displayed candles in his shop but removed them after plainclothes officers visited. In 2023, Chu attempted to organise a private screening of a documentary called To Be Continued, which is about the State Theatre building in North Point, on June 4. However, Golden Scene Cinema, which hosted the screening, cancelled the event days before it, saying it was reminded by an industry representative that the date of the planned screening was 'sensitive.'
