Hong Kong police on Sunday arrested a prominent figure in Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement, Alexandra Wong, better known as "Grandma Wong", on the 34th anniversary of the Tian'anmen crackdown, according to reporters from Agence France-Presse. Alexandra Wong, before being loaded into a police van, carried a bouquet of flowers as she was arrested in the central Causeway Bay neighborhood, where candlelight vigils have long been held in memory of Tian's victims. anmen.
According to journalists from Agence France-Presse, at least seven other people were arrested in the lively Causeway Bay district on Sunday. In particular, a woman was arrested after she shouted "Raise some candles!" Cry 4/6! in reference to June 4, 1989, the date of the bloody crackdown in Beijing's Tian'anmen.
After being briefly interrogated, searched and then released, one woman told Agence France-Presse with a shrug: “Everyone knows what day it is today. On the eve of the 34th anniversary of Tian'anmen, Hong Kong police had already arrested four people for "disorderly conduct on public roads" and for "acts for seditious purposes", and four others for "disturbing public order. ".
It was also a key indicator of the freedoms and political pluralism conferred on it by its status as a semi-autonomous territory. Since 1990, tens of thousands of people have gathered each year in Victoria Park in Hong Kong for a candlelight vigil in memory of the victims of Beijing's Tian'anmen. But in 2020, Beijing imposed a national security law in the former British colony to muzzle any dissent after massive pro-democracy protests in 2019.
Since then, the Hong Kong authorities have put an end to the vigils, which have never been authorized in mainland China. As the anniversary date approached, authorities repeatedly refused to confirm whether public commemorations were illegal. The city's chief executive, John Lee, only warned that every Hong Kong resident should obey the law and be "ready to face the consequences" if they violate it.
This year, the giant park gathering in the central Causeway Bay district has been replaced by a trade fair devoted to products from mainland China and organized until Monday by pro-Beijing groups to celebrate the 26th anniversary of the return of Hong Kong to China.
In mainland China, all traces of the Tian'anmen events have been erased by the authorities. History textbooks do not mention it, online discussions on this subject are systematically censored. This is evidenced by the misadventure of the British Embassy in Beijing, which posted on social media on Sunday the front page dated June 4, 1989 of the People's Daily, the official propaganda organ of the Chinese Communist Party, which described the influx of wounded in hospitals following the crackdown.
“Within twenty minutes, censors deleted our Weibo (Chinese social media) post,” the UK Embassy tweeted on Sunday. This year, Chinese police also monitored several landmarks of the rare anti-Xi Jinping regime that erupted last fall. A large police force was thus deployed around the Sitong Bridge in Beijing, the scene of a demonstration at the end of November where a banner demanding more freedom had been unrolled there.
In Hong Kong, most of the figures of the pro-democracy movement have been arrested or have taken refuge abroad since the entry into force of a law on national security. This is particularly the case of the leaders of the association which organized the vigil of Victoria Park, Hongkong Alliance. However, the authorities still seemed to be on high alert in the face of possible expressions of dissent.
