The Tiananmen crackdown occurred on June 4, 1989 ending months of student-led demonstrations in China. It is estimated that hundreds, perhaps thousands, died when the People’s Liberation Army cracked down on protesters in Beijing.
LATEST NEWS & VIEWS

Hong Kong Tiananmen activist jailed for 3 months for refusing national security data demand
A former member of the group that organised Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen vigils has been sentenced to three months in jail for refusing to comply with a national security data probe. Chan To-wai, a member of the disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, appeared in front of Principal Magistrate…

Hong Kong court orders information about investigation into Tiananmen vigil group be disclosed
Legal representatives prosecuting the former organiser of Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen vigils have been ordered to disclose some materials relating to the investigation into the group to the defence. The Hong Kong Alliance in Support for Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, the disbanded group behind the candlelight vigils, has been accused by national security police…
COMMENTARY & ANALYSIS ON 1989

The Tiananmen Massacre statue and the purging of Hong Kong
A nightmarish eight-metre-high tangerine-coloured cenotaph composed of intertwined naked bodies with hands outreached and mouths agape, the Pillar of Shame was never a subtle symbol. Today, however, it is truly performing its identity, heaping shame upon shame as the university that has housed it for a quarter of a century demands its removal. Yet the…

The University of Hong Kong must cherish its autonomy and protect the Tiananmen Massacre statue
This week, I walked past the memorial at the University of Hong Kong to those who lost their lives in the June 4, 1989, incident in Beijing, Jens Galschiøt’s Pillar of Shame. University authorities have ordered its removal by next Wednesday, despite it being in an area that was once reserved for HKU Student Union…

Hong Kong’s security chief – the most dangerous person in town?
Who is the most dangerous person in Hong Kong today? No, it’s not the 15-year-old girl locked up this month and denied bail for allegedly inciting subversion. And it’s not any one of her three 16-year-old supposed partners in crime, charged with the same offence. Perhaps it once was Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, the founder of…

‘Foreign agent’ claims against Hong Kong’s Tiananmen Massacre vigil organisers defy understanding
A pro-democracy alliance has vowed to defy what it calls a groundless order from Hong Kong’s national security police to hand over financial and operational information. It has a point. Seen from a historical perspective, it could not be more ironic that the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China is…
PHOTOGRAPHY

HKFP Lens: Darkness in the park – Three decades of Hong Kong’s Tiananmen Massacre vigil
Hundreds of police sealed off Hong Kong’s Victoria Park on Friday, blocking access to the only venue in the whole of China where the commemoration of the events on June 4, 1989 in Beijing have been allowed over the past 30 years. The ban on the vigil – ostensibly due to Covid-19 concerns – left…

HKFP Lens: Hongkongers mark Tiananmen Massacre 32nd anniversary amid police ban – Part 2
Hongkongers wandered around Causeway Bay holding candles and waving their phone flashlights to commemorate victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre on Friday evening. Police raised warning flags and stopped and searched black-clad people, some holding electronic candles. Victoria Park was empty on June 4 for the first time in 32 years after the force…

HKFP Lens: Hundreds of Hongkongers mark Tiananmen Massacre 32nd anniversary amid police ban – Part 1
Wearing black, clutching flowers and candles, and waving mobile phone flashlights, Hongkongers found ways to commemorate the Tiananmen Massacre on its 32nd anniversary on Friday despite police warnings and heavy law enforcement deployment across the city.

HKFP Lens: Thousands remember Tiananmen victims and chant pro-democracy slogans across Hong Kong
Thousands in Hong Kong gathered across various districts to remember the Tiananmen Massacre victims on Thursday – the 31st anniversary of the bloody crackdown. Despite the coronavirus-related police ban of the annual candlelight vigil at Victoria Park, the football pitches were filled as crowds observed a moment’s silence and sang commemorative songs. HKFP’s May James…

HKFP Lens: Hong Kong students clean Tiananmen Massacre Pillar of Shame
The eight-metre tall Pillar of Shame statue which sits on the University of Hong Kong campus connects a Danish artist, China and Hong Kong with the commemoration of 1989 Tiananmen Massacre victims. Each year, on June 4, students wash the statue – HKFP’s May James photographed the tradition. “The old cannot kill the young forever,”…
FEATURES

‘Statues tell stories, but so does removing them’: Hong Kong’s 48-hour campus crackdown on the memory of the Tiananmen Massacre
It was around 5 a.m. on Christmas Eve when Lingnan University student Eric Tong heard someone pounding on the door of his dormitory room. Still half-asleep, the 23-year-old Hongkonger slowly got up and noticed his phone had been buzzing for minutes, as messages repeatedly popped up in a student union group chat. There were more…

Exclusive: Hong Kong public libraries purge 29 titles about the Tiananmen Massacre from the shelves
Hong Kong public libraries over the past 12 years have removed 29 out of 149 books about the Tiananmen Massacre from their shelves, a total of 263 individual copies, a review by HKFP has found. Of the 120 titles still stocked, just 26 are displayed on the shelves and immediately available for borrowing. The remaining…

Explainer: How the narrative shifted among Hong Kong leaders on the Tiananmen massacre
The group which for decades helped Hongkongers remember the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre is on the verge of disbanding as its leaders face trial on national security charges. But as recently as two years ago, the city’s leader was citing the candlelight vigil – which it organised – as a symbol of Hong Kong’s enduring freedoms.…