The US consulate and EU office in Hong Kong displayed commemorative candles in their windows on the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown on Tuesday.
The annual move is often blasted by the local and Chinese authorities.
It has been cited by Beijing as “evidence” of foreign interference in a 6,300-word “factsheet.”
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, died when the People’s Liberation Army cracked down on protesters around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Hong Kong used to be one of the few places on Chinese soil where annual vigils were held to commemorate the people who died in the 1989 crackdown. But police banned the gathering at Victoria Park for the first time in 2020 citing Covid-19 restrictions, and imposed the same ban the following year.
No official commemoration has been held since the vigil organiser, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, disbanded in September 2021.
Currently occupying Victoria Park – historically the site of Hong Kong’s vigils – is a five-day patriotic carnival organised by 28 pro-Beijing groups.
Consulate commemorations
Earlier on Tuesday, Britain’s embassy in China shared a social media post featuring a Chinese newspaper from 1989 reporting on the crackdown. “35 years ago, peaceful protests in and around Tiananmen Square ended in tragedy. Some people are trying to erase those events from history and memory. Today we remember,” it said.
The British consulate in Hong Kong later posted an image of a mobile phone held aloft with its torch on and “VIIV,” apparently referring to “6/4,” or the date of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, using Roman numerals.
In June 2019, then-leader Carrie Lam said that the city’s annual vigils were “proof that Hong Kong is a free place.” However, earlier on Tuesday, Chief Executive John Lee warned Hongkongers against unlawful public activity: “All activities by any person must be conducted according to the law. No activities that contravene the law should take place… We should not forget the pain that we all went through in the attempted colour revolution that took place in 2019.”
Artist Sanmu Chan was stopped, questioned and taken away by police in Causeway Bay on Monday evening, as he sought to partake in some Tiananmen crackdown-related performance art. He was later released without charge.
Police invoked the new locally-legislated Article 23 security law last week for the first time to arrest jailed Tiananmen vigil organiser Chow Hang-tung and six others over alleged sedition. They stand accused of using an “upcoming sensitive date” to incite hatred against the central and Hong Kong authorities through social media posts. Police made an eighth arrest in connection with the case on Monday.
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