Police detain 23 people in Hong Kong on Tiananmen crackdown anniversary

Hong Kong police said they detained 23 people on Sunday for “breaching public peace” and arrested a 53-year-old woman for “obstructing police officers” as authorities ramped up security for the 34th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Restrictions in Hong Kong have stifled what were once the largest vigils marking the anniversary of the bloody crackdown by Chinese troops on pro-democracy demonstrators, leaving cities like Taipei, London, New York and Berlin to keep the memory of June 4 alive.

Near Victoria Park, the previous site of yearly vigils, hundreds of police conducted stop and search operations, and deployed armoured vehicles and police vans.

Reuters witnesses saw more than a dozen people taken away, including activist Alexandra Wong, 67, who carried a bouquet of flowers, a man who held a copy of “35th of May”, a play on the Tiananmen crackdown, and an elderly man standing alone on a street corner with a candle.

“The regime wants you to forget, but you can’t forget… It (China) wants to whitewash all history,” said Chris To, 51, who visited the park in a black t-shirt and was searched by police. “We need to use our bodies and word of mouth to tell others what happened.”

Reuters witnesses saw more than a dozen people taken away, including activist Alexandra Wong, 67, who carried a bouquet of flowers, a man who held a copy of “35th of May”, a play on the Tiananmen crackdown, and an elderly man standing alone on a street corner with a candle.

“The regime wants you to forget, but you can’t forget… It (China) wants to whitewash all history,” said Chris To, 51, who visited the park in a black t-shirt and was searched by police. “We need to use our bodies and word of mouth to tell others what happened.”

Security is significantly tighter across Hong Kong this year, with up to 6,000 police deployed, including riot and anti-terrorism officers, according to local media.

Senior officials have warned people to abide by the law, but have refused to clarify if such commemoration activities are illegal under a national security law China imposed on Hong Kong in 2020 after sometimes violent mass pro-democracy protests.

In a statement, police said some had been arrested for seditious intent and for “breaching public peace”. In Beijing, Tiananmen Square was thronged with tourists taking pictures under the watchful eyes of police and other personnel but with no obvious sign of stepped-up security.

A group of relatives called the Tiananmen Mothers said the anguish never ended.

“Though 34 years have passed, for us, family members of those killed, the pain of losing our loved ones in that one night has tormented us to this day,” the group said in a statement released by the New York-based watchdog Human Rights in China.