Macau Bans June 4 Photo Exhibition

Massacre victims being ferried by bicycle to nearby hospitals on June 4

As if repression in Hong Kong is not getting worse, it's also happening in Macau, who is more obedient to Beijing. Earlier this week the Macanese government announced has banned the annual photo exhibition commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

Last year's 30th anniversary candlelight vigil in Macau

The photographic show has been put on without any problems before for the past two decades and even received approval earlier this year, but the Municipal Affairs Bureau withdrew its authorization for the show a week ago.

"Our administrative council has decided to standardize orders," said the bureau's President Jose Tavares. "That is, requests for the use of our space must match our attributions and competencies. It was a decision that we made on the council," he added.

Lawmaker Ng Kuok Cheong and one of the organizers, called the revocation "political".

The photo exhibition is usually held in tandem with a candlelight vigil in Senado Square every June 4. But now it is unclear whether the vigil will be permitted to go ahead, which is usually attended by several hundred people, much smaller than the one held in Victoria Park in Hong Kong.

Victoria Park is usually filled with people every June 4

And with the way things are changing quickly in Hong Kong, one wonders if its June 4 vigil will be threatened too, the largest candlelight vigil to remember the massacre on Chinese soil.