The Fight to Remember June 4

Victoria Park was totally empty tonight

This morning, June 4, did not start off well.

Chow Hang-tung, vice-chairwoman of the Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China was arrested when she left her office to go to Radio Television Hong Kong for an interview. Plain clothes policemen took her away, accusing her of publicizing unlawful assembly.

There were reports that more arrests would happen throughout the day, but that thankfully did not come to fruition.

Chow of the alliance was arrested this morning

However, the police were taking no chances and by 2pm they had completely sealed off Victoria Park, where tens of thousands used to gather every June 4, and prohibited anyone from going in. Hong Kong may have recorded its first Covid-19 case in 42 days, but that wasn't enough of an argument to allow the candlelight vigil to take place; many of the organizers, like Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho Chun-yan are also in jail.

After work many people dressed in black tried to get closer to Victoria Park in Causeway Bay. Some gathered at the nearby Sogo department store, the area in front was swarming with police. There were threats of arresting people, and in the end six were taken away.

Perhaps these were idle threats? Or the police were overwhelmed by so many people determined to remember the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre one way or another. They were not content to just light a candle at home.

People left candles near Victoria Park

For 30 years the vigil was a community gathering; people put aside their differences and focused on this one day to remember the victims, to show they were not forgotten. People missed this communal spirit, a throwback to the 2019 protests too.

People were defiant, some shouting protest slogans, many holding battery-operated candles or real ones, or using the lights on their phones. They did not want the dead to think they were forgotten after 32 years.

Nevertheless, a friend who just happened to be caught up in the crowds said the atmosphere was tense, with garbage cans and pylons strewn around, and police everywhere. This friend felt nervous being in what felt like a tinderbox that could have exploded and managed to leave the area.

There were other impromptu gatherings in Mongkok, while people in Tsuen Wan tried to enter a church that was holding mass for the Tiananmen Square victims, but it was already full, so people gathered outside to watch the proceedings streamed online.

By 10pm at least six people aged 20-75 were arrested for allegedly inciting others to participate in an unauthorized assembly, ordinary assault, disorderly conduct in a public place, and obstruction of police, the force said. In addition, 12 people were fined for flouting the coronavirus-related ban on public gatherings of more than four people.

Some flowers left behind in Victoria Park

Is this how it's going to be from now on? Threats of arrest and people defiantly doing what they can to hold some kind of vigil?

In any event, it is the authorities who look shameful for not allowing people to gather outside and social distance in Victoria Park. It is hard for people to understand and accept that an event that was considered legal for three decades up to two years ago is suddenly not, and there are even threats of arrest and jail time if convicted.

It is too much. If those in power don't understand this, they will never understand Hong Kong people.

But this may be too late.