Last year over 180,000 people marked the 30th anniversary of June 4
Today the Hong Kong government announced more relaxing of social-distancing measures with the coronavirus pretty much under control, but these will be in place up until June 4, which puts the commemoration of the upcoming 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre in Victoria Park in doubt.
Public swimming pools will reopen on Thursday
Meanwhile the authorities are allowing people to take part in religious gatherings of up to 50 percent capacity, which is good news for Christians, Buddhists, and in particular Muslims who are looking forward to Eid al-Fitr festival in a few days to mark the end of Ramadan.
The Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) will reopen 33 public swimming pools and 15 beaches. For the former opening on Thursday, there will be a limit on the number of people in the pool at any given time, as well as blocked off showers stalls and no more than eight people congregating.
This will be good news for seniors who have desperately missed their early morning swims. I may brave it and try it out in the evening.
But it is infuriating to hear that while these social-distancing measures are being relaxed for social and health activities, it isn't for such an important gathering on June 4.
Secretary for Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee in a press conference today explained large gatherings were "inappropriate and risky".
Note Sophia Chan not wearing government-made mask
"We have to look at what are the risks, including the risks from the activities inside the premises that we are closing and on public gatherings," she said. "All of our considerations are risk-based, and this is the main consideration. there are no other considerations, apart from public health considerations, in terms of the social-distancing measures."
The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China that organizes the annual June 4 candlelight vigil was not impressed by Chan's announcement.
"If the candlelight vigil is banned, it's going to be a symbolic moment, as we have been doing it for three decades. Our intention is to continue the tradition and we don't doubt the extension is a political decision," said alliance chairman Lee Cheuk-yan.
"Public exams have been going on fine and schools are allowed to reopen next week. Why are these restrictions being relaxed but political gatherings are banned?"
There has to be another way to mark the June 4 anniversary
The alliance said it had yet to receive approval from the police and the LCSD to gather at the basketball courts in Victoria Park.
Why can't a candlelight vigil happen? First of all the gathering is outdoors, second most people are spaced out and they can all wear masks and have their temperatures taken upon entry, just like at any other venue. For many people it is quite obvious Beijing does not want this vigil to happen and is using the guise of social-distancing measures to prevent this large gatherings.
But knowing Hongkongers, they will find an innovative way to commemorate the day.
Lam Cheuk-ting rips up the rules of procedure as lawmakers are ejected
When it comes to the procedures and rules in the Legislative Council, they don't mean anything anymore. It's not about electing people into office, it's about who exerts more brute force.
Presiding member of the House Committee Chan Kin-por was ensconced at the podium before the meeting to elect the chair of the committee began at 11am, and he was surrounded by several Legco security staff who were obviously doing Beijing's bidding to not only prevent pan-democrat lawmakers from getting at him, but also physically restraining them and forcefully ejecting them from the chambers.
Chan Kin-por sits securely behind a security cordon
One of them, Ted Hui Chi-fung tried to break through the cordon of guards surrounding Chan, but he was lifted up by four guards who then dragged him on the ground. Chan even said: "Do not struggle. You are hurting the security guards."
Later sitting on the ground in a corridor with a security guard watching over him, Hui says he felt someone kick him in the chest, which led him to have trouble breathing. He was later checked over in the hospital and diagnosed chest injuries.
Hui said he had never been treated so forcefully in Legco before and pan-democrats believe many of these security guards are former policemen, and that they have lost impartiality.
At one point Democratic Party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting stood on a bench as he ripped out pages of the rules of procedure in protest. But really what he was doing literally illustrated what was going on.
It was after 15 of the 20 pan-democrat lawmakers were physically removed from Legco (and not allowed back in) did the voting begin of who would chair the House Committee, and lo and behold, Starry Lee Wai-king "won" the "election" at 40 votes to zero! How about that! A unanimous decision!
Ted Hui being forcefully dragged out of Legco
Civic Party leader Dennis Kwok Wing-hang had presided over the previous meetings as incumbent Lee had to step aside as she is up for re-election in September. But apparently that rule doesn't mean anything anymore.
So the pro-establishment literally fought for control of the election of who chairs the House Committee, and in this case won handily, if not illegally.
Tanya Chan Suk-chong, convenor of the pro-democracy bloc and the first to be removed from the chamber, said they would not endorse the election results.
"Hong Kong people will never forget what happened today and they will not allow these people to return to Legco," Kwok said, referring to the upcoming elections in September.
Starry Lee got 40 votes and unanimously "won"
The next expected raucous event will be on May 27, with the second reading of the National Anthem bill.
One of Hong Kong's legal institutions is being literally ripped apart before our eyes and we can only hope to right these wrongs in September... if there is still an election...
Matthew Pottinger spoke in Mandarin to mark the May Fourth Movement
I completely missed the speech by Matthew Pottinger, Deputy National Security Advisor on May 4 to mark the 101th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement. He spoke it entirely in Mandarin, which is pretty good, and it must have been tiring to read out a speech that was over 20 minutes long, but his points are very interesting.
To be able to speak directly to the Chinese, let alone Beijing is very interesting, though sadly his speech was censored so not many actually got to watch it.
But the content of his speech and using the anniversary of the May Fourth Movement to talk about the importance of democracy is fascinating.
He says on May 4, 1919, following World War I, thousands of university students descended on Tiananmen Square to protest the unfair treatment of China at the Paris Peace Conference. Western nations appeased Imperial Japan by granting it control of a territory including previously German-occupied Shandong Peninsula.
"The Chinese students who marched to Tiananmen that day shouted 'give us back Shandong!' and 'don't sign the Versailles Treaty!' Police forced the students to disperse," Pottinger says. "But as frequently happens when governments close down avenues for peaceful expression, some protesters resorted to violence. In a principled move that acknowledged popular anger, China refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles later that year."
He adds "Mr Science" and "Mr Democracy" were mottoes of the movement that propelled China into the modern era.
Then Pottinger talks about Hu Shih, a Chinese philosopher, essayist and diplomat. During the May 4 Movement, he was a key contributor in releasing the Chinese language free from scholars and imperialist culture and instead giving it to the ordinary people. "Bai hua" or literally "plain speech" is what Hu advocated which was revolutionary at the time.
Hu's peer, Chang Peng Chun, or PC Chang also made a big contribution. He studied in the United States, adapted Mulan for the stage, and organized a US tour for Peking opera singer Mei Lanfang. However Chang's greatest achievement was his contribution to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, says Pottinger.
"Marrying Western belief in the primacy of the individual with Chinese concern for the greater good", Chang helped craft a document that would be relevant to all nations... A declaration on human rights was not simply about the rights of the individual, in Chang's view. It was also about the individual's obligations to society," says Pottinger.
Then he pivots, asking who today embodies the May Fourth Spirit, and Pottinger immediately brings up ophthalmologist Li Wenliang, who alerted his group of friends about a new virus that seemed contagious, but later was forced by the police to sign a "confession" for leaking word about the coronavirus. Li died from the virus days soon after.
"Dr Li's comment to a reporter from his deathbed still rings in our ears: 'I think there should be more than one voice in a healthy society, and I don't approve of using public power for excessive interference.' Dr Li was using Hu Shih-style 'plain speech' to make a practical point," observes Pottinger.
He also names citizen reporters who have also tried to find the truth but are missing: Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin, and Li Zehua; he also points out more foreign reporters have been expelled from China than the Soviet Union did over decades.
Pottinger also names people who have served as "China's conscience". "Many are regular citizens. Xu Zhangrun [Xi critic], Ren Zhiqiang [tycoon and Xi critic], Xu Zhiyong [civil rights activist], Ilham Tohti [Uighur academic], Fang Fang [novelist who wrote Wuhan Diary], 20 Catholic priests who have refused to subordinate God to the Communist Party, and the millions of Hong Kong citizens who peacefully demonstrated for the rule of law last year. The list goes on," he says.
Towards the end of his speech, Pottinger asks what the ultimate legacy of the May Fourth Movement will be, and the answers can be found by the Chinese people.
"Those with fortitude to seek and speak the truth in China today may take comfort, however, in something Lu Xun wrote: 'Lies written in ink can never disguise facts written in blood.'"
One can see why Pottinger's speech was censored, but a strong case for China to continue in the May Fourth Spirit towards democracy... as it later led to the establishment of the Communist Party...
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.
