Hundreds gather at candlelight vigil for Liu Xiaobo in Hong Kong as China takes dissident’s supporters ‘on vacation’ to stop them commemorating Nobel Peace Prize winner

Crowd calls for release of other dissidents, while bookseller who was abducted in 2015 says he fears tightening of Beijing’s control in the future

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A vigil commemorating Liu Xiaobo’s death and celebrating Liu Xia regaining her freedom took place at Tamar Park. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 11:17pm, 13 Jul 2018Updated: 11:39pm, 13 Jul 2018

Hundreds of people gathered in Hong Kong on Friday to mark the anniversary of the death of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo – while authorities in Beijing cracked down on the dissident’s supporters and told them not to try and keep his memory alive.

The rainy weather did little to deter people from attending the candlelight vigil, which was organised by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, and was held at Tamar Park in Admiralty.

Things were different on the mainland, where supporters of Liu and his widow, Liu Xia, who was released from house arrest on Tuesday and is now in Berlin, said they had been unable to organise any large-scale event to mark the day and some had been “vacationed” by the authorities.

A common practice, it involves security agents taking prominent dissidents away from cities during sensitive events to keep them quiet.

Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China officials pay their respects to a statue of Liu Xiaobo’s in Tamar Park. Photo: Felix Wong

However, the crackdown did not stop Chinese dissidents from attending the vigil in Hong Kong, with representatives of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre, which helped secure Liu Xia’s release, travelling to the city.