Tiananmen vigil: at least six arrested as Hongkongers fan out across city to mark June 4
- Barricaded Victoria Park, the original venue of annual vigil, empty under heavy police presence
- Black-clad demonstrators also shout pro-independence slogans in defiance of an ironclad police ban on annual vigil
Hongkongers fanned out across the city on Friday evening to mark the June 4 Tiananmen Square crackdown, staging small protests by lighting candles or flashing their mobile phones as clutches of black-clad demonstrators also shouted pro-independence slogans in defiance of an ironclad police ban on the annual vigil at Victoria Park.
As of 10pm, at least six people, aged 20 to 75, were arrested on suspicion of inciting others to participate in an unauthorised assembly, ordinary assault, disorderly conduct in a public place and obstruction of police, the force said. Twelve people were fined for flouting the coronavirus-related ban on public gatherings of more than four people.
The dispersed display of protest was in response to police putting the park into security lockdown and turning away people who would have otherwise showed up to commemorate the crackdown 32 years ago.
At 8pm, the hour at which the crowds would have traditionally lit their candles in a show of unity, Victoria Park loomed dark and empty. The action was elsewhere, as people in Mong Kok and Causeway Bay did an ambush-style protest, spontaneously either lighting their own candles, or flashing the light on their mobile phones to mark the moment.
In Mong Kok, a group clad in black – the traditional colour of protest and mourning – chanted “Hong Kong independence, the only way out” and “Rogue cops, may your family members die”, popular rallying cries during the 2019 anti-government demonstrations.