Hong Kong citizens defy coronavirus restrictions to stage multiple Tiananmen Square massacre memorials

Police have used pepper spray and arrested several Hong Kong protesters who were defying a ban to stage city-wide candlelit vigils in memory of China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

Scuffles broke out in the working-class Mong Kok district when demonstrators tried to set up roadblocks with metal barriers and officers used the spray to disperse them.

It was the first time there had been unrest during the annual June 4 Tiananmen vigil in Hong Kong, which had been banned this year due to coronavirus restrictions.

Hong Kong’s coronavirus restrictions are due to be lifted from June 5.

Several thousand people joined the main rally in Victoria Park, chanting slogans such as “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time” and “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong.”

“We are just remembering those who died on June 4, the students who were killed. What have we done wrong?,” said Kitty, a 70-year-old housewife.

“For 30 years we have come here peacefully and reasonably, once it’s over it’s ‘sayonara’ [goodbye].”

The anniversary has struck an especially sensitive nerve in the former British Crown colony this year after China’s move last month to impose national security legislation and passage of a bill outlawing disrespect of China’s national anthem.

In Beijing, security around Tiananmen Square, a popular tourist attraction in the heart of the city, appeared to be tightened, with more police visible than on ordinary days.

In Hong Kong, which just reported its first locally transmitted coronavirus cases in weeks, police had said a mass gathering would undermine public health.

‘Never forget June 4’

Despite warnings from local authorities, many took to the streets to light candles and stand for a minute’s silence.

Seven Catholic churches opened their doors for memorials.

“We are afraid this will be the last time we can have a ceremony but Hongkongers will always remember what happened on June 4,” said Brenda Hui, 24, in the working class district of Mong Kok, where she and a friend stood with a white battery-illuminated umbrella that read “Never Forget June 4.”

Images posted to social media also showed protesters being arrested by what appeared to be plain-clothed police officers. The European Union and United States both expressed solidarity with the Hong Kong demonstrators’ desire to mark the Tiananmen anniversary.

So too, did people in the Czech capital of Prague, who protested against the Chinese Government’s new national security law for Hong Kong.

The protesters carried placards reading “stop killing us” and “Save Hong Kong now.”

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen asked China to apologise, which the mainland called “nonsense.”

“In China, every year has only 364 days; one day is forgotten,” she wrote on her Facebook page.

“I hope that in every corner of the earth there won’t be any days that are disappeared again. And I wish Hong Kong well.”

‘A murderous state stinks forever’

China has never provided a full account of the 1989 violence which saw Chinese tanks and troops turned against student demonstrators.

While Beijing has officially stated that 200 civilians were killed in the crackdown, other estimates of the death toll have ranged from a few hundred to several thousand people — a released British diplomatic cable from 2017 said the number was closer to 10,000.

There was no mention of the anniversary in Chinese state media.

But Hu Xijin, editor of the Global Times, a nationalistic tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily, tweeted a screenshot of the US statement with his own commentary.

“The Tiananmen incident gave Chinese society a political vaccine shot, which has enabled us to be immune to any colour revolution,” Mr Hu said.

“31 years later, riots emerged and spread in the US. They only think of exporting it, but forget to prepare vaccine for themselves.”

Mr Hu did not elaborate. The term colour revolution is often used to describe peaceful uprisings in former Soviet states but has also been used to describe other popular movements.

Earlier on Thursday, some students in Hong Kong followed the annual tradition of repainting a Tiananmen memorial message on a university campus bridge: “Souls of martyrs shall forever linger despite the brutal massacre. Spark of democracy shall forever glow for the demise of evil.”

In the Hong Kong legislature, debate over the bill that criminalises disrespect of China’s national anthem was disrupted when two pro-democracy lawmakers splashed foul-smelling liquid around in protest against the Tiananmen crackdown.