The civil rights group behind Hong Kong’s annual candlelight vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest is discussing disbanding as Beijing tightens the screws on the territory.
Wendy Tang, Beijing
Monday August 23 2021, 12.01am, The Times
The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China has been calling for an end to the “one-party dictatorship” since its establishment following the massacre, when Chinese troops opened fire on pro-democracy protesters.
Simon Leung Kam-wai, a representative from the alliance, said that the remaining core members would discuss whether to disband as one of the possible outcomes to the current political circumstance in the city.
“The pressure is partly from the recent wave of closure of the newspaper Apple Daily, the Civil Human Rights Front and the Professional Teachers’ Union (PTU),” Leung told the South China Morning Post. “We have been evaluating the risk from time to time.”
Two core members of the alliance, the chairman, Lee Cheuk-yan, and vice-chairman, Albert Ho Chun-yan, are serving jail sentences for facilitating unauthorised assemblies in 2019.
The annual candlelight vigil at Hong Kong’s Victoria Park every June attracted tens of thousands of attendees. It has been cancelled for two years running owing to the pandemic. As the vigil and the 1989 crackdown are censored in mainland China, the group serves as a source for both mainland Chinese and Hongkongers to learn about the event. It is unclear whether future vigils will be held.
The Alliance has come under political pressure since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law in Hong Kong last June, following months of tumultuous anti-government protests in 2019. The pro-democracy group announced that it was laying off all its paid staff in July and downsizing its steering committee as a preventive measure against actions by law enforcement.
The Alliance has attempted four times to open a June 4 memorial museum in Hong Kong but it was quickly closed down each time. The latest run ended with a fine two months ago.
The Alliance is the latest civil rights group to face being wound down after the Civil Human Rights Front, the group behind Hong Kong’s largest democracy rallies, announced that it was disbanding a week ago.
The city’s last remaining pro-democracy newspaper, Apple Daily, was forced to close after the authorities arrested staff and froze assets. PTU, the largest Hong Kong teachers’ union, is disbanding after Chinese state media stated last month that it played a leading role in anti-government protests in 2019.
Kamala Harris, the US vice-president, arrived in Singapore yesterday to meet the city-state’s leaders as part of a tour of southeast Asia. It is the latest visit by a senior US official to the region as Biden’s administration seeks to build regional alliances against China.
At a time when China is challenging US political sway and naval dominance in the region, southeast Asia remains “strategically important”, a White House official said.
