Hong Kong – Hong Kong police on Wednesday arrested four leaders of one of the city’s best-known pro-democracy groups. The “Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic and Democratic Movements in China” is one of the few groups that still exists after two years of repression against pro-democracy activists by Beijing.
It has become a well-known name as it organizes the city’s annual June 4 vigil marking the bloody repression of Beijing against the 1989 protesters in Tiananmen Square.
Critics say the arrests are just the latest erosion of Hong Kong’s rights and freedoms, before Beijing invoked a controversial national security law last year to silence criticism of China’s central government.
Hong Kong may seem peaceful and normal after the massive 2019 protests that shook the city, but critics continue to sound the alarm as democratic institutions have been piling up and enjoying themselves for decades. The city’s latest pro-democracy leaders are being targeted, thanks to China’s national security law.
The latest evidence of China’s previously semi-autonomous city’s full acquisition came on Wednesday morning when Chow Hang-tung, the group’s longtime vice president, organized the Hong Kong eve on June 4. , was arrested by police along with three colleagues.
Kin Cheung / AP
On Tuesday, she and other members of the group went to police headquarters to say they would not hand over the information requested by authorities. This included details about group membership, financial circumstances, and activities.
Chow urged Hong Kongers to continue to resist and continue to draw attention to what is happening in the city.
Police have accused his organization of “being an agent of foreign forces,” which is one of the four major red lines, albeit vague, of the national security law. The others are secession, subversion and terrorism. Punishment can lead to life imprisonment.
The June 4 vigil had been a major political event since it was held in 1990, and sometimes drew hundreds of thousands of people to Hong Kong, and the government and police had always allowed it. I have attended myself several times over the last two decades.
Hong Kong has long been known as the only place in Chinese territory where the Tiananmen Square massacre can be freely commemorated. For the past two years, the authorities have done so forbade the vigil, citing coronavirus restrictions.
With the arrest of more of its leaders, the future of such a symbolic event is even more in doubt. On September 25, the Hong Kong Alliance will hold an extraordinary general meeting to discuss whether it will be completely dissolved after 32 years.