A report out of Hong Kong has predicted mass arrests, prosecutions and disqualifications from public office for those who attend the vigil marking 31 years since the massacre in Beijing.
Beijing will take „unprecedented heavy-handed measures“ to crack down on next month’s vigil in Hong Kong to mark the Tiananmen Square massacre, a Beijing-friendly local outlet said Tuesday. The annual gathering in Victoria Park—banned on health grounds for a second year running—is a „minefield“ for those planning to attend on June 4, according to online news portal HK01. It will be the first memorial since China ’s sweeping Hong Kong national security law came into effect on June 30 last year. Before last year, annual candlelight vigils had been lawfully held in Hong Kong since 1990, a year after soldiers and tanks rolled through Tiananmen Square in the Chinese capital and quashed a student-led protest for democratic reforms. Myriad questions still surround the Chinese government’s handling of the crackdown, which is said to have resulted in the deaths of hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of demonstrators and several soldiers. Members of the public and civil servants who participate in next month’s memorial will be classified as „non-patriots,“ and serving councilors or legislators face „immediate disqualification,“ said HK01’s report, which cited persons with knowledge of the matter.
