It’s the latest major blow for the beleaguered pro-democracy movement in the Chinese city which, until recently, enjoyed a large degree of autonomy from Beijing.
Hong Kong — Police in Hong Kong arrested four leaders of one of the city’s most well-known pro-democracy groups on Wednesday. The « Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic, Democratic Movements in China » is one of few such groups still in existence after two years of. It has become a household name as it organizes the city’s yearly June 4th vigil marking Beijing’s bloody 1989 crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square. Critics say the arrests are just the latest erosion of the rights and freedoms that Hong Kong used to enjoy, before Beijing invoked a controversial national security law last year to muzzle criticism of China’s central government. Hong Kong may seem peaceful and normal after the 2019 mass-protests that rocked the city, but critics continue to raise the alarm as democratic institutions built up and enjoyed for decades are still being hollowed out.
