Read the original version of this story on RFA Mandarin.
Hong Kong’s Victoria Park is now much quieter on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, and residents told Radio Free Asia that they find it jarring.
The park had once been the epicenter of peaceful democratic resistance as hundreds of thousands turned out for yearly candlelight vigils to remember the victims of Chinese government’s June 4, 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing.
Now on that day, pro-China showcases are held in the park, and there’s no mention of the massacre in local media anymore.
“It is not that the Hong Kong media are unaware of June 4, nor is it that they lack the necessary information; rather, they simply do not dare to touch the subject anymore,” a veteran media professional closely monitoring press freedom in Hong Kong, identified only by his surname Chen, told RFA.
On that day in Beijing, the military, on orders to clear Tiananmen Square of pro-democracy protesters, shot and killed hundreds of them, if not thousands. The Chinese government has since expunged the incident from the public record, and it heavily censors public discussion on the subject.
A year after the bloodshed, people gathered to remember the victims in Victoria Park in Hong Kong, at the time still a British colony. The park became ground zero for annual commemorative events, and even though the city reverted to Chinese control in 1997, the gathering thrived, as Beijing had agreed to preserve the civil liberties of Hong Kong residents. At its peak in 2019 attendance reached approximately 180,000.
But this all changed in 2020. The government banned the June 4 vigil that year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That same year the draconian Hong Kong National Security Law went into effect, allowing the city’s Beijing-aligned government to begin rolling back freedom of expression and other rights. The 2021 event was again cancelled due to the pandemic, but from 2022 onward, authorities used the security law to keep it banned.
“In years past—around the time of June 4—newspapers and television stations would invariably report on the candlelight vigils in Victoria Park; some outlets would publish retrospective features on the events of June 4th, and reporters would even interview citizens attending the vigil within the park itself,” said Chen. “Now, however, with the National Security Law in force, such activities are defined as illegal acts, and the media are consequently barred from reporting on them.”
The yearly vigils had been organized by The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, a civil society organization established in 1989 that in following years became an organization dedicated to preserving the history of the massacre. It was forced to dissolve in 2021 due to political pressure.
In recent years, Victoria Park has been the venue for “Hometown Market Carnivals,” events organized by pro-Beijing organizations that intentionally overlap with June 4.
But a Hong Kong resident identified by her surname Li, told RFA that she has stopped visiting the park on June 4 because there are no more vigils.
“In previous years, I would take my children to Victoria Park every June 4.” she said. “However, in recent years, the candlelight vigil has been prohibited—labeled an ‘illegal activity’—so I stopped attending. I have heard that some Hong Kongers living overseas are organizing small-scale commemorative events.”
Taiwan takes center stage
Hong Kongers living abroad and many civic organizations in democratic Taiwan are preparing to hold commemorative events on the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre Thursday, including one in Taipei’s Liberty Square.
Hong Konger communities are holding events in Taiwan, the UK, Canada, Australia and elsewhere, as Victoria Park is no longer an option, Wu Renhua, a survivor of the massacre, told RFA.
But the yearly vigils in Hong Kong had been a symbol of freedom that existed in the city in the era of “One country, two systems” no longer exists, Tseng Chien-yuan, executive director of the Taiwan-based New School for Democracy NGO, told RFA.
“The fact that this massive protest—the largest within the global Chinese-speaking community, and one that challenges the ruling party of the People’s Republic of China—was able to exist on PRC territory fully embodied the spirit of Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy,” said Tseng, who noted that now Taipei is now carrying the torch. “That flame was reignited here in Taipei—and, significantly, it was reignited by Hong Kongers.”
He said that in previous years the events had been mostly conducted the language of Taiwan’s Mandarin speaking majority, but now the Cantonese spoken by Hong Kongers in attendance is more common.
“All of this symbolizes the continuation of the spirit of Hong Kong’s Victoria Park right here in Taiwan.”
Edited by Li Nuo in Mandarin and Eugene Whong in English.