Hong Kongers commemorate Tiananmen anniversary privately

A policeman fills a drinks bottle as they patrol Victoria Park in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong on June 2, 2023, the venue where Hong Kong people traditionally gathered annually to mourn the victims of China`s Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989 which the authorities have banned and vowed to stamp out any protests on the anniversary. Pic/AFP

As the 34th anniversary of China's Tiananmen Square crackdown approaches Sunday, many in Hong Kong are trying to mark the day in private ways in the shadow of a law that prosecuted leading activists in the city's pro-democracy movement.

For decades, Hong Kong was the only place in China where people held large-scale commemorations about the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in which tanks rolled into the heart of Beijing, and possibly thousands, of people were killed.

People gathered in Victoria Park annually to mark the June 4 anniversary with a candlelight vigil. In 2020, thousands defied a police ban to hold the event. This Sunday, Victoria Park will be occupied instead by a carnival organised by pro-Beijing groups to celebrate Hong Kong's handover to Chinese rule in 1997. As authorities erase reminders of the massacre, some Hong Kongers are fighting to keep memories alive by distributing LED candles, writing about the crackdown, or buying books about it.

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