Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on Tuesday (June 1, 2021) that the fourth wave of the new crown epidemic in Hong Kong is over and it is time to consider resuming economic activities in the territory.
A few days ago, Hong Kong police banned the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (HKASPD) from holding a “Don’t Forget June 4″ march on May 30, citing the new epidemic, and opposed the organization of the annual June 4 memorial rally in Victoria Park. June 4” candlelight memorial rally in Victoria Park.
Mrs. Lam was asked at the press conference why the authorities did not allow the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (HKASPDMC) to hold the June 4 memorial event outdoors since the epidemic was over. She replied that the Police Department had already made the relevant decision and the appeal period had ended. She respected the decision and therefore would not comment.
Between the late night of June 3 and the early morning of June 4, 1989, the Chinese Communist regime sent troops to forcibly clear out students and people who had been demonstrating peacefully in Tiananmen Square for days, resulting in the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of people.
Since then, Hong Kong had been the only place in 30 years where China could hold public rallies to commemorate the June 4 incident. But for the second year in a row, the Beijing-controlled Hong Kong authorities banned the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China from hosting a candlelight vigil to commemorate June 4, citing the new epidemic. A number of pro-democracy activists who participated in the candlelight vigil last year without permission were jailed by the authorities.
Secretary of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China Tsai Yiu-cheong said on Monday (May 31, 2021) that he hoped the public would each pay tribute to the June 4 victims in their own way.
As to whether people can mourn the 4 June incident on their own initiative and whether they can chant slogans to “end one-party dictatorship” according to the platform of the Alliance, Mrs. Lam said it is difficult to say whether a certain slogan is illegal, and it is up to law enforcement agencies and the courts to deal with it. But she also said that the first article of the Chinese Constitution states that the leadership of the Communist Party of China is the most essential feature of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, Hong Kong can not have a violation of the Constitution. She added that the national security law enacted on June 30 last year has had a significant impact on Hong Kong and that the environment has changed, with the national security law requiring all organs, groups, media and schools in the SAR to fulfill the national security law. She said that close to this date (the fourth anniversary of June), she wanted to clearly tell everyone to respect the Constitution and safeguard national security.
Beijing’s push for a national security law in Hong Kong last year was strongly condemned by the United States and the West, and led to a major change in Hong Kong’s relationship with Western society. China insists that the Hong Kong issue is an internal Chinese affair in which foreign countries have no right to interfere.
For the past 32 years, Chinese authorities have taken drastic measures to ban public references to the June 4 incident in an attempt to completely erase this major event that shocked the world from the memory of Chinese people.
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