Hong Kong police detain over a dozen on Tiananmen anniversary

HONG KONG: Hong Kong police on Sunday detained over a dozen people, including key pro-democracy figures trying to commemorate the anniversary of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown, as hundreds in Taiwan mourned the dead with a vigil. For years, tens of thousands of Hong Kongers would converge on the city´s Victoria Park and its surrounding neighbourhood to commemorate the events of June 4, 1989 -- taking part in candlelight vigils. But since Beijing´s imposition of a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 to quell dissent, the annual vigil was banned and its organisers charged under the law. This weekend, scores of police were deployed in the area, stopping people to search their belongings and question them. People found with a candle -- regarded as a symbol of the Victoria Park vigil -- were questioned and detained. By Sunday evening, AFP reporters in Hong Kong had witnessed more than a dozen people taken away by police in vans.

On the self-ruled island of Taiwan, nearly 500 people gathered at Taipei´s Liberty Square to chant “fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong” as night fell. They lit candles in the shape of “8964” -- numerals forbidden in mainland China because it references the events of June 4, 1989. “We need to cherish the freedom and democracy we have in Taiwan,” Perry Wu, 31, told AFP. “I feel really sad to see the news of people getting arrested today in Hong Kong.” Among the most prominent activists detained in the city was Chan Po-ying, the leader of the League of Social Democrats, one of the few remaining opposition parties. The veteran activist was holding a small LED candle and two flowers before she was seized by police. Chan was released two hours later, according to her party. Other recognisable figures detained were Alexandra Wong, a well-known activist nicknamed “Grandma Wong”, former chairwoman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association Mak Yin-ting, and Leo Tang, a former leader of the now-disbanded Confederation of Trade Unions. At Victoria Park, a man sitting on a bench holding an unlit candle was surrounded by officers.