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Hong Kong is one of the few places in China were an annual vigil can be safely held by protestors
Tens of thousands of people have gathered in Hong Kong to mark the 30th anniversary of the crackdown on protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
Organisers say 180,000 people took part in a vigil, centred in the city’s Victoria Park.
Hong Kong and Macau are the only places in China where people can commemorate the activists killed in 1989.
China has never said how many people died in the crackdown, but hundreds are believed to have been killed.
Everywhere else in China, the authorities have banned even oblique references to the crackdown, which took place after weeks of mass protests that were tolerated by the government. The numbers gathered in and around the square are estimated to have reached a peak of one million people.
Hundreds of security personnel and police were monitoring the square in Beijing on Tuesday.
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Thousands gathered in Victoria Park, holding candles and chanting slogans
In Hong Kong, huge crowds have gathered on the football fields of Victoria Park, holding candles and chanting slogans.
Those paying tribute to those who died in 1989 included some from the Chinese mainland.
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AFP
Thousands held candles during a vigil in Hong Kong’s financial district
A woman who gave her name only as Zhao said she had been taken to the protests in Beijing three decades ago by her mother.
“I feel grateful that Hong Kongers have continued to hold this vigil for 30 years,” she told the AFP news agency.
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Leading Hong Kong activists expressed similar sentiments.
“It is very important that Hong Kong people continue to remember the June 4 tragedy,” said Richard Tsoi, vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China.
“And don’t let the Chinese authority try to erase the memory for the whole nation.”
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Police have been deployed to monitor Tiananmen Square in Beijing
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AFP
The protests come at a sensitive time for Hong Kong’s leadership
The protests in Hong Kong come at a sensitive time for Hong Kong’s leadership, with public backlash over a proposed bill that would allow fugitives captured in the city to be extradited to mainland China.
Smaller vigils are also expected 64km (40 miles) away in Macau’s city centre, and on the self-governing island of Taiwan.
The Tiananmen anniversary earlier prompted a war of words between Washington and Beijing. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticised China’s human rights record and called on it to finally reveal how many people died in the crackdown.
In response, a Chinese embassy spokesman in Washington DC said his comments were “an affront to the Chinese people”.
Tens of thousands hold Tiananmen Square vigil
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