Hong Kong keeps Tiananmen crackdown memory alive with ‘record-breaking’ mass vigil
- Crowds form sea of candles at Victoria Park to mark bloody incident on June 4, 1989, in Beijing
- Emotions fired up by controversy over government’s extradition bill
A record turnout of more than 180,000 people, according to organisers on Tuesday night, turned Hong Kong’s Victoria Park into a sea of candles in an emotionally charged vigil to mark the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Police put the turnout at a far more conservative 37,000 at its peak.
They came in their tens of thousands to Victoria Park – activists and regular folk, youngsters and senior citizens, students and professionals – singing songs, shouting slogans, and promising never to forget, three decades after Beijing sent in the military to crush the pro-democracy movement in a brutal crackdown that remains the subject of bitter controversy to this day.
Organisers attributed the massive turnout to this being the 30th anniversary of Tiananmen as well as the political fallout and public backlash over the extradition bill which would allow Hong Kong to hand over fugitives to jurisdictions it has no previous agreement with.
The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which organised the vigil, said well over 180,000 had attended, contrasting with last year’s 115,000. Police put the figure at 17,000 in 2018.
