HONG KONG (AP) 鈥� A performance artist in Hong Kong tried on Wednesday to honor the victims of but was quickly stopped by police, the latest sign of the city’s shrinking freedom of expression.
Sanmu Chen tried to tie a symbolic red thread to a street signpost in Causeway Bay, a busy shopping district close to a park that for decades hosted to commemorate those who died in the crackdown that ended student-led protests in Beijing in 1989. Police officers stopped Chen and searched his bag before letting him go.
Hong Kong was for decades the only place in China where a large-scale of the crackdown was held. The massive annual vigils were banned in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and public acts to mark the Tiananmen Square killings have become increasingly sensitive in the city in recent years.
Chen said his thread was 6.4 meters (about 21 feet) long, an apparent reference to the June 4 crackdown date.
Chen told reporters after the encounter that his act was meant to express his condolences for those who died.
鈥淲hen you are trying to say or do something and you are being monitored, that is a very abnormal situation,鈥� he said.
Chen has been detained at least twice in recent years
In 2024, Chen was after appearing to write the Chinese characters of 鈥渆ight nine six four鈥� 鈥� a set of numbers referencing the date of the crackdown 鈥� with his hand in the air.
The year before, he was in the same neighborhood, where he chanted 鈥淗ong Kongers, do not be afraid. Don鈥檛 forget, tomorrow is June 4.鈥�
As night fell on Wednesday, another artist, Chan Mei-tung, stood outside a nearby department store holding up a question-mark-shaped balloon. Police officers also stopped her quickly and escorted her back to a subway station as journalists watched.
Police said officers had encountered a man and a woman lingering on the street at locations matching the artists, but did not name them. The officers approached each to learn more and the two people subsequently left on their own, police said.
The statement added that any police action is handled in accordance with the law and the force will make appropriate deployments based on threats to national security, public safety and public order.
Authorities banned vigils and arrested organizers
In 1989, under then-leader Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese military was sent to Tiananmen Square to on the night of June 3-4. Soldiers fired live rounds. Hundreds and possibly thousands of people were killed, including dozens of soldiers.
Annual vigils in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park used to attract tens of thousands each year until the event was banned in 2020, the first year of the pandemic.
That same year, Beijing imposed a national security law in the city following massive anti-government protests in 2019. Since then, authorities have . Many leading activists have been arrested and some vocal media outlets shut down. Dozens of civil society groups have been disbanded, including the one that organized the vigils.
Three former vigil organizers under the national security law. Two of them and are , possibly in July. If convicted, they face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The third organizer entered a guilty plea, which can typically result in a sentence reduction.
The Hong Kong and Beijing governments say the security law is crucial for the city鈥檚 stability. Hong Kong authorities say the law stipulates that human rights shall be respected and protected in safeguarding national security.
A carnival is now held at the former vigil site
After COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, the former vigil site became the location of a yearly carnival organized by pro-China groups.
Over the past three years, some people who tried to commemorate the Tiananmen Square killings on the crackdown鈥檚 anniversary, have been detained there.
This year’s carnival began on Wednesday. Later in the day near the site, Tang Ngok-kwan, who was also a vigil organizer in the past, bowed in commemoration. He told reporters he read the list of the victims in a low voice and criticized that the event name contains the word 鈥渃arnival,鈥� which carries a festive vibe.
The action by Tang and similar muted expressions in Hong Kong underlined the decline in civil liberties promised by Beijing when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
But even as public commemoration faded in Hong Kong, overseas by hosting vigils and rallies in places like London and Canada.
Wu鈥檈r Kaixi, who was a leader of the 1989 Tiananmen protests, told reporters in Tokyo that the democracy movement in China 鈥渋s still there.鈥�
鈥淲e are managing to survive, (it鈥檚) not easy, but we are surviving, because just like 37 years ago, we were driven to the square, to the streets of Beijing by one thing 鈥� hope,鈥� he said.
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Associated Press video journalists Alice Fung in Hong Kong and Mayuko Ono in Tokyo contributed to the report.
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