Exhibition on repression in Tiananmen will open in Hong Kong | Hong Kong News

The organizer of the Tiananmen Square Candle Guard, held annually in Hong Kong, has opened an annual exhibition of photographs and paraphernalia against those who demand democracy in China in Beijing in 1989.

Opening For the second year in a row, Hong Kong authorities have banned the June 4 vigil, which usually takes ten thousand people out into the streets. Authorities have cited the risk of coronavirus, although the cancellation coincides with broader repression of political activism and dissent in the city.

Organized by the Hong Kong Alliance for Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, the museum annually displays photographs of the 1989 democracy movement, as well as photographs of candlelight in the past in Hong Kong.

This year, visitors to the museum will be able to lay flowers to remember the victims who lost their lives in the mass murder that took place on June 4, 1989.

For decades, the semi-autonomous cities of Hong Kong and Macau were the only places in China that allowed public remembrance of repression. Macau authorities have also suspended the vigil for the second year in a row.

Despite the ban, thousands of people showed up last year in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to light candles and sing songs. Later, police arrested more than 20 activists accused of participating in an unauthorized assembly.

As a result of the crackdown on dissent against Hong Kong, months of protests against the government took place in 2019 when the former British colony was crushed and leaders shook in Beijing.