This archive report was first published on 13 July 2020.
On June 4, 1989, Beijing's deadly crackdown on students demanding democracy in Tiananmen Square left hundreds dead. Thirty-one years later, the memory of that massacre still resonates in Hong Kong, where tens of thousands of people defied a ban on public gatherings to mark the anniversary.
Thirteen prominent Hong Kong democracy activists, including Jimmy Lai, Lee Cheuk-yan, and Albert Ho, appeared in court on July 13, 2020, charged with holding an unauthorized gathering to mark the Tiananmen Square crackdown. The charges carry up to five years in jail.
Lee Cheuk-yan invoked the hundreds who were killed by Chinese tanks and soldiers at Tiananmen when asked if he understood the charge. "This is political persecution," he said. "The real incitement is the massacre conducted by the Chinese Communist Party 31 years ago."
The annual vigil has been held in Hong Kong for the last three decades and usually attracts huge crowds. However, this year's event was banned for the first time, with authorities citing coronavirus measures. Despite the ban, thousands turned out to hold candles in their neighborhoods and in Victoria Park, the traditional site of the vigil.
Police later arrested 13 leading activists who appeared at the Victoria Park vigil. The arrests are the latest in a string of prosecutions against protest leaders in the restless financial hub.
China's leaders have rejected calls to give Hong Kongers universal suffrage and portrayed the protests as a plot by foreigners to destabilize the motherland. Earlier this month, Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law aimed at stamping out the protests once and for all.
