Students of the Chinese University of Hong Kong laid flowers and lit candles at the Goddess of Democracy statue in the Chinese University of Hong Kong campus to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing.
The statue was on display at the university’s entrance next to the University MTR station, with students holding candle lights to moan the victims of the crackdown.
Police officers and university security guards were on site standing guard.
Some people wearing black clothing at the university entrance were stopped and had their identity checked by police officers.
In 2010, the statue was at the center of controversy after the university refused an application to have it permanently stationed on site, sparking protests.
Hong Kong has long been the traditional home of public remembrance of the Tiananmen Square massacre, with an annual vigil in Victoria Park, attended by tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands of people.
But amid a deepening crackdown on resistance, opposition and freedom of assembly, the city’s police banned the 2021 event. After initially citing pandemic-related restrictions, they soon made it clear they were also treating the vigil as an unauthorized political act, invoking the national security law in warning people to stay away. -Photo: Commercial Radio HK
Police officers and university security guards were on site standing guard.
Some people wearing black clothing at the university entrance were stopped and had their identity checked by police officers.
In 2010, the statue was at the center of controversy after the university refused an application to have it permanently stationed on site, sparking protests.
Hong Kong has long been the traditional home of public remembrance of the Tiananmen Square massacre, with an annual vigil in Victoria Park, attended by tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands of people.
But amid a deepening crackdown on resistance, opposition and freedom of assembly, the city’s police banned the 2021 event. After initially citing pandemic-related restrictions, they soon made it clear they were also treating the vigil as an unauthorized political act, invoking the national security law in warning people to stay away. -Photo: Commercial Radio HK