Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters defied a ban against gathering at a park to commemorate the anniversary of China's deadly Tiananmen crackdown, with tensions seething in the financial hub over a planned new security law.
The semi-autonomous city had for three decades seen huge vigils to remember those killed when China's communist leaders deployed its military into Beijing's Tiananmen Square to crush a student-led movement for democratic reforms.
This year's vigil was banned, with authorities citing coronavirus restrictions on group gatherings.
But pro-democracy campaigners in Hong Kong, who have been waging a long struggle against what they see as China's tightening grip on the city, were determined to make their voices heard.
Hundreds of people, including some prominent democracy leaders, broke through barriers at Victoria Park where the vigil is held each year just as night fell.
"I’ve come here for the vigil for 30 years in memory of the victims of the June 4 crackdown, but this year it is more significant to me," a 74-year-old man who gave his surname as Yip told AFP inside the park.
"Because Hong Kong is experiencing the same kind of repression from the same regime, just like what happened in Beijing."
The commemorations fell on another febrile day of political tension in the semi-autonomous city as lawmakers approved a Beijing-backed bill criminalising insults to China's national anthem.
Pro-democracy politicians refused to cast their ballots with one throwing a foul-smelling liquid on the floor in a bid to halt proceedings and others shouting slogans as the votes were cast.
A university student walks past the "Pillar of Shame" statue, a memorial for those killed in the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, at the University of Hong Kong. Source: AP
Opponents say the law is the latest move by Beijing to snuff out the city's cherished freedoms and have rallied around the symbolism of the law being passed on the anniversary of Tiananmen.
Open discussion of the brutal suppression is forbidden in mainland China, where hundreds - by some estimates more than a thousand - died when the Communist Party on 4 June 1989 sent tanks to crush a student-led demonstration in Beijing calling for democratic reforms.
But the people of semi-autonomous Hong Kong have kept memories alive for the past three decades by holding a huge annual vigil, the only part of China where such mass displays of remembrance are possible.
This year's service was banned on public health grounds because of the coronavirus pandemic, with authorities not allowing people to gather in groups of more than eight.
On the campus of Hong Kong University, students spent the afternoon cleaning a memorial to the Tiananmen dead known as "The Pillar of Shame".
Barricades on Thursday surrounded the park that has traditionally hosted the annual ceremony.
Organisers have urged residents to skirt the ban by instead lighting candles wherever they happen to be.
With Beijing planning to impose a new national security law on the finance hub that many believe will end the city's unique freedoms, some residents on Thursday said they feared future memorials would also be blocked.
"I don't believe it's because of the pandemic. I think it's political suppression," said a man surnamed Wong, 53, who kneeled by the barricades outside Victoria Park to pay his respects to the dead before travelling to work.
"I do worry that we may lose this vigil forever."
Pro-democracy activists light up candles on the eve of the Beijing Tiananmen Massacre anniversary in Hong Kong. Source: EPA
Security and anthem laws
Crowds have swelled at Hong Kong's Tiananmen vigils whenever fears have spiked that Beijing is prematurely stamping out the city's own cherished freedoms, an issue that has dominated the finance hub for the past 12 months.
The city was engulfed by seven straight months of huge and often violent pro-democracy protests last year - rallies that kicked off five days after the last annual vigil.
In response to those protests last month Beijing announced plans to impose the security law, which would cover secession, subversion of state power, terrorism and foreign interference.
China says the law - which will bypass Hong Kong's legislature - is needed to tackle "terrorism" and "separatism" in a restless city it now regards as a direct national security threat.
But opponents, including many Western nations, fear it will bring mainland-style political oppression to a business hub that was supposedly guaranteed freedoms and autonomy for 50 years after its 1997 handover to China from Britain.
Further inflaming tensions, China has been pushing for another law that would punish insults towards China's national anthem with up to three years in jail.
With the Victoria Park vigil banned, Hongkongers are organising locally and getting creative, chiefly with the scattered candle-light ceremonies.
Online groups have sent out maps and lists of more than a dozen districts calling for people to gather for small vigils.
Seven Catholic churches have also announced plans to host a commemorative mass on Thursday evening.
Riot police have moved swiftly against protests forming in recent weeks, citing the coronavirus measures and arresting hundreds of people.
Vigils are also planned in neighbouring Taiwan and among the Chinese diaspora in many western countries.
But in mainland China, the crackdown is greeted by an information blackout, with censors scrubbing mentions of protests and dissidents often visited by police in the days leading up to 4 June.
Police in Beijing prevented an AFP photographer from entering Tiananmen Square to record the regular pre-dawn flag-raising ceremony on Thursday.
The candle emoji has been unavailable in recent days on China's Twitter-like Weibo platform.
The United States and Taiwan issued statements calling on China to atone for the deadly crackdown.
"Around the world, there are 365 days in a year. Yet in China, one of those days is purposely forgotten each year," Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen tweeted.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted a photo of him meeting prominent Tiananmen survivors as US racial justice protests continue.
On Wednesday, China's foreign ministry described calls for Beijing to apologise for the crackdown as "complete nonsense".
"The great achievements since the founding of new China over the past 70 or so years fully demonstrates that the developmental path China has chosen is completely correct," spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters.
