Hong Kong police on Sunday arrested Hong Kong pro-democracy figure Alexandra Wong along with five other people on the occasion of the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square events, AFP and Agerpres reported.

Commemoration of the bloody events of June 4, 1989, when the repression of the pro-democracy movement took place in Tiananmen SquarePhoto: KEIZO MORI / UPI / Profimedia

Alexandra Wong, known as “Mami Wong”, carried a bouquet of flowers during her arrest in the central Causeway Bay district, which has long held candlelight vigils in memory of the Tiananmen Square victims.

Police surrounded her, and Wong tossed a bouquet of flowers in the air, following the police without resistance. Then she was put in a police van.

At least five other people were arrested on Sunday in the busy Causeway Bay area.

A woman was arrested after she shouted “Lift up the candles. Cry on 4/6!” referring to June 4, 1989, the date of the bloody crackdown on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

A young man dressed in black was holding a book called “May 35” (by Erich Kastner, the content of which has no relation to the events in Beijing) when he was arrested, another way of mentioning the Tiananmen events that took place four days later after May 31.

Since 2020, China has imposed a national security law in Hong Kong to crush any dissent

Hong Kong, which the United Kingdom returned to China in 1997, has long been the only Chinese city to commemorate the victims of Tiananmen.

It was also a key indicator of the freedom and political pluralism afforded by its status as a semi-autonomous territory.

Since 1990, tens of thousands of people gather every year in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park for a candlelight vigil in memory of the victims of Tiananmen Square.

But in 2020, Beijing introduced a national security law in the former British colony to suppress any dissent after large-scale pro-democracy demonstrations in 2019.

Hong Kong authorities have since ended the vigils, which were never allowed in mainland China.

In the run-up to the commemoration, authorities have repeatedly refused to confirm whether public commemorations are illegal.

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee only warned that every Hong Kong resident should obey the law and be “prepared to bear the consequences” of non-compliance.

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