The UN on Monday expressed “concern” about the arrests in Hong Kong on Sunday of people marking the 34th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, with China responding that the financial center is experiencing “chaos” to prosperity.

Hong Kong police said they arrested 23 people on Sunday for “disturbing the peace” and a 53-year-old woman for “obstructing police work” on the 34th anniversary of the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing. in 1989.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a Twitter post, called for the release of all those arrested for “exercising their right to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly.”

For its part, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement late Sunday that “Today, Hong Kong is moving from chaos to stability and prosperity, following the right path of the principle of “one country, two systems.”

“Foreign powers, including the United States, must abide by international law and stop Hong Kong’s ‘useless political manipulation’ to contain China,” a ministry spokesman said.

For more than 30 years, tens of thousands of people have gathered every year in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park for a candle-lit picket to commemorate the Tiananmen victims.

But in 2020, Beijing introduced a national security law in the former British colony to silence dissent, following massive pro-democracy protests in 2019. The Hong Kong authorities have since put an end to the picketing, which was never allowed in mainland China.

Hundreds of police stopped and checked people near Victoria Park yesterday while armored vehicles were deployed in the area.

Hong Kong activists say the police action is part of China’s broader campaign to crack down on any dissent in the city, which Beijing has promised freedom for 50 years under its “one country, two systems” model. in 1997 by the UK.

Source: RES-IPE