The Tiananmen vigil, for the end of one party dictatorship

The organizers anticipate 100-150 thousand people. Attendance of students in doubt, as the call for more effective tools for greater democracy in the territory. A tribute to the memory of the writer Liu Xiaobo, Nobel Peace Prize 2010.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews) - Many Hong Kong people are preparing for the vigil in memory of those killed in Tiananmen Square 29 years ago. At the annual appointment at Victoria Park, the organizers want to focus on a message: the end single party rule in China.

In the night between June 3 and 4, 1989, the Chinese "people's liberation" army put an end to the movement of about a million students and workers who had occupied Tiananmen Square for over a month demanding greater democracy and less corruption among members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). According to the most reliable estimates, between 200 and 2 thousand people were shot dead or crushed by army tanks; tens of thousands arrested in the following days and condemned as "counter-revolutionaries" because they were attacking the hegemony of the Party.

Hong Kong is the only city in China - perhaps together with Macau and Taiwan - where it is possible to commemorate the event and the dead: in all these years in China a powerful censorship has eliminated any possibility of marking the event, arresting anyone who dares organize meetings or commemorations.

Because of this, the Victoria Park vigil - with testimonies, poems, hundreds of thousands of lighted candles - has over the years become a source of hope to dissidence in China and sometimes many manage to come to Hong Kong to participate in hidden away.

Fearing that the wind of democracy is communicating from Hong Kong to China, Beijing has established that offenses to the Chinese flag, pressures and slogans for "the end of one party dictatorship" is stepping over "a red line", which can result in penalizing the rights civilians of the Hong Kong population.

Chow Hang-tung, vice-president of the Hong Kong Alliance in support of the democratic and patriotic movements of China, which organizes the vigil, explains that "If one-party dictatorship continues, China will not have real democracy. Hong Kong will not have real freedom”. This is why the Alliance has chosen the slogan "Resist authoritarianism" as this year’s slogan.

The Alliance expects the presence of 100-150 thousand participants. There is a doubt about the possible intervention of the Student Federation, especially of the group of so-called "independentists" who consider the vigil a dying ritual and would like to find more effective tools  and policies.

This year, in addition to commemorating the dead of Tiananmen, the writer Liu Xiaobo, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, will also be remembered at the vigil.  Liu was left to die of cancer in prison last year.  On the night between June 3 and 4, 1989, Liu Xiaobo tried to mediate between the students and the army, asking the first to leave the square and the soldiers not to attack. After the massacre he was arrested and served a three-year sentence.

For those who want to follow the vigil live: https://64live.org

• hong kong
• china
• democracy
• vigil tiananmen
• liu xiaobo
• alliance for democracy
• students
• massacre
• anniversary
• June 4
• liu xia