Officials in Hong Kong report the cancellation of Tiananmen Massacre commemorations for the first time under the National Security Law imposed from Beijing, a move that curtails opposition activities in the territory.
Unlike previous decades, rallies and speeches in Hong Kong’s Victory Park plaza are expected to be sparse unless the public defies the authorities’ orders.
Hong Kong Police have warned residents against gathering in the area, with reports from Hong Kong Free Press suggesting a possible concentration around Causeway Bay this Saturday as people consider observance in the park area.
In parallel, according to the South China Morning Post, Chinese officials have cautioned several Western consulates in Hong Kong to refrain from publicly commemorating the June 4 events.
“The Chinese relations office has asked us not to tweet, retweet or publicly discuss June 4,” a European diplomat told reporters.
Last year, the US Consulate and the EU office in Hong Kong lit candles in their windows in a move that drew a sharp rebuke from Beijing, which accused both offices of playing with fire.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that Beijing was conducting a censorship exercise after Hong Kong authorities announced plans to cordon off part of the park, the traditional site of the vigil, until 2020 when health concerns due to the pandemic led to its closure.
Blow to the protests
The crackdown on student and worker protests that followed the Tiananmen events marked a turning point in Chinese political life. The 1989 demonstrations, held in and around Tiananmen Square from spring through early summer, remain a highly sensitive topic as the authorities have not fully addressed the protesters’ demands.
The spark for the protests came after the death of a prominent reformist leader within the Chinese Communist Party. Hu Yaobang, once a driving force behind liberalizing reforms in the 1980s, was pressured to resign by the top leadership, a move viewed by many as a signal that dissent would not be tolerated. This set the stage for mass student mobilization and broad urban support that united diverse groups with shared concerns about political openness and ongoing reforms.
Students and teachers were among the first to join the call for real political reform. They were soon joined by urban workers who feared that economic reforms would erode their status. The convergence of these groups, driven by a shared sense of corruption and the desire for accountability, gathered in the heart of Beijing and sparked a nationwide movement.
After multiple rounds of dialogue, the government declared martial law in May and dispatched the Armed Forces to disperse the protests in June. The demonstrators agreed to leave Tiananmen to avoid a deadly clash that resulted in soldiers firing on unarmed civilians during the night of June 3 into June 4.
The massacre drew extensive international press coverage, with reporters in China at the time to cover the visit of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Exact casualty figures remain contested, with memorial groups later documenting at least a couple of hundred deaths and human rights organizations identifying hundreds of detainees. It stands as one of the most brutal civilian suppressions in modern Chinese history, a stain on that era of governance.
In the years since, discussion of the Tiananmen events has been tightly controlled within China, and memorial efforts overseas have often met with official condemnation or diplomatic strain. The legacy continues to influence debates about political reform, human rights, and state power across the region and beyond.