Another Hong Kong performance artist has been stopped and searched by plainclothes police after showing up in Causeway Bay on the eve of the Tiananmen crackdown anniversary.

Artist Chan Mei-tung appeared with balloons – one shaped like a golden question mark – at around 7:18pm near SOGO department store. The store is near Victoria Park, once the site of vigils to remember the 1989 dead.

Police demanded to see her ID card and searched her. When asked by reporters what the balloon represented, Chan said it was for a “proposal.”

Police then escorted her to the nearby MTR station, where she destroyed the balloon after police told her they were banned on the metro system.

Earlier in the evening, fellow performance artist Sanmu Chan was stopped and searched by plainclothes police after showing up in Causeway Bay. Chan later told reporters that he was displaying a piece of red string that was 6.4 metres long. The figure appears to be a nod to the date of the crackdown.

“It’s abnormal that, whenever we are saying or doing something, we are being monitored,” he said in Cantonese.

The Tiananmen crackdown occurred on June 4, 1989, ending months of student-led demonstrations in China. It is estimated that hundreds, perhaps thousands, died when the People’s Liberation Army cracked down on protesters in Beijing.

In response to HKFP’s enquiries about the two artists, police said officers patrolling East Point Road and Lockhart Road spotted a man and a woman loitering in the area. Officers approached them to understand the situation, and both individuals subsequently left of their own accord.

They did not respond as to whether paying tribute to the 1989 dead was legal, but said that any enforcement action is handled lawfully, based on actual circumstances. Operational deployments are made appropriately in response to potential threats to national security, public safety, and public order, they added.

Mass vigils replaced by patriotic fair

The mass candlelit vigils have not been officially held in Victoria Park since 2019. In 2020, Hong Kong authorities denied permission for the annual event, which typically attracted hundreds of thousands, citing Covid-19 pandemic restrictions.

After Beijing imposed the national security law on June 30, 2020, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which organised the annual event, was disbanded. The group’s key leaders are now facing a national security trial.

Since then, police have routinely searched and detained members of the public, activists, and artists on the crackdown’s anniversary and before.

This week, from Tuesday to Sunday, pro-Beijing groups are hosting the fourth edition of an annual patriotic food carnival in Victoria Park.

Last year, Chan Mei-tung was stopped and searched by police after chewing gum in the same area, at the same time.

By Catherine Lai

Activists Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung once led thousands of Hong Kongers in candlelight vigils every June 4 to remember China’s 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.

This year, the pair are facing up to 10 years in jail after their trial under a Beijing-imposed national security law, during which they sought to defend the slogans they had chanted openly for decades.

Hong Kong and Macau used to be the only places on Chinese soil that permitted large-scale vigils to mourn those who died on June 4, 1989, when the government sent troops and tanks to crush protests calling for political reform.

But public commemoration has been effectively banned since the national security law’s introduction in 2020, following huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests the year before in Hong Kong.

See also: Explainer: What to know about Hong Kong’s past Tiananmen commemorations and nat. security trial of vigil leaders

Lee and Chow’s fate is a “gesture by the government to tell everyone where the boundary is, what is no longer allowed to be discussed”, Dennis, a 29-year-old Hongkonger who used to attend the vigils, told AFP.

“The space for public discussion is much smaller, if it even exists,” he said, using a pseudonym for fear of retaliation.

Lee and Chow, who organised the vigils as leaders of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance, are expected to receive their verdict in July on charges of “incitement to subversion”.

‘Space for discussion’

At the time, the Chinese government officially defined the Tiananmen protests as a “counter-revolutionary riot” driven by a “very small number of people”, justifying the use of force on June 4 as necessary to restore order.

It said around 200 protestors were killed, as well as several dozen soldiers.

The precise toll is unknown, but most other estimates range from 400 to over 1,000.

The Hong Kong Alliance, formed in May 1989 to support the demonstrators, began campaigning for redress after the crackdown.

For decades, its annual vigils were attended by tens of thousands, turning the city’s Victoria Park into a sea of candlelight.

Calls to “end one-party rule” and “build a democratic China” were commonplace — a fact prosecutors in Lee and Chow’s trial now argue amounted to incitement to subvert the state.

Dennis remembers watching livestreams of the gatherings as a child, and debating their relevance as a university student when they came to be considered old-fashioned by some.

“At least before… whether you considered (the vigil) cheesy or not, there was still space for discussion,” he told AFP.

‘Everything has changed’

Former legislator Emily Lau said she no longer recognises her own city.

“Everything has changed, there are many things that you are not allowed to say, do not dare to say, won’t say… many media outlets have shut, much of civil society has vanished,” she told AFP.

In recent years, police have detained mourners around Hong Kong’s central Victoria Park and arrested multiple people for Tiananmen-related online posts.

On Wednesday, performance artist Sanmu Chan was stopped by police near the park as he unrolled a 6.4-metre (21-foot) long red string — a reference to the date and “red lines”.

Others will mark the day more subtly.

Dennis said he plans to listen to songs that were played at the vigils while walking around the area.

University student Laurie told AFP she didn’t “feel free speaking my mind… publicly” and would commemorate the day through prayers or a moment of silence.

“The issue is the lack of clear information on what is or is not allowed to (be talked) about, so people end up not saying anything altogether,” the 22-year-old said, using a pseudonym.

Hong Kong’s government told AFP it was committed to safeguarding the freedoms of citizens “that are protected by law”, but added that these were “not absolute”.

It warned that anyone using “the commemoration of a special day… to incite hatred” of China could be in violation of the city’s national security laws.

Zhou Fengsuo, a student leader during the 1989 demonstrations, said it was a “great loss” that the gatherings could no longer influence a young generation of Hong Kong activists.

“Every year on June 4th this (vigil) became a topic of international concern,” he said.

“That’s a crucial factor why the legacy of June 4th, 1989, is still known to the world today despite the Communist Party’s attempts to smear and obliterate it.”

A Hong Kong performance artist has been stopped and searched by plainclothes police after showing up in Causeway Bay holding a red string ahead of the Tiananmen crackdown anniversary.

Sanmu Chan appeared at the intersection of Lockhart Road and East Point Road in Causeway Bay at 4.25pm on Wednesday, one day before the 37th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.

HKFP saw Chan holding a red string for around three minutes before he was surrounded by a group of plainclothes police.

Police searched him and checked his identity. He was then released and went to buy a can of beer in a convenience store.

Chan later told reporters at the scene that the red string was 6.4 metres long.

The Tiananmen crackdown occurred on June 4, 1989, ending months of student-led demonstrations in China. It is estimated that hundreds, perhaps thousands, died when the People’s Liberation Army cracked down on protesters in Beijing.

“It’s abnormal that, whenever we are saying or doing something, we are being monitored,” Chan said in Cantonese.

He did not comment further on his performance, saying that he left it for others to interpret.

Later in the evening, another artist – Chan Mei-tung – was stopped by police nearby. Holding a balloon shaped like a question mark, she was searched and ID’d by officers.

In response to HKFP’s enquiries about the two artists, police said that officers patrolling East Point Road and Lockhart Road spotted a man and a woman loitering in the area. Officers approached them to understand the situation, and both individuals subsequently left on their own accord.

They did not respond as to whether paying tribute to the 1989 dead was legal, but said that any enforcement action is handled lawfully, based on actual circumstances. Operational deployments are made appropriately in response to potential threats to national security, public safety, and public order, they added.

Vigil site

Chan was one of the artists who took part in commemorating the Tiananmen crackdown with performance art in Causeway Bay, when the candlelight vigils took place in Victoria Park.

The last vigil was held in 2019. In 2020, Hong Kong authorities denied permission for the annual event, which attracted hundreds of thousands, citing Covid-19 pandemic restrictions.

After Beijing imposed the national security law on June 30, 2020, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which organised the annual event, was disbanded. The group’s key leaders are now facing a national security trial.

Since then, police have routinely searched and detained members of the public, activists, and artists on the crackdown’s anniversary or before.

This week, from Wednesday to Sunday, pro-Beijing groups are hosting the fourth edition of an annual patriotic food carnival in Victoria Park.

Chan has appeared in previous years on the eve of the crackdown anniversary.

On the evening of June 3, 2024, the artist was stopped, questioned and taken away by police in Causeway Bay, as he sought to take part in performance art.

On the evening of June 3, 2023, Chan was apprehended by police on East Point Road. He repeatedly shouted, “Don’t forget June 4,” and “Hongkongers don’t be afraid,” as officers escorted him to a police vehicle.