The police in Hong Kong have arrested at least eight people the day before the 34th anniversary of the massacre in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Among them are several artists.

It has long been forbidden to commemorate the victims of the massacre on the Chinese mainland.

In recent years, the authorities have also cracked down on such gatherings in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong itself was promised a great degree of freedom for its citizens, in connection with China taking over the city from Great Britain in 1997.

It is a promise China has more or less completely broken, which tells other countries both in the region and in the rest of the world something about how much Chinese promises are worth.

Now the regime is hunting for opposition voices in Hong Kong.

Late on Saturday evening, the police announced that they had arrested four people for disorderly conduct or acts with riotous intent. In practice, this means expressing political views that do not correspond to the dictatorship in Beijing.

Four other people have been brought in, suspected of breaching public peace.

NTB-AFP-AP reports further.

The bloody memory of Tiananmen Square.

On 4 June 1989, Chinese soldiers and tanks moved into the square known in Norway as Tiananmen Square. The aim was to remove tens of thousands of students who had been demonstrating for democratic reforms for weeks.

The students ignited hope both in China and in the world that the regime could fall and that China could become a different country from the dictatorship it had become under Communist rule.

But the protests were brutally crushed, thousands were killed and imprisoned. The regime persisted then and persists today.

Candle vigil prohibited

Since then, China has not tolerated discussions about what happened. Fat should be hidden and forgotten.

Among those who were now arrested in Hong Kong were the artists Sanmu Chen and Chan Mei-tung.

Hong Kong people, don’t be afraid of them. Don’t forget June 4, shouted a fearless Samnu Chen, surrounded by police officers.

Over the years, Hong Kong has been the only place in China where it has been allowed to mark the day. For decades, tens of thousands of people turned up for the annual candle vigil in Victoria Park in central Hong Kong.

But after China tightened its grip on the territory, all memorials have been removed and public markings banned.

White flowers

The well-known activists Kwan Chun-pong and Lau Ka-yee were arrested earlier on Saturday after they appeared in Victoria Park where they used to light candles for the victims. They carried flowers and sheets on which they said they would stop eating for a day in memory of the victims.

AFP journalists also saw police taking away a young couple dressed in white and carrying white chrysanthemums. White chrysanthemum is a symbol of mourning in Hong Kong. When asked if they were arrested, the man with flowers replied “I have no idea” as he was taken away.

The last time Hong Kong Chinese could legally light candles for the victims was in 2019. Since then, several activists who have defied the ban have been sentenced to several years in prison.

While China is brutally oppressing its own population, both in Hong Kong and across China in general, they are also planning an invasion of neighbouring Taiwan. Almost weekly, air strikes and invasion attempts are simulated in the waters around Taiwan. .

At the same time, they are trying to create credibility for themselves as a kind of peacemaker in the war in Ukraine.