By Christoph Ricking
Many people in Hong Kong have chosen to stay away from this year’s Tiananmen Square commemorations. The China-controlled city’s youth do not identify with struggles in mainland China and want to fight their own battles.
A number of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy groups will not participate in commemorations of the Tiananmen Square massacre this year. Twenty-six years ago on June 4, Chinese military crushed a pro-democracy movement in Beijing by shedding the blood of hundreds of students and activists. To date, Chinese authorities do not allow any form of commemoration of the killings. But, in the special administrative region of Hong Kong, tens of thousands of people remember the massacre every year.
After Hong Kong’s largely unsuccessful pro-democracy protests last autumn, many people in the city have voiced their criticism of the significance placed on Tiananmen commemorations. The Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS), one of the leading protest groups, says it will not be holding Tiananmen Square vigils this year. The Student Federation of the University of Hong Kong (HKUSU) will organize its own event on June 4. Read more