Pro-democracy protesters marched in Hong Kong on Sunday to call for greater political freedom in China and an end to one-party rule, ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Tian-anmen Square crackdown.
Organizers said 3,000 people took to the streets in sweltering heat for the annual protest, calling on Beijing to release imprisoned political dissidents and formally acknowledge the bloody crackdown of 1989.
Hong Kong police put the number of protesters under 1,900.
It comes ahead of a mass candle-lit vigil planned for tomorrow to mark the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in which hundreds of people — by some estimates more than 1,000 — died.
Marchers shouted slogans such as “Democracy now,” “End one-party rule” and “Release Gao Yu (高玉),” referring to a Chinese journalist recently detained for allegedly leaking state secrets.
China still forbids public discussion of the events of June 3 and June 4, 1989, when the military brutally suppressed pro-democracy protesters, mainly students, in central Beijing.
Hong Kong is the only place in China to openly mark the anniversary.
“As for many years, it is a continuous struggle hoping to find justice and have a democratic China. This is the case even after 25 years,” protest organizer Richard Tsoi Yiu-cheong (蔡耀昌) said. “It is the responsibility of Hong Kong people to show support because we still have protection for our human rights.”
Including Gao, Chinese police have detained about 20 prominent liberal academics, lawyers and activists in recent weeks, according to the US-based group Human Rights in China.
Amnesty International last week criticized Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for choosing “repression over reform”, as clampdowns precede the Tiananmen anniversary.
Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule in 1997 as a semi-autonomous territory with its own constitution that guarantees basic rights and freedoms not held in China, including freedom of speech and assembly.
A bid by Beijing to introduce patriotic lessons in schools sparked massive protests in 2012, forcing the authorities to backtrack.
Pro-democracy advocates in the city have constantly sought ways to remind locals and Chinese visitors of what happened.
Lee Cheuk-yan (李卓人), a pro-democracy lawmaker who is the chairman of the Alliance, told protesters before the march: “We are protesting because suppression continues today and is getting more severe.”
“Led by the Xi Jinping administration, freedom and human rights in China today is at its worst for the past 25 years,” he said.
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
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