Hong Kong police charged pro-democracy advocates, including Joshua Wong (黃之鋒), for taking part in a June vigil commemorating the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the latest move in an intensifying clampdown on the territory’s opposition movement.
Hong Kong Legislative Council member Eddie Chu (朱凱迪), former student leader Lester Shum (岑敖暉) and leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China — which was formed during the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989 — were also among those charged on Thursday for “knowingly taking part in an unauthorized assembly,” Cable TV reported, citing unidentified people.
They are due in court on Sept. 15, it said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Police levied new charges on 24 people, including several who had already been charged in June with inciting the unauthorized assembly.
Media tycoon and activist Jimmy Lai (黎智英) was among those charged in June, but was not handed an additional charge on Thursday.
Some of those charged confirmed the news via their social media accounts, including Wong, who on Wednesday appeared in court on separate charges related to last year’s siege of the Hong Kong police headquarters.
“Just 24 hours after I have left the court yesterday morning, I am now facing another charge by the government,” he wrote on Twitter. “Clearly, the regime plans to stage another crackdown on the city’s activists by all means.”
Tens of thousands of people came out peacefully for this year’s vigil on June 4, defying the first government ban on the vigil in three decades due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The government’s move is likely to fuel criticism that Beijing is trying to quash Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, following the disqualification of at least a dozen opposition candidates from now-delayed Legislative Council elections scheduled for Sept. 6.
The charges are tied to an event held before China imposed a National Security Law on the territory at the end of June, and did not appear to be related to the new legislation.
However, they come as Hong Kong police have ramped up enforcement of the legislation, issuing arrest warrants earlier this month for six activists who live overseas and arresting four young activists for online comments that allegedly fell afoul of the legislation.
Concerns are also rising globally about Hong Kong’s future autonomy and the state of basic freedoms in the territory. Countries — including the UK, Canada and Germany — have suspended their extradition treaties with Hong Kong following the adoption of the legislation, and the US has moved to end so-called special trading privileges that distinguish the territory from China.
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