Hong Kong police yesterday detained several pro-democracy figures on the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, including the leader of a key opposition party.
Chan Po-ying (陳寶瑩), a veteran activist and head of the League of Social Democrats, was in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay shopping district — an area that for years was the site of commemorations of the bloody June 4, 1989, crackdown in China. Holding a small LED candle — a common sight during the annual vigil — and two flowers, Chan was immediately seized by police and hauled into a van.
Earlier yesterday, Alexandra Wong (王鳳瑤), a prominent democracy activist better known as “Grandma Wong,” was also taken away. The 67-year-old was carrying flowers at the time.
Photo: AFP
Veteran journalist Mak Yin-ting (麥燕庭), the former chairwoman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, was also detained at Causeway Bay.
In total, Agence France-Presse reporters saw at least 10 people detained yesterday in the commercial district.
One of them was a woman who shouted: “Raise candles, mourn 64” — shorthand for the sensitive date. Another was a young man dressed in black who carried a book titled “35th of May,” another way to express the four days after May 31 in China.
One woman who was briefly questioned, searched and then released, shrugged and told a reporter: “Everyone knows what day is today.”
Police arrested four people on Saturday for “seditious” acts and “disorderly conduct,” and another four were detained on suspicion of breaching the peace.
By late afternoon yesterday, police had set up a tent in the middle of the busy shopping district where they questioned people out of direct sight of the public.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
RSS