Macau has banned a vigil marking China’s Tiananmen Square Massacre for the second year in a row, with authorities this time saying that the event would “incite subversion.”
The annual June 4 Tiananmen vigil was marked for more than three decades with a photographic exhibition and small gathering.
Now it has been de facto outlawed.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Rights advocates on Tuesday posted police documents online in which officers said slogans and information displayed at the previous Tiananmen photo exhibitions and vigils “defame and slander the central government, incite subversion and disturb the harmony in society.”
Police also cited the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason to ban the event, although Macau has recorded no cases in months.
It is the first time authorities have made clear a political reason for banning remembrance of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, an event that has largely been purged from collective memory in mainland China.
Last year’s cancelation of the vigil and exhibition in Macau was blamed by authorities only on the pandemic.
New Macau Association Legislator Antonio Ng (吳國昌), a member of the Macau Union of Democratic Development, described the ban as another political watershed.
“No law has been changed,” Ng wrote on Facebook. “Why all of a sudden, the vigil, which has always been peaceful, rational and lawful, is now accused of violating the Penal Code?”
“This is obviously a crime created for political persecution, to crack down on the vigil and violate Macanese rights of assembly and demonstration,” he wrote.
Hong Kong’s Tiananmen vigils have attracted hundreds of thousands of people, especially in more recent years as large chunks of the territory chafe under Beijing’s rule.
Last year’s vigil was also banned in Hong Kong for the first time on public health grounds — although tens of thousands of people defied police and turned up anyway.
Authorities in Hong Kong have already indicated that they plan to ban this year’s rally.
It is unclear whether people will take to the streets now that Hong Kong has been enveloped in a sweeping National Security Law that has criminalized much dissent.
More than 100 democracy advocates have been arrested under the new law while some leaders of last year’s unauthorized rally are serving jail sentences.
In other developments in Hong Kong, the territory’s Legislative Council yesterday was expected to change electoral laws to drastically reduce the public’s ability to vote for lawmakers and increase the number of pro-Beijing lawmakers making decisions.
Once approved, the amendments mean that the Hong Kong National Security Department will check the backgrounds of potential candidates for public office and a new committee will be set up to ensure those candidates are patriotic.
The number of seats in the council will be expanded to 90, with 40 of them elected by a largely pro-Beijing committee.
The number of legislators elected directly by Hong Kongers will be cut to 20, from the previous 35.
Additional reporting by AP
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