THOUSANDS OF HONGKONGERS found a way to commemorate June 4 in the face of a public-health ban on the customary annual candlelight vigil in Victoria Park. Barriers set up around the park were trampled down and groups also gathered elsewhere in the city regardless of the 3,000 riot police deployed to enforce social distancing.
The remembrance was imbued with additional piquancy as it came within hours of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council passing the controversial national anthem law which criminalises disrespect of China’s national anthem. This is often booed or sung over at events such as football matches.
As with everything of late, the United States took the opportunity to needle Beijing over the date. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo posted a photograph of himself meeting Tiananmen Square survivors, prompting a somewhat necessarily oblique response that China’s progress over the past 30 years showed it had taken the right path.
China Bystander 