#NOW HKU @HKUniversity is covering up the June 4 slogan on Swire Bridge - slightly over one month after they toppled the #PillarofShame
Today is 28 Dec in lunar calendar, a day for people to thoroughly tidy up their home in order to welcome CNY. The erasure of the June 4 slogan on Swire Bridge means the last piece of June 4 monument in #HKU will be gone.
Last time #HKU took down #PillarofShame in the darkness of night leaving some half hundred reporters staying up till dawn . This time it’s happening in broad day light and fewer than 10 reporters are now at the scene.
Workers are putting up a door at the end of the makeshift coffin-like cover above most of the slogan , leaving three characters meaning “cold blooded slaughter” outside. What next ?
Coffin nailed except for three words “cold blooded slaughter”.
“What about these?” I asked.
“Then you can remember what the university did,” a worker said.
What happened in Hong Kong around June 4, 2024, the 35th anniversary of the deadly, military crackdown on democracy protests in China in 1989. It’s the first Tiananmen anniversary in Hong Kong since the city enacted a second national security law.
🗓️ May 24: Ex pro-democracy district councillor Debby Chan disclosed on social media that police called her concerning where she would run on June 4 and warned her not to contravene national security law.
🗓️ May 28: HK national security police made the first arrests under the newly enacted “#Article23” Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, rounding up jailed Tiananmen activist Chow Hang-tung and five associates over the allegation of…
#BREAKING HK top court ruled in favour of journalist @Baochoy’s appeal , quashing all her conviction and fines as the court found “there was no reason that bona fide investigative journalism … should be excluded from the phrase ‘other traffic and transport related purpose’.”
Choy was found guilty of “making false statement” 2 years ago for choosing the purpose of “other traffic and transport related matters” on the application form for car owner info from public registries controlled by the Transport Dept.
Choy’s search was for her award winning investigative report on #721YuenLongAttack in 2019. The application form then provided only 3 purposes for applicants after an amendment to remove the open-ended “other:” column in Oct 2019.
Tsui Hon-Kwong, veteran member of disbanded #HongKongAlliance - the group who hosted candlelight vigil for #June4 for three decades in HK, was taken away by police. He kept upholding his candle for #TiananmenMothers until police shut the door.
A man whose phone torch was on was taken away by police after a search. An officer snatched his phone as a group of officers escorted him into the search zone.
At a point people were lined up to wait for police search.
#BREAKING League of Social Democrats leader #ChanPoying was taken away minutes after she showed up with a small candle for #TiananmenMothers and two yellow flowers. She resisted and tried to uphold what she had in hands.
Heard LSD’s Chan Po-Ying said “why must police station? I don’t mind here.” before police bundled her into a police car.
Truck driver turned activist To Chi-kuen was taken away by police. He apparently carried nothing with him except wearing a tee that says “I don’t want to remember but I dare not to forget”.
#JUSTNOW This woman was taken away by police after a search. Not immediately clear what triggered the search. She upheld a small card with the Chinese characters “conscience” during the search. She wore a yellow mask, a black tee, a yellow skirt, and yellow socks with “Hong Kong”
“Going to a police station. Going to Wan Chai Police Station,” the woman shouted as police bundled her away.
A woman surnamed Cheung and in all black outfit was searched and let go by police. She told reporters police didn’t specify what made her suspicious and only checked her ID and bag. She took the search rather easy, “everyone knows what day is it today.”