Hong Kong police on Wednesday intercepted a performance artist attempting to commemorate the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, underscoring the city's shrinking space for free expression. Sanmu Chen tried to attach a 6.4-metre red thread to a street signpost in Causeway Bay, near Victoria Park, which for decades hosted a large candlelight vigil on 4 June. Officers searched his bag and released him.
Chen said the thread's length referenced the date of the crackdown. 'When you are trying to say or do something and you are being monitored, that is a very abnormal situation,' he told reporters. He had been detained at least twice before for similar acts, including in 2024 and 2023.
Later that evening, another artist, Chan Mei Tung, was stopped by police while holding a question-mark-shaped balloon outside a department store. Officers escorted her to a subway station. Police later stated they had approached the individuals to learn more and that they left on their own, adding that any action was taken 'in accordance with the law'.
The annual Victoria Park vigil was banned in 2020 after China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong. Since then, authorities have suppressed dissent, arresting activists, shutting media outlets, and disbanding civil society groups. Three former vigil organisers were charged in 2021 with inciting subversion; two await verdicts that could carry up to 10 years in prison.
On Wednesday, a pro-China carnival began at the former vigil site. Tang Ngok Kwan, a former organiser, bowed in commemoration, quietly reading a list of victims and criticising the event's name. The actions highlight the decline in civil liberties since Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule in 1997.
