Hong Kong police arrest street artist hours before anniversary of Tiananmen Square massacre

Causeway Bay [Hong Kong], June 4 (ANI): The Chinese law enforcement agencies on Monday detained a street artist from Causeway Bay in Hong Kong merely hours before the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, Voice of America (VOA) reported on Tuesday.

The street artist Sanmu Chen was arrested from the area that is close to Victoria Park, where the annual commemoration of the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989 took place.

However, after the introduction of new security laws imposed by Beijing in 2020, the events and the crowds have disappeared.

According to the VOA, Chen was arrested for the second time. Last year the artist was arrested at the same time for reportedly chanting slogans “Hong Kongers, do not be afraid. Don’t forget tomorrow is June 4.”

This time the artist has been arrested for mimeing the action of drinking in front of a police van. Additionally, he also appeared to write or draw in the air.

The same report claimed, that for over a week now, the Chinese police have put a clampdown on individuals accused of making “seditious” social media posts. One of the arrested individuals is Chow Hang-tung an activist a pro-democracy activist and an organizer of the annual Victoria Park event. As of now, Chow has served a 30-month sentence since 2021.

According to the historical record claimed in the VOA report, The Tiananmen Square crackdown occurred when government troops fired on student-led pro-democracy protestors on June 4. Hundreds, possibly thousands, died. And now the annual event observed for showing solidarity for the 1989 incident is no longer observed, the event’s organisers have disbanded and three of its leaders have been charged.

According to the VOA report, critics have stated that the end of the vigil has shown that the freedoms in Hong Kong have deteriorated since the British returned the former colony to Chinese rule in 1997. Beijing and Hong Kong have stated that the new law restored stability following anti-government protests in 2019.

Stephen Chow, Hong Kong’s Roman Catholic cardinal in an article published last week stated “Perhaps it is through forgiveness that all parties can escape the finger-pointing and the painful mindset of ‘I will never forgive,'” referencing to the same event of commemoration of the event.

Several others have communicated the same using coded and hidden references Several police officers spent an hour at an independent bookstore and recorded customer names after staff had put a coded reference to June 4, “5.35” on the window the same VOA report claimed.