Tiananmen vigil message wins in numbers game
- The discrepancy in attendance figures provided by organisers of the annual memorial and police is nothing new, but the huge, peaceful crowd was impressive
Tuesday night’s candlelight vigil marking the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown was both poignant and powerful.
The crowds, young and old, who gathered in Victoria Park provided a fitting memorial to those who died when pro-democracy protests were crushed by the military in Beijing in 1989.
Participants sang songs, shouted slogans, or were just there to remember. The attendance was, no doubt, swollen by concerns about plans to introduce a new extradition law allowing crime suspects to be transferred to the mainland. The number of participants is, however, in dispute.
Organisers say more than 180,000 attended. The police put the figure at a much more conservative 37,000. We have become familiar with such discrepancies in Hong Kong, which apply not only to the vigil, but also to major protests. A march planned for Sunday against the extradition bill will be no exception.
Greater attention has been paid to attendance figures since the July 1 march in 2003 against planned national security laws, which drew at least 500,000 people. That march led to the withdrawal of the planned legislation. The figure of half a million is generally accepted, although some argue even more people attended.
Over the years, attempts have been made by academic institutions and others to provide accurate numbers, but no universally accepted source or formula has emerged for determining the true figure.
People tend to believe what they want to believe. Most probably regard the real number to be higher than that given by the police and lower than the estimate by the organisers.
Hong Kong keeps flame alive in ‘record’ Tiananmen vigil
It is easy to understand why such attention is paid to the numbers in Hong Kong. Our chief executive is not yet elected by universal suffrage. Referendums are not politically viable. The vigil and the bigger protests are therefore seen as an opportunity to gauge public opinion and dissatisfaction with the government.
But the precise number attending is not the most important factor. It is not difficult to tell whether a demonstration is well attended.
Anyone witnessing Tuesday’s vigil knows that, whatever the true figure, the crowd was very big. It was a peaceful and impressive exercise of Hong Kong’s free expression and the message it conveyed was a strong one.
