Activist ‘Grandma Wong’ arrested over Tiananmen march following Hong Kong police ban on June 4 events
- Alexandra Wong marched solo from start point of annual march that police banned again this year citing Covid-19 restrictions
- The 65-year-old was arrested in Wan Chai on suspicion of taking part in an unauthorised assembly, and related incitement offence
Alexandra Wong Fung-yiu was pictured on Sunday afternoon at Wan Chai’s Southorn Playground holding a placard referring to the 1989 crackdown, before setting off in the direction of Beijing’s liaison office in Sai Ying Pun with police in tow.
It is the second straight year that authorities have refused on public health grounds to issue a letter of no objection for the march, which was being organised by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China.
The alliance had been expecting 3,000 to 5,000 people to march to the central government’s liaison office to mark the crackdown’s 32nd anniversary.
Police also outlawed, for the same reason, the alliance’s June 4 candlelight vigil in Victoria Park, which organisers said drew crowds of 180,000 in 2019, although police put the figure at 37,000.
Wong was seen in a media report at about 2pm on Sunday sitting outside Southorn Playground with a placard bearing the message “32, June 4, Tiananmen’s lament” and a yellow umbrella, a symbol of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy Occupy movement in 2014. The umbrella also featured the British Union flag on it. She was chanting slogans on her own outside the playground, where some people were playing basketball and others were sitting in the spectator stand.