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Tiananmen Square crackdown
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Leung Kwok-wah says he takes a day off every year to help out at the Hong Kong vigil. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Hong Kong activist keeping promise he made 30 years ago to ensure Tiananmen Square crackdown is not forgotten

  • On June 4, 1989, Leung Kwok-wah arrived in Beijing to find rows of tanks on the road, with citizens blocking soldiers from entering capital
  • Locals had said he needed to tell people in Hong Kong what had happened, and he has done so ever since

On the morning of June 4, 1989, bank employee Leung Kwok-wah was waiting for his flight from Hong Kong to Beijing, ready to start his holiday.

To get in the mood for his Trans-Siberian Railway journey from Beijing to Moscow, the then 30-year-old had deliberately not checked the news from the night before and did not know the bloody crackdown at Tiananmen Square had occurred.

He learned the news on the plane, and arrived in Beijing to find rows of tanks and military vehicles on the road, with citizens blocking the soldiers from entering the capital. Transport to the railway station in the city centre was blocked.

Some mainlanders asked if he was from Hong Kong. “They said I needed to tell people in Hong Kong what had happened, that the government had committed murder,” recalled Leung, now 60 and a community organiser for the Democratic Party.

Choking back tears, he added: “I promised them that I would do so. I felt a sense of calling.”

He took part in a candlelight vigil held in Hong Kong on September 12, 1989, to mark 100 days after the crackdown.

The following year, he helped the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Democratic Patriotic Movements of China at the first anniversary vigil at Victoria Park, and has remained a volunteer ever since.

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“Every year, I take a day off from work and stay overnight from June 3 to keep an eye on all the equipment and resources for the candlelight vigil,” Leung said. “I have kept my promise and done what little I could.”

The alliance is led by chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan, 67, a lawyer and veteran pro-democracy politician. Its 20-strong standing committee comprises members mostly in their 40s and 50s. It relies on around 200 volunteers to organise the annual vigil.

Volunteer Kwan Chun-pong joined his first protest at the age of 17. Photo: Felix Wong

The alliance also runs the June 4 Museum in Mong Kok, which showcases items belonging to victims and survivors of the crackdown, as well as photos and videos documenting the 1989 democratic movement. Hundreds, perhaps more than 1,000 died in the crackdown.

Kwan Chun-pong was 17 when he took part in his first protest, less than a fortnight before the crackdown.

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On May 21, 1989, the day after Beijing declared martial law and mobilised its troops, about a million people took to the streets in Hong Kong and he joined the crowds.

“At that time we were still hopeful that our actions would help the students in Beijing,” said Kwan, now 47 and a production line machinery operator.

An old photo of Kwan Chun-pong at the June 4 Museum in Mong Kok. Photo: Felix Wong

Then the bloody crackdown happened, and Kwan remembers watching the news on television: “I just kept crying. I had never felt so shocked.”

A volunteer at the annual vigil every year, he hands out candles and pamphlets, maintains order and helps to clean up.

In the blink of an eye, it has already been 30 years, and the government still refuses to deal with this problem
Kwan Chun-pong, activist

“The only reason we still continue today is that we can’t accept the repression during the June 4 incident 30 years ago,” he said.

Initially, he recalled, everyone thought Beijing would present the facts soon and vindicate the 1989 student-led movement.

“But in the blink of an eye, it has already been 30 years, and the government still refuses to deal with this problem,” he said. “We can only keep doing whatever we can to seek justice for the students.”

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