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Gary Cheung

Leaders of a Hong Kong group behind the annual vigil marking the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown have decided to disband the organisation.
A source said the standing committee of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China held a special meeting on Monday and recommended dissolving the embattled organisation.
The alliance will be disbanded if an emergency general meeting of member groups endorses that decision.
But although alliance vice-chairwoman Chow Hang-tung confirmed the meeting had taken place, she would not comment on whether a recommendation to disband had been made.
“All decisions will be taken by the alliance’s general meeting,” she said.

Organisers said more than 180,000 residents attended its vigil in 2019, although police put the figure at 37,000 people at its peak.
The 32-year-old group is the latest opposition organisation to fold after two other civic bodies being investigated under the national security law disbanded.
The alliance – the only group in China openly calling for an end to “one-party dictatorship” – has come under increasing political pressure since Beijing imposed the security law on the city on June 30 last year.
Alliance representative Simon Leung Kam-wai said on Saturday that core remaining members of the group would meet to discuss whether to disband, as one possible response to “the dire political environment”.
Vice-chair of June 4 vigil organiser wins bail at Hong Kong High Court
The Civil Human Rights Front, the umbrella group behind many of Hong Kong’s largest protests, decided on August 13 to disband. Three days earlier, the Professional Teachers’ Union (PTU) said it was breaking up after the government severed ties with the opposition-leaning education body and police warned of further action.
Security chief Chris Tang Ping-keung has suggested that the PTU and the front should be investigated for national security offences, and warned that disbanding would not protect them from prosecution.
Key members of several pro-opposition groups told the Post that middlemen with links to Beijing had advised them in recent months to dissolve on their own accord by the end of August or the central and Hong Kong governments would crack down on them later.

The alliance’s annual vigil at Victoria Park was the only event of its size on Chinese soil commemorating the crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
The alliance, founded that year, had five goals: the release of dissidents, vindication of the 1989 movement, accountability for the crackdown, an end to one-party rule in mainland China and the building of a democratic country.
Pro-establishment figures earlier argued that, under the security law, any calls for an end to one-party rule would amount to subversion. But some legal experts have disagreed, saying the offence required a person to resort to the “use of force or threat of force or other unlawful means” to achieve the stated goal.
End of Hong Kong’s Tiananmen vigil? Pockets of defiance on June 4 in age of national security law
Beijing hinted this summer for the first time that the alliance’s signature slogan was problematic. The director of the central government’s liaison office, Luo Huining, told a forum on June 12 that those calling for an end to one-party rule were the “real enemies of Hong Kong”, although he did not name any entities or individuals.
Local authorities banned the vigil this year and last, citing public health concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Various member organisations began withdrawing from the alliance in April. In a statement issued on July 10, the alliance revealed that seven of its 14 committee members had decided to quit, including secretary Richard Tsoi Yiu-cheong.
Of the seven remaining, chairman Lee Cheuk-yan and vice-chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan are in jail. All staff members had been dismissed by the end of July, but the alliance said it would continue operating despite its drastically reduced numbers.


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Hong Kong politics

Group that organised annual June 4 Tiananmen vigil in Hong Kong decides to disband

Residents observe the vigil on June 4 last year along the Kwun Tong waterfront after the usual gathering at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay was cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

A top view of Victoria Park closed by Police in the afternoon. Police seal off the Victoria Park in Causeway Bay on June 4th, 2021 to bar public access and prevent unauthorised assemblies upon June 4 incident. 04JUN21 Photo: SCMP/ Martin Chan

Richard Tsoi Yiu-cheong holds a candle at the Pillar of Shame in HKU campus to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of the June 4th incident on June 4, 2021. 04JUN21 SCMP / Felix Wong

Organiser behind many of Hong Kong’s biggest protests to disband but police crackdown against group ‘won’t stop’

Anti-government protesters hit the streets on New Year’s Day in 2020 in a march organised by the Civil Human Rights Front. Photo: Nora Tam

Crowds hold up their candles at the June 4th Candle Light Vigil, marking the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989 in Victoria Park, Causeway Bay. 04JUN19  SCMP / James Wendlinger   [FEATURES 2019]

The Commissioner of Police Raymond Siu Chak-yee speaks to the media after passing-out parade at Hong Kong Police College in Wong Chuk Hang. 10JUL21 SCMP/ Winson Wong

Hong Kong’s biggest teachers’ union drops political bombshell, announcing its disbandment after authorities cut ties

Hong Kong teachers from PTU attend an August 2019 rally during the anti-government protests. Photo: Dickson Lee

Professional Teachersâ Union to disband after authorities severed ties. Professional Teachersâ Unionâs decision follows education authorities severing ties with the group, police warning of national security probe. 10AUG21 SCMP/ May Tse

Fung Wai-wah, center, President of Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union (HKPTU), attends a press conference announced on Tuesday that it is disbanding, at Mong Kok.   10AUG21      SCMP / May Tse

General view of Professional Teachers' Union Centre (PTU) in Causeway Bay. On July 31, the Education Bureau in Hong Kong said it would no longer recognise the union, hours after two mainland newspapers called the union a 'malignant tumour' which had to be removed. 07AUG21 SCMP/ Warton Li

The University of Hong Kong alumni concern group, Professional Teachers' Union and HKU Staff Association march to Government House in protest of Leung Chun-ying's appointment of Arthur Li Kwok-cheung as HKU council chairman at Charter Garden, Central. 03JAN16 SCMP/Felix Wong

PTU supermarket will continue to operate for now after the union announced its disband, at Mong Kok branch.    10AUG21.      SCMP / Sam Tsang

Virtual Tiananmen Square museum crowdfunded by Hong Kong vigil organiser launches

An exhibit from the now closed June 4 museum. A virtual museum dedicated to the Tiananmen Square crackdown launched on Wednesday. Photo: Edmond So

Screenshots of the virtual exhibits in this online June 4 museum. HANDOUT PHOTO

News

Hong Kong

Politics


The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China becomes latest opposition group to dissolve
Group’s call for end to ‘one-party dictatorship’ in mainland China was viewed by some pro-establishment figures as an act of subversion



The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China becomes latest opposition group to dissolve as political climate in city shifts.


June 4 vigil in Hong Kong

Hong Kong national security law (NSL)