Tiananmen mother forced to cancel trip to Hong Kong June 4 vigil after police visit
Parent whose son died in crackdown was told by police not to travel to city ahead of vigil
A representative of the Tiananmen Mothers whose son died in the bloody 1989 crackdown was forced to cancel her trip to Hong Kong, a few days before the annual vigil in Victoria Park next Tuesday.
Zhang Xianling, 76, said she was supposed to arrive in Hong Kong yesterday from Beijing with her husband, Wang Fandi, for a pipa musical competition that had invited him to be an adviser.
But last week police visited them at their home and asked them not to visit the city, without giving a clear explanation.
"I don't understand why the police are afraid of our visit to Hong Kong. I have already told them I do not plan to go to the vigil," Zhang said.
They had planned to return to Beijing this Saturday so they could commemorate the lives lost in the crackdown with the other Tiananmen Mothers.
"This is so shameful. The police only told us not to go to Hong Kong because the city was chaotic recently. They did not explain clearly what that meant … this is clearly [infringing] our rights," Zhang said.
On Monday, she received a call from the organiser, the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation, who told the couple not to visit Hong Kong.
"The organiser said that June 4 is coming and we should not go [to Hong Kong] during this sensitive time," Zhang said.
Her friends told her that the foundation had come under pressure from the mainland authorities over the couple's visit to Hong Kong.
Zhang said she hoped to attend the Victoria Park vigil one day. "I hope to come one day but that will be after we can commemorate the crackdown freely here [in Beijing] first," she said.
Her 19-year-old son Wang Nan was killed while taking photos in Changan Avenue during the crackdown.
Lee Cheuk-yan, chairman of Hong Kong Alliance In Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, a vigil organiser, said Zhang recently donated a helmet with a bullet hole that her son wore during the crackdown.
That might have irritated the mainland authorities, who pressured the foundation to cancel the couple's trip to Hong Kong, Lee said.