Hong Kong —
Three key organizers behind what used to be the only large-scale public commemoration for the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre on Chinese soil will spend years in prison for inciting subversion in Hong Kong after judges handed down their sentence on Friday.
Their imprisonment is the latest chapter in Beijing’s yearslong national security crackdown in Hong Kong underscoring the risks that now exist in the once outspoken city in commemorating the victims of a bloody event Chinese officials have spent decades trying to erase.
The trio were key figures from a group that organized an annual vigil in Hong Kong that marked the moments when the ruling Chinese Communist Party sent in tanks to violently quell peaceful, student-led democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
The yearly gathering - where crowds thousands strong would often chant “end one party rule” and other pro-democracy slogans - was a vivid symbol that starkly differentiated the financial hub from the rest of mainland China.
