Huge crowds would routinely gather in the park to pay tribute to victims of the Chinese government's 1989 clampdown. Read more here:
In the nearby bustling Causeway Bay shopping district, a performance artist who whittled a potato into the shape of a candle and held a lighter to it was surrounded by more than a dozen officers and taken away in a police van, an AFP reporter saw.Semi-autonomous Hong Kong had been the one place in the country where large-scale remembrance was still tolerated -- until Beijing imposed a wide-reaching national security law two years ago, in reaction to citywide pro-democracy protests.
The artists were closely watched by the police, who broadcast warnings that onlookers might be at risk of breaching social distancing laws. The vigil had been banned in 2020 and 2021 as well, with police citing a ban on gatherings under anti-coronavirus rules. The Hong Kong Alliance, one of the main organisers of the Victoria Park vigil, disbanded last September and its leaders are being prosecuted for subversion.