Candle-lit Vigil at Victoria Park marking the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre

More than 150,000 Hong Kong people attended the Tianmen candle-lit vigil at the Hong Kong Victoria Park marking the 20th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on protests in Tiananmen Square.

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Full Article from the SCMP:
Massive crowd at Tiananmen vigil

TIANANMEN CRACKDOWN - 20 YEARS ON
Agence France-Presse - 11:10pm, Jun 04, 2009

Tens of thousands of people filled Victoria Park on Thursday for a candle-light vigil marking the 20th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on protests in Tiananmen Square.

In the only commemoration of the military crackdown on Chinese soil, Victoria Park was thronged with people young and old. Organisers said 150,000 people attended, while police put the figure at 62,800.

The vigil has become a touchstone both for the movement for democracy in China and for the campaign to overturn Beijing’s official verdict condemning the 1989 demonstrations.

Organisers said before the event they were hoping 100,000 people would attend, more than double last year’s turnout. But crowds were still pouring into the park 40 minutes after the first candle was lit.

“This rally will tell the world... that we still remember the Tiananmen Square democracy movement,” Xiong Yan, one of the student leaders of the protests who was surprisingly let into Hong Kong on Saturday, said.

The Tiananmen crackdown − which left hundreds, possibly thousands dead − remains a taboo subject in China and authorities have moved aggressively to make sure the anniversary is not marked publicly anywhere on the mainland.

But Hong Kong, which has a separate legal system from most of China as part of the agreement that returned the city to Chinese rule in 1997, remains a centre for dissident activity because of its enshrined right to free speech.

The huge crowd was shown images from the six weeks of protests in Tiananmen Square, as well as footage of those injured in the military crackdown.

A recording of former Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang was played over the loudspeakers, as a sea of flickering candles lit up the park.

The main stage was festooned with a huge banner written in Chinese that said: “June 4th, 20 years − passing the fire to the next generation.”

Martin Lee, a veteran Hong Kong democrat, said he was moved by the huge turnout.

“I don’t have many wishes, the only wish I have is to be a proud Chinese. But because of tonight I think there is hope in China,” he said while sitting at the front of the huge crowd.

Hong Kong, which in 1989 was still under British control, provided crucial support to the Tiananmen protesters.

Major fundraising activities in the city helped provide food and tents for those in Tiananmen Square. An underground organisation then helped smuggle many of the protest leaders out of China after the crackdown.

Han Dongfang, a leading protester in 1989 who now fights for workers’ rights in China, said the sharp increase in the number of protests in the mainland over the past 10 years showed the spirit of Tiananmen had lasted.

“Today, countless Chinese people see protest as a means of realising their modest dreams of affluence, or reclaiming their usurped economic rights from corrupt officials, crooked businessmen and unscrupulous employers,” said Mr Han, who is based in Hong Kong.

“Though it has little to do with democratic theory or sloganeering, this process has become unstoppable. Is this not a continuation of the campaign we launched 20 years ago?”

Beijing has never apologised for the way it ended the more than six weeks of democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, the centre of political power in China.

The government on Thursday rejected calls for a review of the crackdown, saying the matter had already been settled.

“When you look at how China wants to eliminate even the memory of June the 4th, just by remembering, this event has a moral power to push for changes,” another event organiser and legislator, Lee Cheuk-yan, said.

Bao Pu, son of leading Chinese dissident Bao Tong and editor of a recently released memoir by Zhao Ziyang, the Chinese premier purged during the protests, said the dissident campaign would endure.

“We will never fail, because we will never give up,” said Mr Bao.