China berates U.S., EU consulates in Hong Kong for Tiananmen candles
06 June, 2021
China on Saturday berated the U.S. and EU consulates in Hong Kong for showing candles to commemorate the June 4 Tiananmen crackdown, slamming it as a "clumsy political exhibit" to destabilize the town.
Candles were seen lit found in the home windows of the US consulate construction, which is next to the home of Hong Kong's Beijing-appointed head Carrie Lam, and the European Union's business office on Friday night.
The missions also posted photographs of their candlelit Tiananmen memorials on social media.
"Any try to exploit Hong Kong to handle infiltration or sabotage actions against the mainland crosses the crimson line ... is completely intolerable," a spokesperson for the Hong Kong office of China's overseas ministry said.
"We again urge the organs of relevant countries in Hong Kong to immediately ... stop meddling with Hong Kong affairs and China's interior affairs most importantly, and avoid using fire."
For three decades in Hong Kong, large crowds, often thousands good, have held candlelit vigils on June 4 for those killed in 1989 when tanks and troops crushed pro-democracy protests in Beijing.
Crowds have swelled recently as being Hong Kongers chafe under Beijing's increasingly assertive guideline.
Even so this year's vigil was banned at the same time when Hong Kong authorities are following a sweeping clampdown in dissent following huge and often violent democracy protests 2 yrs ago.
Flashes of defiance even so flickered across the location Friday night as residents simultaneously turned their cellular phone lights or perhaps lit candles found in multiple districts across the location to mark the time.
There have been online calls for folks to turn away the lights at home and place candles within their windows in commemoration.
Public commemorations of June 4 are forbidden in mainland China and, until recently, semi-autonomous Hong Kong was the main one place in China where large scale remembrance was even now tolerated.
Source: japantoday.com
TAG(s):