China blasts US and EU consulates found in Hong Kong for Tiananmen candles
05 June, 2021
China on Saturday (Jun 5) berated the US and EU consulates found in Hong Kong for displaying candles to commemorate the June Tiananmen crackdown, slamming it as a good "clumsy political display" to destabilise the city.
Candles were seen lit found in the 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 office on Friday night.
The missions also posted photographs of their candlelit Tiananmen memorials on social media.
"Any attempt 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 business office of China's overseas ministry said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said 'The Tiananmen demonstrations are echoed in the struggle for democracy and freedom in Hong Kong' AFP/Peter PARKS
"We again urge the organs of relevant countries in Hong Kong to immediately ... end meddling with Hong Kong affairs and China's inner affairs at large, and avoid using fire."
For three decades in Hong Kong, enormous crowds, often thousands solid, have held candlelit vigils on Jun 4 for all those killed in 1989 when tanks and troops crushed pro-democracy protests in Beijing.
Crowds have swelled in recent years while Hong Kongers chafe under Beijing's increasingly assertive rule.
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 frequently violent democracy protests two years ago.
Flashes of defiance even so flickered across the city Friday night as people simultaneously turned their cellular phone lights or perhaps lit candles in multiple districts across metropolis to mark the day.
There have been online calls for folks to turn away the lights in the home and place candles within their windows in commemoration.
General public commemorations of Jun 4 are forbidden in mainland China and, until recently, semi-autonomous Hong Kong was the main one place on China where large scale remembrance was even now tolerated.
Source: