Global Courant
HONG KONG — The United Nations said Monday it was “alarmed” by Hong Kong’s detentions linked to the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, while China said its financial center was moving from “chaos” to prosperity .
Hong Kong police said they detained 23 people on Sunday for “violating public peace” and also arrested a 53-year-old woman for “interfering with police officers” on the anniversary of the violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing in 1989.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on Twitter for the release of anyone detained for “exercising freedom of expression and peaceful assembly”.
Hong Kong’s public broadcaster RTHK said the 23 people detained on Sunday were all later released.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Beijing strongly supported the Hong Kong authorities in their efforts to maintain security and stability.
He also told a regular press conference on Monday that the Chinese government had “long since come to a clear conclusion regarding the political turmoil that occurred in the late 1980s.”
“I also want to emphasize that any attempt to use this as an excuse to defame China and interfere in its internal affairs will not succeed,” he added.
China’s foreign ministry said in a statement late Sunday that “Today’s Hong Kong is moving from chaos to stability and prosperity on the right track of ‘one country, two systems'”.
“External forces,” including the United States, must uphold international law and end Hong Kong’s “futile political manipulation” to contain China, a ministry spokesman said.
Restrictions on speech and public protests in Hong Kong’s administrative region have stifled what were once massive candlelight vigils marking the anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown, leaving cities such as Taipei, London, New York and Berlin to reminisce about June 4. keep alive.
Hundreds of police officers conducted stop-and-search operations and deployed armored vehicles near Victoria Park, the previous site of annual vigils.
Hong Kong activists say such policing is part of a wider campaign by China to quell dissent in the city, which promised freedoms for 50 years under a “one country, two systems” model when former colonial ruler Great Britain returned it in 1997. .
