The Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS) has announced that it will not attend this year’s June 4 candlelight vigil of remembrance for the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
This is the first time the group will not be officially represented at the event, which has been organised annually for 26 years in Causeway Bay’s Victoria Park by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China.
Some commentators have suggested the snub could be a product of HKFS coming under pressure from the “localism” democracy movement, which rejects the need to campaign for political change in China as a whole.
In a statement, HKFS said some members were dissatisfied with the Alliance’s protest points, but insisted the Federation will host its own activities to commemorate the lives lost in the infamous student-led pro-democracy protests in Beijing.
“The federation’s standing committee has in the past 10 years decided by a ‘consensus mechanism’, which means that if there is one member who is not convinced by the other members, then we will not act in the name of the federation,” it said yesterday.
They’re kind of like “Sons of Anarchy” (fictional American biker gang) like that, just with less facial hair.
Photo: David Yan
Reader Interactions