It never rains but it pours in Hong Kong these days

 

June 4th, 2013 -- candles still were lit at Victoria Park

despite there being a veritable deluge that evening

 

It never rains but it pours.  That must be how members of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China must feel this week.  And even while they must have known that their defiance would their result in their incurring the ire of the authorities, the onslaught that has followed must surely be hard to bear.

The day after the arrests of four leading members of the Alliance for failing to supply information requested by the national security police (because, among other things, the requested information may not actually exist), its already shuttered June 4th Museum was raided by the cops.  Yesterday also saw 12 democrats (former legislative councillors Albert Ho, Andrew Wan, Cheung Man-kwong, "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-Hung, Cyd Ho, Chu Hoi-dick and Yeung Sum, and activists Figo Chan, Steven Kwok, Chiu Yan-loi, Mak Hoi-wah and Leung Kwok-wah) plead guilty in court to charges of having taken part in or inciting others to participate in last year’s banned Tiananmen Massacre vigil.  

In his mitigation speech (published in full here), Albert Ho was steadfast in his beliefs and honored Hong Kongers: "Why did the Hong Kong Alliance still continue to commemorate June 4 and demand the vindication of the 1989 Democracy Movement persistently after the suppression of the Movement in 1989? In short, it is due to the moral commitment and conscientious duty willing to be taken up by the Hong Kong People."

 

In his mitigation speech (available in full here), Yeung Sum stated the following: "Although the June Fourth Candlelight Vigil was more or less a form of ritual, it indistinctly created beliefs that were commonly shared by the Hong Kong people, such as the vindication of the June Fourth Incident, and the pursuit of democracy and freedom. These beliefs have been held on continuously for the past 32 years. Therefore, the values of valuing human rights, respecting life and pursuing democracy, freedom and justice have been established among Hong Kong citizens. These values and beliefs have formed the sense of identity of the Hong Kong people."

 

Today, the four people arrested on Wednesday were joined in court by another member of the Hong Kong Alliance and also the group's chairman, Lee Cheuk-yan, and co-vice-chairman (with Chow Hang-tung), Albert Ho (yes, the one who was among the ones in court in a separate trial yesterday).  Lee Cheuk-yan, Albert Ho and Chow Hang-tung were charged with the national security law offence of inciting subversion.  Chow also was charged along with four others of "failure to comply with notice to provide information" -- though, interestingly, the "collusion with foreign forces" accusations have now been fallen to the wayside.   

 

Also today, the national security police announced the freezing of HK$2.2 million worth of  the Hong Kong Alliance's assets.  In addition, the authorities are seeking to strike the Hong Kong Alliance off the Company's Register -- and while the Hong Kong Alliance officially will have until 5pm on September 24th to register their dissent and rebuttal, it's obviously facing an uphill battle to do so; not least since its leadership is behind bars, with Chow Hang-tung's latest bail denial occuring just this afternoon!       

What is one to makeof all this?  For now, all I'll do is to repeat this Tweet by Brian Hioe: i.e.,
"The arrests just keep coming in Hong Kong the past few days. Quite grim. The worst part is that this is the new normal, it looks like". :(