Link: rthk.hk/radio/radio3/
BackChat:
4 June 2021
Hugh Chiverton and Danny Gittings
June 4th under NSL
On Friday’s Backchat:
Click here for Full Segment of the RTHK Radio 3 audio file with David Zweig, Professor Emeritus, Division of Social Science, and Director, Center on China’s Transnational Relations, HKUST.
Dr Zweig and the other guests are introduced at 9:36 on the Full Segment, they continue the conversation through approximately 26:00.
Below is the Backchat introduction of the topic by Hugh Chiverton.
This year’s planned vigil was the first after the national security law. But for the second year in a row, it has been banned, with the police citing risks of Covid-19 infection.
City leader Carrie Lam was asked if the slogan “end one-party rule” in China is illegal, she said, “this is such a complicated matter, and it is difficult for the chief executive to answer here with a yes or a no.” She also declined to comment on why the vigil had been banned when other large gatherings such as concerts and art fairs were allowed.
The organiser has now dropped calls for people to show up at the vigil, and appealed to residents to mourn in their own way. 7 churches across Hong Kong will hold masses at 8pm to commemorate.
Sources say the police are planning to deploy up to 7,000 officers to stop any possible unauthorised gatherings. The sources also say people go near Victoria Park and are dressed in black, chant slogans, or light candles, there is a chance they will be considered to be there in connection with the banned assembly.
What do you think about the ban? How are attitudes to what happened in Beijing in 1989 changing?