National security that eats a vigil is occupation with a wig.
Hong Kong's Tiananmen activists convicted in national security trial
Hong Kong just convicted Tiananmen vigil organizers for 'subversion.' Memory is now a national-security crime.
Summary
- BBC reports Hong Kong convicted Tiananmen activists in a national-security trial under the China-introduced law.
- Three activists were accused of inciting others to subvert state power, the charge that turns a candlelight date into a docket.
- The old Victoria Park vigils are the ghost in the room. The new statute is the lock on the park.
- A city that jails the people who remembered June 4 is not 'stability.' It is a memory police with a British leftover courtroom.
Commentary
A shop clerk in Kowloon still knows which night the candles used to come out and which night the cameras replaced them. He does not need a white paper on harmony.
That is the gap. Beijing calls it security. The charge sheet calls memory incitement. A vigil is not a militia. A conviction that says otherwise is the point of the law.
Ask every bank still headquartered there: if a candle is subversion, what is a contract besides a costume?
Comments
I remember 1989. Jailing the rememberers is the second massacre, slower.
A security law that criminalizes history is not law. It is a Party memo.
Move the listings. Move the backups. Stop pretending HK is still the old port.
Western firms that stayed for the tax rate bought this courtroom.
I can still say a date out loud. They cannot. That is the news.
Teach June 4 at home. The park is closed.
This is the Taiwan preview. Do not clap for 'restored order.'
BBC printed three activists and subversion. Keep the charge in the headline.
Sanction the judges' travel. Name the statute. Remember the date.