New | Anger at Beijing's stance on elections drove huge Tiananmen vigil turnout: organiser
Lee Cheuk-yan says young people may draw inspiration from 1989 student leaders; civil rights lawyer who backed Occupy at event 'was warned not to attend'
Frustration with Beijing’s opposition to open elections by universal suffrage in 2016 and 2017 may have driven the enormous turnout at the Victoria Park candlelight vigil to mark the 25th anniversary of the bloody Tiananmen crackdown last night, an organiser says.
Lee Cheuk-yan, chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, told RTHK on Thursday that he saw many young people and mainlanders at last night’s vigil.
Lee said young Hongkongers in particular may draw inspiration from the student leaders of the 1989 pro-democracy movement.
The alliance said 180,000 people attended last night, well up on the 150,000 it said attended last year. Police put last night’s attendance at 99,500.
Lee said the alliance had raised more than HK$1.7million during the event, including donations in yuan.
Remembering the crackdown was not the sole reason for many participants attending last night, Lee said.
“They see the Beijing government is not letting us have universal suffrage in Hong Kong,” he said. “They realise that while we are discussing universal suffrage here, our real opponent is Beijing.”
