First, parliamentarians Eddie Chu and Raymond Chan jumped up from their seats and emptied a bottle of fertilizer mixture on the floor. The vote was postponed for a little over three hours and the hall was cleaned up. Then, when the meeting reopened, another opposition MP rushed to the President's podium, broke down, and only managed to throw a large open bottle of similar brown liquid on the floor of Parliament.
Chu justified the action as it is the anniversary of the events in Tiananmen Square today, explaining that "the communist regime that killed its own citizens stinks forever".
This year, Hong Kong Chinese cannot celebrate the Fourth of June in the way they usually do. The annual Fourth of June manifestations for the events at Tiananmen Square in Hong Kong are the world's largest. You've probably seen the pictures. People sit with lit candles in Victoria park well into the night. But this year, memorial time has been banned, citing social distance rules.
There are other ways to remember what happened in Beijing on June 4, 1989. You can watch China's national news program that night, for example. It is called Xinwen lianbo. China's equivalent of Report or Current. The broadcast from June 4, 1989 is on youtube.
On June 4, 1989, Xinwen Lianbo begins in the usual way. But the young woman, Du Xian, who reads the news speaks softly, is dressed completely in black, and sounds sad.
The 80s were very different. Then even the highest leadership thought that the future would be completely different. In 1984, China's then senior leader Deng Xiaoping told Margaret Thatcher that if China did not become more like Hong Kong when it was time for the area to be fully integrated with China, then they would probably have to wait a bit for the transposition.
The signature melody for the evening news Xinwen lianbo has sounded the same since the 80s. It is pompous and symphonic. Cinematic. The loop could start an old TV series or movie. Just like China's national anthem The Volunteer's March, which actually comes from a movie. "Children of a Hard Time" from the 30s. In the 1930s, the Communists were more like a cultural-political coterie, with guerrilla soldiers and actors and journalists in the same gang. Mao married a famous actress.
Today, Hong Kong is being forced to become more and more like China, not the other way around. And right now things are going fast. The Hong Kong National Security Act is already clubbed, in Beijing. And the National Song Act, which was passed today, means that the one who violates the Chinese national anthem The Volunteer's March in Hong Kong risks three years in prison, and the equivalent of SEK 60,000 in fines.
And the TV anchors nowadays on Xinwen lianbo sound more and more like that theatrical woman with a dull voice reading news in North Korea. Now they stint and stare intently into the camera. Not as familiar and personal as Du Xian.
And current President Xi Jinping is also married to a famous artist, just like Mao was. She is a military musical star. She sings to large orchestras that sound like the evening news Xinwen lianbo's signature melody, or the patriotic film music of the 30s.
Du Xian was fired after the broadcast on Tiananmen Square. She was not allowed to look so sad or act so subdued for such a thing. Ever since then.