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The Hong Kong Police today banned the vigil in which, like every June 4, the city remembers the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre , considering that it would violate the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.

In a letter of objection sent to the event organizer and vice president of the Hong Kong Alliance for Support for China's Patriotic Democratic Movements, Richard Tsoi, authorities allege the inability of the vigil to comply with security distancing measures .

"Public meetings are now a high-risk activity due to crowds. Police believe that the act will not only increase participants' chances of contracting the virus, but will also threaten the lives and health of citizens, thereby putting public safety is at risk, "Tsoi said in a statement.

However, the organizers want the vigil to be held in the same way : they have asked Hong Kong people to light candles in the city and keep the safety distance, or to share images of candles through social media. The Alliance will also go to the Victoria Park, where they will keep a minute of silence.

The Alliance was formed in 1989 to support Chinese students who were then protesting in Beijing against corruption by the communist regime and in defense of greater freedoms, and who were forcibly repressed by the Chinese Army after nearly seven weeks of intense protests. Last year, some 180,000 people remembered the victims of the massacre.

This year, the vigil will be marked by the controversial Hong Kong security law with which Beijing aims to ban any act of central Chinese "subversion against the Government" in that city.

According to local lawyers and activists, the legislation could curtail the freedoms the semi-autonomous city enjoys and has already sparked some protests against it, as well as against another law that could criminalize insults to the Chinese anthem.

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