Hong Kong’s Tiananmen Museum Scrambles to Save History from Chinese Persecution

HONG KONG, CHINA - MAY 20: Visitors look at items on display at the June 4 Museum, dedicat
Billy H.C. Kwok/Getty

Hong Kong’s Tiananmen Square museum is scrambling to digitize its collection as the city’s new national security crackdown spells uncertainty for the unsanctioned site, Reuters reported on Monday.

Under the new “national security” law, which China imposed on Hong Kong last week, people found guilty of crimes related to “secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces,” face strict punishments, including a maximum sentence of life in prison. Human rights organizations around the world have condemned the law for effectively eliminating Hong Kong citizens’ traditional rights to free speech and free assembly.

The Tiananmen Square museum in Hong Kong honors and documents the 1989 massacre, which saw Chinese soldiers open fire on unarmed student protesters, killing at least several thousand people. The exact number of casualties remains unknown, as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) refuses to release an official death toll from the incident and officially bans public acknowledgment of the massacre within China.

Hong Kong’s Tiananmen Square museum – the world’s only one – also serves as the local memory keeper for the city’s own pro-democracy movement, sparked last summer in response to the CCP’s insidious encroachment on Hong Kong’s limited freedoms, guaranteed under a 1997 “One Country, Two Systems” agreement.

The museum’s manager, Lee Cheuk-yan, told Reuters that the site’s future remains uncertain. Under the new security law, the museum’s content could be deemed as “subversive or undermining the Chinese government.”

“We hope that the physical artifacts will not be confiscated in the future, and that is exactly what really worries us,” Lee said. In an effort to preempt any possible censoring or shut down by the government, Lee has begun raising funds to digitize the collection. He hopes to fully transfer the collection online by September 2021.

According to the report, Lee is also the chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which organizes a Tiananmen anniversary vigil in Hong Kong on June 4 each year. The commemoration is traditionally attended by tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong, despite the Chinese government’s refusal to officially acknowledge the event.

Hong Kong police canceled the vigil this year, citing public health concerns over the Chinese coronavirus, though thousands still attended an unofficial ceremony.

“We believe you can ban the rally but you cannot ban the heart, the remembrance, our memories … we will continue to remind the world what had happened 31 years ago,” Lee said.

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