A top pro-Beijing tycoon on Monday wrote to pile pressure on Hong Kong’s police to outlaw the organization of the annual June 4 Tiananmen Square vigil this year, a day ahead of such discussions between the force and the rally organizer.

The vice-chairman of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, Lo Man-tuen, argued that assemblies that commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest movement in Beijing were an “illegal act that endangers national security” and must be prohibited.

“Otherwise, where is the authority of the national security law?” the 73-year-old entrepreneur questioned, referring to the legislation that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong last June.

The far-reaching law, which essentially criminalizes the city’s once-tolerated dissenting voices, has seen the detention of more than 100 pro-democracy activists, including Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai.

The 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown remains one of the most sensitive and widely censored topics in mainland China. After weeks of peaceful protests in the country’s capital, Communist Party leaders ordered armed troops accompanied by tanks to fire on demonstrators. Estimates of the death toll vary from hundreds to several thousand.

This was not the time this year that Lo had commented on Hong Kong’s Tiananmen Square candlelight vigil. On May 10, he appealed to pro-democracy politicians in Hong Kong to sever ties with the event in order to evade legal liability, saying that the organizers’ desire to end China’s one-party dictatorship breached the national security law. Hong Kong is the only Chinese city where a public memorial of the incident is tolerated.

According to Article 22 and Article 23 of the Beijing-imposed law, any action aimed at overthrowing or undermining the fundamental system of the People’s Republic of China is a subversion of state power. The mainland constitution also states that the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party is the fundamental system of the country and the most essential feature of socialism.

Lo’s appeal was part of Beijing’s “psychological warfare” to deter people from joining the vigil, said activist Chiu Yan-loy, adding that Lo’s comments were an attempt to control Hong Kong society by fear. Chiu is a committee member of vigil organizer, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China.

Click here for Chinese version

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play