A pro-democracy group that organizes Hong Kong’s annual candlelit vigils to commemorate victims of the Tiananmen Square crackdown must shut down or its members will face severe legal action, a Beijing loyalist says.

The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China has two options now, disbanding of its own accord or being outlawed under the national security law, Lo Man-tuen wrote in an article published in the Ming Pao newspaper on Monday.

The alliance was a “subversive” group because one of its slogans calls for “ending one-party rule,” a violation of the national security law, said Lo, a deputy chairperson of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, a Beijing-headquartered group.

Lo said any groups aimed at ending the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership of the nation must not exist in Hong Kong following Beijing’s imposition of the national security law in the city last year.

He also said the alliance, established in 1989 shortly before the June 4 crackdown, had been in breach of the “one country, two systems” principle and the Chinese constitution —  even when Hong Kong was still under British colonial rule.

However, individual members would be safe from legal action if they dissolved the group themselves, Lo said. But if they refused to do so, they could face charges as severe as subverting state power, he said.

Lo’s remarks came amid an ongoing attack on the alliance by the pro-Beijing camp.

Richard Tsoi, the alliance’s secretary, said during a radio talk show that the group would not be intimidated. Tsoi said the alliance would continue to hold June 4 commemorations in its pursuit of truth and justice.

Many Hongkongers marked the anniversary of the crackdown in their own way last week after police banned the alliance’s vigil and sent thousands of officers to seal off the venue, Tsoi said, describing such acts of remembrance as powerful and touching.

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