The Hong Kong group that organized an annual Tiananmen Square vigil will disband, an organizer told local press Saturday, making it the latest pro-democracy body to dissolve under pressure from the city’s sweeping national security law.
After decades organizing peaceful candlelight memorials to remember the people who were killed during the 1989 protests, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China voted 41 to 4 to disband, local papers including Ming Pao reported. The emergency meeting was called after the group refused to comply with a police request last month to turn over information on its membership and finances.
The group’s leadership was divided in the weeks before the vote. Last week, Chairman Lee Cheuk-yan and his deputy Albert Ho urged members to choose to disband in letters published on the alliance’s official Facebook page. On Thursday, however, a message posted on another leader’s Facebook site asked voters to "oppose the dissolution motion and give the alliance a chance to continue.”