The emergence and suppression of the Alliance - an organization committed to peaceful, rational, and nonviolent action - parallels the fate of the broader pro-democracy movement. The memorial vigils commemorating the Tiananmen Massacre have been banned for two consecutive years. Of their five “operational goals,” the goal of “ending authoritarian one-party rule” has fueled attacks from pro-establishment figures, such as the Chinese Association of Hong Kong & Macao Studies’ Tian Feilong (田飛龍), who argued that the goal violated the NSL and should either be scrapped, or the Alliance disbanded. Of the Alliance’s 14 standing committee members, the chair and vice-chair - Lee Cheuk-yan (李卓人) and Albert Ho Chun-yan (何俊仁) – are currently behind bars many others have open cases against them. However, with the imposition of the National Security Law heralding a new era for Hong Kong, the Alliance demonstrated its willingness to cross red lines when it came to commemorating the first anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre after the NSL’s passage. Its adherence to this doctrine, with the more recent rise of Hong Kong localism, invited criticism from those who saw the Hong Kong Alliance as being about formality over substance, or even as agents of Chinese nationalism.
The Hong Kong Alliance (支聯會 in Chinese abbreviation) maintains five operational goals (五大綱領) for the completion of its long-term mission: the establishment of a democratic China. How did this movement build upon the past and set the stage for future civil action? This local movement that sprang up on a scale never before seen from the groundswell of patriotism in 1989 would prove an instrumental moment in the awakening of the Hong Kong people. In unprecedented spontaneous mass events, people continued to defy the limits of the rally grounds in a giant step forward for Hong Kong’s civil society.
Its full name - the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (香港市民支持愛國民主運動聯合會), notably combines the term “patriotic” with the struggle for democracy.Īs spring turned into summer, people of Hong Kong from all bands of the political spectrum stood out fearlessly to voice their support for student demonstrators gathered at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. – The Editorsįollowing the rally in Hong Kong that saw more than a million people take to the streets amid the democratic movement then sweeping across mainland China, an alliance was born. While the Stand News website has been taken offline, you can still find the original Chinese version of the feature ( here, here, here, here ) on their “repository” site. In the fall of 2021, China Change obtained permission for translating the profile, and shortly afterwards on December 29, 2021, Stand News announced its closure after senior staffers were apprehended by police and its office raided the same day. Starting today and in seven installments, China Change will post a translation of an in-depth profile of the Alliance published in Stand News in June 2021. The Hong Kong Alliance was the organizer of the June 4th Vigils from 1990 to 2019 until it was banned in 2020 under Covid rules and outlawed in 2021 and since, following the imposition of the National Security Law in the Hong Kong SAR. The Alliance was disbanded on Septemunder intense pressure from the new law. Those without a keen familiarity with Hong Kong’s democracy movements, especially our English-speaking readers, might not have heard about the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, but you’ve likely seen photos of the annual June 4th Vigil in the city’s Victoria Park, where a sea of candle lights flickered year after year for 30 years.