The Hong Kong Alliance, the pro-democracy group that organizes the annual vigil to commemorate the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, is under investigation by the national security police in the city on suspicion of collusion with foreign forces. The police have sent a letter to the Alliance asking for clarification on the group’s members, financial situation and activities, according to a copy of the same circulated to reporters in Hong Kong, and accusing the group of being a “police officer. foreigners ”, threatening a fine of one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars (10,916 euros) and up to six months’ imprisonment if the requested information is not provided by 7 September.
Similar letters were also sent to individuals and associations that are members of the Alliance. The vice president of the group, Chow Hang-tung, quoted by the Reuters news agency, dismissed the accusations made by the police as “ridiculous”. Collusion with foreign forces is one of the crimes introduced by the Hong Kong national security law imposed by Beijing last year on the city to shut down pro-democracy movements.
The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Democratic Movements in China, the group’s full name, is at risk of disbanding, according to what has emerged in recent days, due to Beijing’s pressure against opposition figures, and the letter is the latest a sign of an ever tighter crackdown on pro-democracy groups: in recent weeks the main teachers’ union and the Civil Human Rights Front, the group that brought hundreds of thousands of people to the streets of Hong Kong in 2019, initiating pro-democracy protests in the city.