By Jerome A. Cohen
Today Hong Kong police, citing the need to enforce social-distancing rules, rejected permission for the annual June 4th vigil, for the first time in 30 years. In a governmental system where too little is transparent, one thing is transparent — the excuse for the June 4th ban is not credible. The Hong Kong Government and the Central Government plainly do not want to give Hong Kongers the opportunity to express themselves about either June 4th, 1989 or June 4th, 2020.
Will Hong Kongers be able to hold the vigil next year? A year is an eternity in politics, and predictions are hazardous. Yet, unless there is an unexpected change in leadership in Beijing, it surely seems likely, especially in light of the forthcoming legislation of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the recent NPC Decision, that Hong Kong might follow Macao in succumbing to the Amnesia that has long been forced upon the Mainland.
Such amnesia is pernicious. Mankind lives by symbols, and they often invoke the supreme sacrifice of martyrs to admired causes and revered values. Just as the Chinese Communist Party has rung the changes on the “century of humiliation” that preceded its seizure of power, we should not forget one of the greatest tragedies of what will soon be the century of humiliation that the CCP has been inflicting upon freedoms of expression and protections against arbitrary punishments for one-fifth of humanity.
Of course, it is not appropriate for an arm-chair observer far away to tell the people of Hong Kong what to do in their crisis. Yet, if it were still a free society, I would say “Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom!” Being an optimist, I hope that those who choose to stay and the majority who cannot leave will, even at this stage, find a way to make an imaginative, record-breaking, totally peaceful protest against their impending fate.
I also hope that the city’s unofficial elite, who until now have been paralyzed like deer in the headlights, will finally come together with positive, concrete proposals that might begin to restore public confidence and consensus and delay or moderate the anticipated, feared legislation of the NPC Standing Committee.