Hong Kong: Police arrest organisers of Tiananmen Square vigils

Hong Kong police has arrested senior members of the group that organised the Tiananmen Square vigils and are accused of foreign collusion.

In the latest blow to the opposition movement, activist and barrister Chow Hang Tung along with Simon Leung, Sean Tang and Chan To-wai were arrested on Wednesday.

They all belonged to theHong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China,one of the most visible symbols of the city's political plurality.

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Despite getting arrested, Chow told the media that “I want to tell Hong Kongers that we need to continue to resist, don’t surrender to the unreasonable power quickly and easily."

It comes a day after the organisation declared they would refuse to cooperate with a national security investigation.

The police had asked the alliance, among one of several pro-democracy groups being investigated under a powerful national security law, to hand over financial and operational details, accusing it of working as a "foreign agent".

The request included the personal details of all members since its founding in 1989, all meeting minutes, financial records and any exchanges with other NGOs advocating democracy and human rights in China.

Alliance leaders Albert Ho and Lee Cheuk-yan are already in jail over their roles in anti-government protests that roiled the city in 2019.

The alliance had organised large candlelight vigils in Hong Kong's Victoria Park every year on June 4 since China's deadly Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.

China's has increased its relentless crackdown to stamp out dissent on Hong Kong after the country passed a national security law.

Several protests were organised last year in Hong Kong against the law more than two years ago.