Hong Kong’s Tiananmen vigil organiser disbands

The Hong Kong pro-democracy group that organised three decades of vigils commemorating the victims of Beijing's Tiananmen Square crackdown voted to disband yesterday in the face of China's sweeping clampdown on dissent. The Hong Kong Alliance was one of the most prominent symbols of the city's former political plurality and its dissolution is the latest illustration of how quickly China is remoulding the business hub in its own authoritarian image. After announcing the decision to disband, a representative of the alliance read out a letter from their chairman Lee Cheuk-yan, who is currently in jail. "A regime cannot take away the people's memory and conscience," the letter read.