Survey: Views on Tiananmen crackdown still run high in Hong Kong

May 28, 2009, 4:52 GMT

   Hong Kong - Six out of 10 Hong Kong citizens want Beijing to reverse its official verdict over the Tiananmen Square crackdown, according to a survey released Thursday, one week ahead of the 20th anniversary of events of June 4, 1989.

   The figure is 12 per cent higher than a similar survey by the University of Hong Kong's Public Opinion Programme last year, and the highest since the first such poll in 1994.

   The survey, which questioned 1,000 people in Hong Kong last week, also found that 69 per cent believe Beijing 'did the wrong thing' in dealing with the student-led protest which was branded by the communist government as a counter-revolutionary plot.

   Seventy-eight per cent of those questioned believed people in Hong Kong had a responsibility to help bring about democracy in mainland China.

   Robert Chung, director of the public opinion programme, said: 'Although Hong Kong people generally recognize China's achievement in its economic development, more and more would like to see China develop its democracy at the same time.'

   Experts believe the growing sympathy in Hong Kong for the Tiananmen Square movement has been fuelled by the publication of the memoirs of former Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang and by controversial comments made by Chief Executive Donald Tsang earlier this month.

   Tsang sparked outrage when in a question-and-answer session with legislators, he said 'time has passed' and China had made great economic strides since the Tiananmen Square crackdown, adding: 'My view represents the overall view of the community.'

   Tsang's remarks led to chaotic scenes as pro-democracy legislators staged a mass walkout in the chamber. He later issued an apology, saying he was wrong to imply that he spoke for the whole of Hong Kong.

   Organizers of an annual candlelight vigil to remember the 1989 massacre are hoping the sentiments echoed in the survey indicate a record turn-out for the event next Thursday.

   Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule in 1997 after 156 years as a British colony under a 'one country, two systems' arrangement that guarantees freedom of speech and expression for its 7 million citizens.

   This means the Hong Kong vigil is the only place on Chinese soil where the killings are publicly commemorated.