'Recent Developments May Increase June 4 Crowd'

An organiser of the June 4 candlelight vigil, Albert Ho, said on Friday that the plight of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo's wife and the recent amendments to China’s constitution may bring more people to the event next month.

The changes to the constitution lifted term limits for presidents, paving the way to prolong Xi Jinping's rule. Meanwhile Liu Xia, the widow of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, still remains kept guarded and largely isolated.

Ho said the plight of Liu and constitutional changes may stimulate more people to join the events that will mark the 29th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre.

The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China holds a vigil at the Victoria Park every year to remember the people killed in the bloody crackdown and demand an end to the one-party rule on the mainland.

Referring to remarks by Beijing loyalists and officials that such calls may be illegal, he said these kind of provocations may anger people and draw a larger turnout.

Ho was speaking to reporters after members of the Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China cleaned the plaque of the Pillar of Shame at the University of Hong Kong.

The ritual is part of the annual commemoration of the brutal crackdown of 1989.

Ho said he’s not disappointed that no young people joined their activities as students have chosen another day to clean the statute.

He said the the alliance will continue talks with students and hope they will rejoin the vigil at the park. Some student groups have stayed from the event and held their own event to mark the occasion. They say promotion of democracy on the mainland is not their priority.