Hong Kong activists plead guilty over banned Tiananmen vigil

Joshua Wong

Jailed Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong pleaded guilty alongside three others on Friday to joining a banned candlelight vigil for victims of China's Tiananmen Square crackdown. The annual June 4 vigil had been held in Hong Kong for the last three decades drawing massive crowds, but it was banned for the first time last year by police, citing the coronavirus situation. Tens of thousands defied the ban and massed at the vigil's traditional site in Victoria Park. Since then prosecutors have brought charges against 24 prominent activists who showed up at the vigil, the latest in a string of criminal cases that have ensnared the city's beleaguered democracy movement.