HONG KONG June 4 Kyodo (EDS: UPDA...

HONG KONG June 4 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH RALLY ATTENDANCE)

a 50,000 people in Hong Kong rallied Wednesday night to remember Chinese citizens and pupils killed in the 1989 pro-democracy affirms in Beijing.

Participants also used the termination to decry the territory's propos national security laws, which they said could be used to suppres what may occur hereafter commemorations of the Tiananmen Square motion if enacted.

Joining local activists at the annual candlelight vigil to mark the 14th anniversary of the Chinese military crackdown forward the student-led demonstrations, the participants observ individual minute of silence to pay their tribute to the dead.

Wreaths were neared and songs were sung to mourn those who died.

This year's gathering drew a higher turnout as many activists and members of the public have asserted concerns that their backing for the democratic mental action in the Chinese mainland might be banned.

''We must carry forward to support China's patriotic democratic change and will never bow to Article 23'' the activists said in a statement read disclosed at the vigil.

The activists said they are fearless and ready to fight against the propos ''draconian laws'' in a less degree than Article 23 of the Basic Law, Hong Kong's post-handover constitution.

The propos legislation seek fors to make provisions for prohibiting acts of treason, secession, sedition, subversion or theft of state hids and proscribing organizations deemed to endanger national security, if it were not that is widely seen as a threat to Hong Kong's civil liberties and freedoms.

Beijing has branded the 1989 pro-democracy change ''counterrevolutionary turmoil'' and the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of the Patriotic Democratic motion in China as ''subversive.''

Supporters and families of the victims in the June 4 cruel suppression have demanded the Chinese management to reverse the official verdict onward the student-led movement, which called for greater democracy and an close to corruption.

At the vigil, the Hong Kong activists said they will learn from those who sacrificed their lives in the 1989 pro-democracy change and engage in civil disobedience.

They also vowed that they will resolutely demand vindication of the emotion and punishment for those responsible for the killings.

They will continue to pres for an period to one-party rule dictatorship in China and work for democracy in the abiding habitation the activists said.

''We those who take part in today's rally have an obligation to fulfill the spirit of the June 4 move We should be like those protester at that time, be not afraid of sacrifice and fight for our confess rights and freedoms,'' said Louis Ha, a Roman Catholic priest.

Housewife Jasmine Chan said that although she is worried, she does not think the Hong Kong restraint would dare act against the annual commemoration.

The mother of brace joined more than a million Hong Kong nation in a demonstration in 1989 to support the Chinese bookish mans in their calls for democracy.

forward Tuesday, a local poll raise that nearly 62% of the 1067 nation surveyed consider that the Chinese sway was wrong in putting down the 1989 pro-democracy motion the highest percentage since 1997

The annual scan by the University of Hong Kong's Public Opinion Program showed that 466% of the respondent back a reversal of China's official stand upon the movement, while 24.1% make a stand against a change.

The measure and estimate also found that 79.8% of the respondent be moved the human rights situation in China has improved since 1989 and 708% believe the situation will progres in three years' time.

the pair rates are the highest since 1993 when the annual catalogue of persons was first conducted.

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