The organizers of Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen Square candlelight vigil have started an annual exhibition featuring photos and equipment of Beijing’s bloody suppression of those who called for democracy in China in 1989.

At the opening, the Hong Kong authorities have banned the annual June 4th vigil for the second year in a row, which usually attracts tens of thousands of people to the streets. The authorities mentioned the risk of the coronavirus, although the cancellation of the event coincided with the city’s broader repression of political activists and dissidents.

The museum is organized by the Hong Kong Alliance for the Support of the Chinese Patriotic and Democratic Movement. It exhibits photos of the 1989 democracy movement and photos of candlelight commemorative events held in Hong Kong each year.

This year, visitors to the museum will also be able to lay flowers to commemorate the victims who lost their lives in the massacre that took place on June 4, 1989.

For decades, the two semi-autonomous Chinese cities, Hong Kong and Macau, were the only places in China that allowed public commemorations of repression. The Macau authorities also cancelled the vigil for the second year in a row.

Despite the ban, thousands of people showed up in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park last year to light candles and sing songs. Subsequently, the police arrested more than 20 activists accused of participating in unauthorized gatherings.

Hong Kong’s crackdown on dissidents followed months of anti-government protests that swept the former British colony in 2019 and shocked Beijing’s leaders.