A sea of people took part in a Hong Kong candlelight vigil to remember Tiananmen Square victims last year. Hong Kong is the only city in China where open commemorations of the crackdown are tolerated Getty Images

Organizers behind a planned museum in Hong Kong dedicated to the bloody 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown are vowing to press on despite running into threat of legal challenge that they call politically motivated. 

Backed with nearly $800,000 in donations, the 800-square-foot June 4 Memorial museum is currently slated to open later this month. The museum is being opened to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the violent event, in which People’s Liberation Army soldiers opened fire on unarmed civilians.

“Hong Kong is a very special place. We can still have space to discuss about the June 4th incident, which is a taboo in China. That’s why we want to have a permanent museum here—to remind the public of this brutal crackdown,” said Mak Hoi-wah, vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which is behind the museum.

Hong Kong’s Tiananmen Square museum will still open on April 26, organizers say. A visit Thursday found its construction still underway.Chester Yung/The Wall Street Journal

Last December, the alliance bought the fifth floor of an office tower in Tsim Sha Tsui, an area popular with mainland tourists and studded with high-end luxury shops. The total cost of the location was HK9.76 million (US$1.26 million). They paid the HK$6 million down payment with the help of public donations and other fundraising efforts, Mr. Mak said.

But the museum plans have run into resistance just a few weeks before its opening to the public, with the owners’ committee at the building voting to oppose such a move and threatening legal action. In a letter dated Feb. 28 sent by the Tung, Ng, Tse & Heung solicitor firm, the owners’ committee said that they were concerned the museum would “operate as a lightning rod and attract…an inordinate number of visitors, both supporters and detractors, as well as reporters, police and members of the curious public etc.”

The letter said that the owners’ committee had no political affiliation. Among other concerns cited in the letter was whether the building’s two small elevators, each aged 24 years, could handle the anticipated crush. Calls to the firm Thursday weren’t returned.

To date, Mr. Mak, he isn’t aware of any concrete action being taken, and says the museum will continue to open as planned. Mr. Mak—who sees such resistance as politically motivated—said the alliance hadn’t informed the owners’ committee of their intent to open a museum because they believed their plans fit within the parameters of acceptable commercial activity.

Visited on Thursday, a number of building tenants said they were indifferent to museum plans.

Diony Tong, who works at an architecture firm on the building’s 13th floor, said he didn’t expect much of an impact as the museum would be located closer to the ground floor.

He said a store selling cellphones on the 17th floor was “much more of a nuisance, as it attracts many mainland customers to shop every weekend,” he said.

Another tenant who runs a company on the 12th floor, Raymond Yip, said that he didn’t think the museum would pose much an issue. “But I will say the museum has a very sensitive name,” he said. “June 4 Memorial Museum? That touches peoples’ nerves and gets peoples’ attention,” he said.

> via WSJ