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 9.76 million Hong Kong dollars (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.”..Continue Reading

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