; Whereas the people of Hong Kong had held annual Tiananmen Square vigils since 1990 in Victoria Park, which were the only such mass gathering on Chinese territory because commemorations of the event are banned in mainland China; Whereas the longstanding tradition of Hong Kong vigils came to an end in 2020 when Hong Kong police denied applications for assembly pretextually on COVID-related grounds and then jailed key organizers of the annual event on politically motivated criminal charges involving unlawful assembly or national security; Whereas Chow Hang-tung, Tang Ngok-kwan, and Tsui Hon-kwong—members of the Hong Kong Alliance that organized the annual vigil—were convicted for resisting police demand to surrender the personal information of alliance members; Whereas Hong Kong police arrested 24 prominent individuals, including Joshua Wong, Gwyneth Ho, Jimmy Lai, and Lee Cheuk-yan on charges of unlawful assembly or inciting unlawful assembly simply for showing up at Victoria Park in 2020; Whereas the central Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) have since used the National Security Law imposed on the HKSAR in 2020 by the PRC’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee to suppress peaceful protests and democratic voices in Hong Kong, including by barring candidates from standing for election and by arresting more than 1,000 pro-democracy activists and opposition leaders; Whereas, in March 2024, the Hong Kong Legislative Council passed national security legislation pursuant to Article 23 of the Basic Law, which gives law enforcement additional powers to prosecute people on vague charges, thereby augmenting the risk of arbitrary detention, including the suppression of peaceful protests, vigils, and assemblies the Hong Kong government does not like; Whereas to protest censorship and harsh zero-COVID policy, mass protests in November 2022 spurred the largest mass demonstrations in China since 1989