Anonymous threats force owner of a controversial license plate to depart Hong Kong

By Oiwan Lam

Hong Kong resident Anthony Chiu has left the city and resettled in the UK with his daughter after controversy erupted over his Porsche with the license plate number US8964. On August 4, 2025, he shared his story of how members of his extended family were harassed and threatened in the past year due to the plate number. 

The plate number, US8964, is a reference to the June 4 Tiananmen Square Massacre in China, which is considered a highly sensitive and politicized event in mainland China and Hong Kong.

In the past year, he had received letters threatening to report him to the national security police and threatening his family. Anonymous people threatened to file complaints against his parents to revoke their public housing eligibility. Anonymous letters were also sent to all his neighbours, exposing the identity details of his close relatives.

His wife also received a large number of complaints from strangers in her workplace and a letter that accused Chiu of having extramarital affairs.

His brother-in-law was interrogated by mainland Chinese police officers about his affiliation with Chiu during a business trip. Even his daughter’s school received anonymous complaints accusing her of spreading messages that endanger national security to her classmates. 

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Chiu said that when choosing the plate, he could not have anticipated such consequences:

Chiu started using the plate number US8964 in 2021. At first, he did not encounter any problem. In 2022, as the Hong Kong Police officially warned Hongkongers against participating in any “unauthorized assembly” at or near Victoria Park on June 4 — the traditional location for June 4th commemorative events — Chiu decided to drive his car out to Causeway Bay:

The number 8964 (meaning 1989 June 4) has been used as a hashtag to mark the bloody crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Beijing on June 4, 1989.

Until 2020, Hong Kong was the last major Sinophone space where the event could still be commemorated. Police banned the candlelight vigil for the first time under the pretext of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Even after all pandemic control measures were lifted in 2022, the police have refused to issue permission for the peaceful gathering and warned citizens against participating in unauthorized assembly to mark the massacre. However, many, like Anthony Chiu, still insist on finding their own way to commemorate the date near the Park. 

However, their gestures can bring grave consequences in Hong Kong now. Since 2022, many individuals have been arrested by the police on June 4 over small acts of civil disobedience, such as holding flowers or candles near Victoria Park. In the case of Anthony Chiu, his car was stopped and seized by the police for three consecutive years, each time for so-called “technical reasons,” such as a noisy engine.

Amid threats and harassment, Chiu decided not to drive out in 2025. Instead, he shipped his car out of the city and filed the paperwork with the Transportation Department to transfer the car plate to another Hongkonger. He told Yahoo News that he and his daughter had also left Hong Kong. 

However, the car plate transfer was blocked. According to a letter sent to the new owner by the Transportation Department, the US8964 car plate had been recalled because the car had been shipped out of Hong Kong. 

The news story has since gone viral on social media. Many are appalled by the speed of the city’s authoritarian transformation and respond with mockery under  news threads on Facebook:

[GlobalVoices/VS]

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