Hong Kong court convicts two Tiananmen activists on national security charges
Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung found guilty of incitement to subversion for organising candlelit vigils, facing up to 10 years in jail.
A Hong Kong court has found former leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China guilty of incitement to subversion. Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, were convicted on Friday for their role in organising candlelit vigils to mark the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. The pair had pleaded not guilty to national security charges brought in 2021, with sentencing expected at a later date.
The verdict concludes a trial widely viewed as exemplifying the erosion of freedom of expression in the city. Prosecutors argued that the defendants endangered national security in the name of human rights. Chow, a human rights barrister who represented herself, stated in May that the law itself was on trial. Both activists have been behind bars since they were charged.
Mark Clifford, president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, described the verdict as no surprise. He claimed that Hong Kong’s judicial system had already decided the pair were guilty in 2021. Clifford described Lee and Chow as true Chinese patriots who were silenced because they spoke truth to power and held up a mirror to the Chinese Communist Party.
The candlelight vigil organised by the alliance was the only large-scale public commemoration of the Tiananmen crackdown for three decades. It drew tens of thousands of people annually to mourn the victims in China. The event was banned in 2020 during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, weeks before Beijing imposed the security law on Hong Kong to quell the 2019 antigovernment protests.
Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the pair exposed the Chinese government’s fears of the memory of its own atrocities. She urged governments around the world to hold Beijing to account for erasing Hong Kong’s freedoms. Earlier this year, media mogul Jimmy Lai was found guilty on national security charges and sentenced to 20 years behind bars.
In a personal blog published before the verdict, Chow detailed her detention conditions. She described being led like a dog on a lead and shackled at the wrists, waist, and ankles. She also described a new restraint method using specialised handcuffs that caused significant pain due to forced bodily contortions.
