A Hong Kong court has found two pro-democracy activists guilty of incitement to subversion for organizing annual candlelight vigils commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, delivering one of the most consequential verdicts under the national security law Beijing imposed on the city in 2020.
Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, former leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, were convicted on Friday after a trial that began in January and ran over 24 days. They face a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail. Sentencing is expected at a later date.
A third defendant, 74-year-old former lawmaker Albert Ho, pleaded guilty in January. Chow, a Cambridge-educated human rights barrister who represented herself, told the court in May that the law itself was on trial.
According to a press summary handed out to reporters, the court found that Lee and Chow had incited other persons to organize, plan, commit or participate in acts by unlawful means with a view to subverting state power. The case centred on the Alliance’s slogan demanding an end to one-party rule. The court found that the defendants intended to cause others to lose confidence in the Chinese Communist Party by stirring up hostility and causing division.
Three decades of commemoration, now silenced
The Hong Kong Alliance was founded in May 1989 to support students holding pro-democracy rallies. Weeks later, the Communist Party crushed pro-democracy protests in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square with troops and tanks. Estimates of the death toll range from a few hundred to many thousands.
For three decades, the candlelight vigil organized by the Alliance drew tens of thousands of people annually to mourn the victims. It was the only large-scale public commemoration of the crackdown on Chinese soil. Hong Kong and Macau were formerly the only places under Chinese sovereignty that permitted such vigils. In mainland China, authorities have banned even oblique references to the 1989 events.
Authorities banned the gatherings in 2020, citing Covid-19 policies, but they have never resumed. That same year, the national security law officially came into force, after huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests rocked the international financial hub in 2019. The law criminalizes secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign or external forces. Critics say it has decimated civil society and eroded the political freedoms Hong Kong was promised when it was returned to China in 1997. Authorities insist the law was needed to restore order.
The Alliance’s leaders were charged in 2021 and have been behind bars since. In court, Lee and Chow waved to supporters from the dock, surrounded by correctional officers. Lee appeared solemn as the judge handed down the verdict. He made a heart-shaped gesture with his hands and waved before being led out.
International condemnation and Chow’s prison writings
Rights group Amnesty International said the case relies on vague, overly broad, and arbitrary definitions of subversion. Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director, said Chow and Lee had not committed any recognisable crime and were prisoners of conscience who should be released immediately and unconditionally. Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the pair had exposed the Chinese government’s fears of the memory of its own atrocities and urged governments around the world to hold Beijing to account for erasing Hong Kong’s freedoms.
Mark Clifford, president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, called the verdict no surprise. He said Hong Kong’s twisted judicial system had already decided the pair were guilty in 2021, and 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.
Ahead of the verdict, Chow wrote a message from prison addressed to Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester. She wrote that authorities were trying to re-write Hong Kong history and wanted to erase memories of some chapters in the city’s history. She said Britain has a non-delegable duty to take a firm stance against the growing threat from a totalitarian and aggressive China.
In a personal blog published in the days leading up to the verdict, Chow detailed her treatment by correctional services. She described being led like a dog on a lead, shackled at the wrists, waist, and ankles. She wrote that specialized handcuffs forced bodily contortions causing significant pain, and that one can only choose which part of the body shall suffer in turn. Chow is one of the few high-profile political prisoners detained in Hong Kong to continue to speak out publicly against the authorities.
Dozens of police officers gathered outside the courthouse and ushered reporters away as they stopped to film audience members queueing outside. Members of the public had queued for days to secure a seat, with some staying overnight. One supporter told the Guardian the case illustrates the absolute power of Beijing in reshaping Hong Kong’s civil society through the national security law. Another said the outcome highlights the central government’s total control regarding national security enforcement in the region. Earlier this year, media mogul Jimmy Lai, 78, was found guilty on national security charges and sentenced to 20 years behind bars. Most of the city’s opposition leaders have been detained or have fled.