Hong Kong Tiananmen activists found guilty of subversion incitement

Two prominent Hong Kong activists who helped organize annual vigils for victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown were found guilty Friday of inciting subversion under the city’s national security law, a verdict that could send them to prison for up to 10 years.

Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, former leaders of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, had pleaded not guilty after being charged in 2021. Sentencing is expected at a later date. A third defendant, Albert Ho, 74, pleaded guilty in January, the BBC reported.

According to a court summary cited by the BBC, Lee and Chow “incited other persons to organise, plan, commit or participate in acts by unlawful means with a view to subverting the state power.” Al Jazeera reported that prosecutors said the pair “endanger[ed] national security in the name of human rights.”

Chow, a human rights barrister who represented herself, told the court in May that the law itself was on trial.

The case centers on the Hong Kong Alliance, founded in May 1989 to support students holding pro-democracy rallies in Beijing. Weeks later, Chinese troops and tanks crushed demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. Estimates of the death toll range from a few hundred to many thousands. Al Jazeera reported that hundreds, possibly thousands, were killed and many others injured.

For three decades, Hong Kong was one of the only places on Chinese territory where people could gather publicly to mourn those killed. The alliance’s candlelight vigil drew tens of thousands of people each year and became the only large-scale public commemoration of the crackdown, according to Al Jazeera. The group also called on authorities to accept responsibility for the crackdown, free dissidents and introduce democratic reform.

Authorities banned the vigils in 2020, citing COVID-19 policies, and they have not resumed. That same year, Beijing imposed the national security law on Hong Kong. The law criminalizes acts deemed secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign or external forces. Critics say it has eroded Hong Kong’s autonomy and created a climate of fear, while authorities say it is needed to maintain stability.

Rights groups criticized Friday’s verdict. Amnesty International said the case “relies on vague, overly broad and arbitrary definitions of ‘subversion.’” Sarah Brooks, the group’s deputy regional director, said Chow and Lee had “not committed any recognisable crime.”

“Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan are prisoners of conscience who should never have been prosecuted in the first place. They must be released immediately and unconditionally,” Brooks said.

Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera that Chow and Lee “exposed the Chinese government’s fears of the memory of its own atrocities,” and urged governments to hold Beijing accountable for erasing freedoms in Hong Kong.

Mark Clifford, president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, told Al Jazeera the verdict was “no surprise,” saying Hong Kong’s “twisted” judicial system had already decided the pair were guilty in 2021. He 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.”

Chow was previously arrested in 2021 for “inciting” the public to attend that year’s vigil and was later convicted, but Hong Kong’s top court overturned the conviction in 2022 after a judge ruled police had not properly justified the ban. Speaking to the BBC in 2021, she said: “I am prepared to be arrested. That is how Hong Kong is now. I am willing to pay the price for fighting for democracy.”