Tiananmen Square vigil organizers convicted of ‘inciting subversion’ in Hong Kong

Two former organizers of Hong Kong’s decades-old vigil in remembrance of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown were convicted Friday in a national security case brought under a China-imposed law that has effectively crushed the city’s previously thriving pro-democracy movement.

Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung, former leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, were charged in 2021 with inciting subversion under the national security law. They both had pleaded not guilty and face a maximum prison term of 10 years. The alliance was also found guilty.

The verdict is among the latest involving Hong Kong’s once-vibrant pro-democracy movement, which has largely been dismantled by Hong Kong and Chinese authorities.

For three decades, the candlelight vigil organized by the alliance was the only large-scale public commemoration that 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 massive anti-government protests.

Erosion of freedom of expression

Observers say their trial symbolizes the erosion of freedom of expression in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Lee and Chow are expected to be sentenced at a later date.

The judges have not read out the reasons behind the conviction, saying the full judgment would be available online later.

Eric Lai, a senior fellow with the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, said the charge of inciting subversion was commonly used in mainland China to criminalize the acts of human rights lawyers, activists and intellectuals, including late Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo.

“We can see to what extent the court in Hong Kong falls into the level of the party-led judiciary in the mainland through the criminal verdict,” he said.

They were accused of inciting the overthrow of China’s ruling party.

During the trial, prosecutors said the case was not political and focused on what they viewed as a call by the alliance to incite others to overthrow the leadership of China’s ruling Communist Party through unlawful means, pointing to “ending one-party rule,” one of the group’s core demands.

But Lee told the court that the call was not about ending the party’s leadership but about moving toward democracy, letting the people decide who leads them, and that the Communist Party should not enforce “dictatorship.”

Chow, a barrister who defended herself, said “ending one-party rule” means ending a state where power is unrestricted. She criticized how the standard for determining right and wrong was turned upside down in this case.

In her Patreon post Thursday, she recalled being shackled in handcuffs, and in waist and ankle chains, for trips to court from prison, saying she was walked by correctional service officers “like a dog.”

“Justice lives in the hearts of the people. There is no need to look up to this kind of top-down ruling, and one verdict doesn’t matter much,” she said.

The trial, initially scheduled for 75 days, moved faster than expected and concluded its closing statements on the 24th day. When it began in January, Albert Ho, another defendant in the case, entered a guilty plea, a move that typically could result in a reduced sentence.

Lee and Chow are expected to plead for lesser penalties at a separate hearing and could be sentenced alongside Ho.

Supporters cast doubt on allegations

Dozens of people lined up outside the court under drizzling rain ahead of the hearing.

Tang Ngok-kwan, a former alliance member, said police wouldn’t let him join the line if he insisted on bringing along “sensitive” materials, including bookmarks printed with “vindicate June 4.” The date is the crackdown’s anniversary. He decided not to go into the court.

Tang said a guilty verdict for the alliance would “upend his understanding” of the city’s laws.

Hundreds of people, and possibly thousands, were killed in the 1989 crackdown as military tanks rolled into the center of Beijing. The crackdown was a pivotal moment in China’s modern history, determining that the market reform that transformed the country into the world’s second-largest economy would not be coupled with political liberalization.

After COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, the former vigil site in Hong Kong was occupied instead by a carnival organized by pro-Beijing groups.

Beijing said the 2020 security law was necessary for the city’s stability. Many leading activists were jailed under the same law, including pro-democracy former media tycoon Jimmy Lai. Under the drastic political changes, dozens of civil society groups also dissolved, including the alliance.