Hong Kong jails Tiananmen vigil organisers in major security law test

A Hong Kong court jailed three activists who organised annual Tiananmen vigils for inciting subversion. The case sharpens concerns that peaceful democratic dissent is being criminalised in the city.

In Short

• The trio led Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen remembrance for nearly three decades
• Authorities banned the Victoria Park vigil in 2020 during the pandemic
• Supporters queued outside court, saying the ruling stigmatised longtime vigil participants

A Hong Kong court on Friday sentenced three activists who for years organised vigils to remember China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, handing them prison terms of between five years and more than seven years. The case is widely seen as a test of the city’s freedoms as Beijing tightens its grip on dissent.

Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang-tung and Albert Ho were convicted earlier this year of inciting subversion under a national security law imposed by Beijing. Lee and Chow, who pleaded not guilty, were sentenced to seven years and seven years and three months respectively, while Ho was given five years and two months, partly because he pleaded guilty.

The three were charged in September 2021 and have been in custody for years. They were leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which for three decades organised a Tiananmen vigil that was the only large-scale public commemoration of the event in China.

Hundreds, and possibly thousands, of people were killed when military tanks rolled into central Beijing and troops opened fire to end the student-led pro-democracy protests in the 1989 crackdown. For decades, the annual vigil drew tens of thousands of people to Hong Kong’s Victoria Park, but authorities banned it in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. The vigils had come to symbolise the civil liberties that set Hong Kong apart from mainland China.

Dozens of people queued outside the court before the sentencing. Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen, who was arrested under the national security law in 2022 but was never charged under it, was among those in the public gallery. Former vigil-goer Simon Ng said his heart was heavy as the sentencing approached and added that he felt the accusations were not only against the defendants. “I took part in the alliance’s vigils for decades; the ruling amounts to an accusation against me,” he said.

The sentences are the latest high-profile punishments under the security law. In February, former pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Hong Kong once had a vibrant civil society, marked by massive protests and a lively press. But after the 2019 protest movement shook the city, authorities reduced public choice in elections and prosecuted leaders of news outlets known for critical reporting on the government. Many leading activists were jailed under the security law, and dozens of civil society groups, including the alliance, were dissolved. Beijing has said the law is needed to maintain stability.

In August, three government-approved judges convicted the trio of inciting subversion, citing the alliance’s demand to “end one-party dictatorship”. The judges said they were encouraging supporters to end the leadership of the ruling Chinese Communist Party through unlawful means, and that the call carried the idea of overthrowing or undermining it. During the trial, the defence said they had not meant to end the party’s leadership and insisted the alliance had not asked anyone to use illegal means. Lee said their call for “ending one-party dictatorship” and moving towards democracy meant letting people decide who leads them.

Urania Chiu, a law lecturer at Oxford Brookes University in the UK, said the guilty verdicts showed that even peaceful calls for democratic change in China were now being criminalised in Hong Kong. Chow, who represented herself, said the verdict suggested that pursuing democracy is a crime and that she did not deserve “even one day” in prison. Responding to criticism of the verdict by foreign governments, the Hong Kong office of China’s foreign ministry said the city is governed by the rule of law and that no one should be allowed to engage in unlawful activities under the pretext of “freedom of speech and press”.

The sentencing of Lee, Chow and Ho marks another major national security case in Hong Kong, centred on the city’s long-running Tiananmen vigils, which for years stood out as a rare public remembrance of the 1989 crackdown in China.

With PTI Inputs

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