Chinese poet Bei Dao (北島) wrote in The Answer (回答) that “debasement is the password of the base, nobility the epitaph of the noble.”
A Hong Kong court on Friday sentenced three former leaders of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China — which held annual vigils to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown — to prison terms of up to seven years and three months for “inciting subversion” under a Beijing-imposed National Security Law.
Chow Hang-tung (鄒幸彤), 41, a barrister; Lee Cheuk-yan (李卓人), 69, a former legislator and labor union leader; and Albert Ho (何俊仁), 74, a former legislator, were charged in September 2021 and had been behind bars for at least 1,300 days. They are expected to be released between 2028 and 2030. The alliance, which was disbanded in 2021, was fined HK$1.5 million (US$191,238).
The ruling was lauded by Hong Kong officials and condemned by human rights groups. Friends and families of those convicted called it a “sad day” and that the three should not be in prison “even for a single day.”
The court said that the National Security Law “has no retroactive effect,” yet the judges said the defendants had “all along been hostile toward the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] and the central government under its leadership.”
What was deemed so “hostile” and “subversive” that prompted the court to hand down such heavy sentences?
The alliance, established in 1989, upheld five central tenets: release the dissidents; rehabilitate the 1989 pro-democracy movement; demand accountability of the June 4th massacre; end one-party dictatorship; and build a democratic China.
The alliance had for three decades organized annual vigils at Victoria Park in Hong Kong after the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s bloody crackdown on protesters at Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
The Hong Kong government in 2020 cited COVID-19 pandemic curbs to ban the vigils — the only large-scale, public commemorations in China — which had drawn tens of thousands of people for decades and did the same again the following year.
Since 2023, pro-establishment groups have held market carnivals at the park on June 4.
What is considered “patriotic” and “hostile” in Hong Kong in that time is quite telling. A carnival that draws vendors selling Chinese products at a former commemoration site is considered “patriotic,” while a vigil remembering the dead is considered “hostile.”
Lee’s wife said that his lifelong struggle was not out of any hatred of the CCP, but was based on a belief that Chinese deserve democracy, freedom and human rights.
Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波), a Nobel laureate who helped draft Charter 08, wrote: “I have no enemies and no hatred” in a statement two days before he was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009 for “inciting subversion of state power.” Liu said he was optimistic about a future in China in which everyone could fearlessly speak their mind without being politically persecuted.
Liu, who died at age 61 in 2017 after battling liver cancer, was not “the last victim of China’s endless literary inquisitions” as he hoped he would be.
The court did not merely sentence three prominent democracy advocates, it also put millions of Hong Kongers on trial for holding a candlelight vigil to remember those who were sacrificed under a brutal regime.
As Chow put it in her mitigation, “the 206-page judgement, after all, boils down to saying that pursuing democracy is a crime... A law of this nature is nothing more than a euphemism for tyranny.”
The verdict does not just serve as a CCP warning, but also poses a question to everyone who believes in freedom and democracy: Do you uphold your beliefs when it comes with a heavy price?
Chow gave a clear answer: “To plead or apologize for everything you believe in is the most hypocritical thing imaginable and it is an insult to everyone who shares those beliefs.”
“If the law truly cannot accommodate our beliefs, then I would rather be a criminal than a person who betrays their conscience,” she wrote.
The true hostility lies in the CCP regime against its people. It is so profoundly insecure that it sees hostility at every turn and relies on hatred to maintain its grip, as Chow put it.
Those who dance with the CCP’s rhetoric are opportunists. The real patriots love their country so much that they are willing to sacrifice their own freedom in pursuit of the greater good.
In the face of the CCP’s authoritarian expansion, it is time for Taiwanese to prepare their own answer.
Taiwan’s domestic political situation is following recognizable political rhythms, while the international environment surrounding Taiwan is undergoing a major transformation. Within Taiwan, there are ongoing battles between the legislative and executive branches over the budget, and between cities and the central government over resources. Tensions between political parties dominate headlines and consume much of the attention of party leaders. Jockeying is underway for local elections this November and national elections in 2028. And the longstanding philosophical debate inside Taiwan over how best to protect Taiwan and promote the good life remains unresolved. Amidst all of this, Taiwan continues to function well. It
In an article published on Tuesday in The Atlantic, titled “Will Taiwan Just Give Up?”, journalist Simon Shuster emphasizes the unpredictability of the US as an ally under US President Donald Trump and cites diminishing faith in the US as a contributor to what he sees as waning determination to resist China. As the title suggests, Shuster views a deal between Taiwan and China as an increasingly inevitable alternative to a costly war — one that Taiwan, lacking reliable allies and military capabilities, would eventually be destined to lose. He focuses on Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) — her
Taiwan does not need a CIA deputy director to explain that Beijing treats commerce as a battlefield. It has been living that lesson for decades, watching its chip designers get poached, its retired officers get recruited for cash, and its companies get pressured to choose between the Chinese market and their own government’s security priorities. What changed this month is that Washington finally said the quiet part out loud. CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis told a Washington audience that China’s threat to the US is now “fundamentally different,” because the competition is economic, not military, and that a Chinese company cannot
With candidate registration for this year’s local elections closed on Sept. 4 and the elections less than 80 days away, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator and Taipei mayoral candidate Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) rapidly growing popularity has become the focus of political talk shows and online discussions over the past week, heating up the mayoral election race in Taipei. Local media headlines and political pundits have picked up his supporters’ slogan “ocean current” (洋流) — a play on the last character of Shen’s name, which literally means “ocean” (洋), and the character (流), which can mean “current,” “flow” or “trend” — to
RSS