A Hong Kong court today sentenced three activists who for years organized vigils in remembrance of China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre to prison terms ranging from five to more than seven years in prison, in a case that is widely seen as a barometer of the territory’s freedoms as Beijing clamps down on dissent.
Lee Cheuk-yan (李卓人), Chow Hang-tung (鄒幸彤) and Albert Ho (何俊仁) were convicted of inciting subversion earlier this year under Beijing-imposed national security legisltion.
Lee and Chow, who pleaded not guilty, received prison terms of seven years, and seven years and three months, respectively. Ho was given five years and two months, lower than his codefendants partly because of his guilty plea.
Photo: CNA
The trio were charged in September 2021 and have been held in custody for years.
Hong Kong once had a vibrant civil society marked by massive protests and a freewheeling press scene.
However, after a 2019 protest movement rocked the territory, authorities reduced public choice in elections and prosecuted leaders of news outlets known for their critical reports of the government. Many leading activists were imprisoned under Hong Kong’s National Security Law, and dozens of civil society groups were dissolved, including the alliance.
Beijing says the law is necessary to maintain stability.
Today, dozens of people lined up outside the court to enter the courtroom.
Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen (陳日君), who was arrested under the National Security Law in 2022, but never faced charges under it, was among those sitting in the public gallery.
Former vigil-goer Simon Ng said his heart was heavy as the sentencing approached, adding that he felt the accusations against the defendants were not just.
“I took part in the alliance’s vigils for decades; the ruling amounts to an accusation against me,” he said.
The sentences for the Tiananmen activists are the latest high-profile penalties imposed under the security law. In February, former pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai (黎智英) was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Lee, Chow and Ho were leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which for three decades organized a Tiananmen vigil that was the only large-scale, public commemoration of the event in China.
Hundreds and possibly thousands of people were killed as military tanks rolled into the center of Beijing and troops opened fire to end student-led pro-democracy protests in the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre.
The annual vigil drew tens of thousands of people to Hong Kong’s Victoria Park every year for decades, but authorities banned it in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The vigils symbolized the civil liberties that set Hong Kong apart from China.
The guilty verdicts confirmed that even peaceful calls for democratic change in the Chinese regime are now criminalized in Hong Kong, said Urania Chiu, a lecturer in law at Oxford Brookes University in the UK.
Chow, who represented herself, said the verdict suggested pursuing democracy is a crime and that she did not deserve even one day in prison.
Hong Kong 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 Hong Kong office of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement responding to criticism of the verdict in the Tiananmen vigil organizers’ case by foreign governments.
In August, three government-approved judges convicted the trio of inciting subversion, citing their organization’s demand to “end one-party dictatorship.”
The judges said they were encouraging supporters to end the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s leadership through unlawful means and their call carried the notion of overthrowing or undermining the party.
During the trial, the defense denied they meant to end the party’s leadership and insisted the alliance had not asked people to adopt any illegal means.
Lee said their call for “ending one-party dictatorship” and moving toward democracy meant letting the people decide who leads them.
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