Hong Kong court convicts Tiananmen vigil group leaders of inciting subversion

Hong Kong's High Court convicted two former leaders of a group that organized annual vigils commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, were found guilty of "inciting subversion of state power" under the National Security Law (NSL).

The judgment, delivered by three government-appointed national security judges, focused on the defendants' repeated use of the phrase "end one-party dictatorship." The court ruled that these actions, rather than other political activities or beliefs, violated the NSL. The judges stated in their 16-page ruling that the defendants intended to undermine the fundamental system by stirring hostility and causing division, thereby eroding confidence in China's ruling Communist Party (CCP).

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Even though they believed and envisaged that the acts of resistance may not necessarily involve the use of violence or threat of violence, those acts would be in breach of the NSL, and carry a risk of long-term imprisonment.

The NSL was imposed in 2020, significantly expanding the powers of both Chinese and Hong Kong authorities following the 2019 pro-democracy protests. The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, the now-disbanded group formerly led by Lee (former chair) and Chow (former vice-chair), had organized these commemorations for decades. These public gatherings were once seen as a symbol of Hong Kong's relative freedoms compared to mainland China.

Albert Ho, another former chairman of the Alliance and the city's former Democratic Party chairman, had already pleaded guilty to the same charge. Lee and Ho have been detained since 2021, and mitigation hearings for sentencing are scheduled for later this month. The court noted that even if the defendants believed their actions would not involve violence, they still breached the NSL and risked long-term imprisonment.

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The defendants "intended to cause others to lose confidence in the CCP by stirring up hostility and causing division, so as to achieve the objective of undermining the fundamental basic system."