Hong Kong Tiananmen Vigil Activists Convicted
They allegedly incited "illegal" actions: Two former organizers of vigils commemorating the Tiananmen massacre in Beijing now face years of imprisonment in Hong Kong. European governments have criticized the ruling.
For decades, people in Hong Kong held vigils to commemorate the crackdown on protests at Beijing's Tiananmen Square. It was the only public commemoration on Chinese soil. Since Beijing imposed a so-called security law on the Chinese special administrative region in 2020, the vigil has no longer taken place. Now, two pro-democracy activists and former co-organizers have been convicted by a court in Hong Kong.
The judges found it proven that Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung had incited "illegal" actions. The verdict states that the two had "incited other persons to organize, plan, commit or participate in illegal acts." Their goal had been to "undermine state power."
The Tiananmen vigil in Hong Kong in June 2019
Charges of "Incitement to Subversion"
The sentencing has yet to be announced. However, under the "security law," the man and woman face up to ten years in prison. The 41-year-old and the 69-year-old were charged in 2021 with "incitement to subversion" and have been detained since then. According to the verdict, the activists had called for an end to the "one-party dictatorship," thereby violating China's constitution.
Lee and Chow followed the reading of the verdict in silence from the dock. They had rejected the charges, arguing that the "democratic change" they called for did not exclude leadership by the Communist Party.
A third defendant, 74-year-old former legislator Albert Ho, had pleaded guilty in January. A guilty plea typically results in a reduced sentence.
Heavy police presence around the courthouse in Hong Kong
Sharp Criticism of the Conviction
Elaine Pearson, Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, stated that the verdict showed how "public expressions of grief in Hong Kong have become a crime." "These activists exposed the Chinese government's fear of being reminded of its own crimes. It treats commemoration as a threat to national security."
Germany and France issued a joint statement on the conviction of Chow, who was awarded the Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law in 2023. They demanded the immediate release of the activist, who had "tirelessly dedicated herself to promoting human rights and democracy in China and particularly in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region."
The British government stated that the verdict was further evidence that even peaceful commemorative events in Hong Kong are now treated by the authorities as a threat to national security.
Vigils as an Expression of Political Freedoms
The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China long organized candlelight vigils at which people commemorated the victims of the bloody crackdown on the Tiananmen protests in Beijing on June 4, 1989. The vigils were also an expression of the political freedoms that Beijing had promised the former British crown colony following its handover to China. On mainland China, the events of June 4 are censored and appear neither in the media nor in official history books.
In the early hours of June 4, 1989, the Chinese army moved against students in Beijing with tanks, as the students were demonstrating on Tiananmen Square for more democracy. Hundreds, and by some estimates more than a thousand people, were killed at the time. China is making every effort to erase the event from national memory.
Chinese soldiers and tanks near Tiananmen Square, one day after the suppression of the pro-democracy demonstrations on June 4, 1989.
The vigil in Hong Kong was banned in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. A few weeks later, Beijing imposed the "Security Law" on Hong Kong in order to suppress the massive anti-government protests of 2019. Following the arrest of its leading members, the Hong Kong Alliance dissolved in 2021.
