Hong Kong Court Sentences Tiananmen Vigil Organizers to Seven Years

A Hong Kong court on Friday sentenced three activists who organized the city's annual commemorations of Beijing's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown to prison terms of as long as seven years, marking the most significant moment yet in a broad national security clampdown that has fundamentally reshaped the once-open territory.

Chow Hang-tung, 41, a barrister who conducted her own defense at trial, drew the steepest sentence: seven years and three months. Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, former chair of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, received seven years. Albert Ho, 74, a longtime pro-democracy lawmaker who entered a guilty plea in January seeking leniency, was given five years and two months. The Hong Kong Alliance itself was fined HK$1.5 million — roughly $191,000.

Chow and Lee were convicted last month of inciting subversion under the national security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in 2020, following two years of frequently violent pro-democracy protests. Ho was alone among the three in pleading guilty.

In a written summary, the judges noted that the case involved no violence and that the defendants had set no specific timeline for their stated aim of ending one-party rule in China. Even so, the court found the offense "of a serious nature" because the alliance had spread what it termed subversive messages through its activities and on social media.

A central element of the prosecution focused on the alliance's longstanding slogan calling for an end to one-party dictatorship, which the court ruled had incited people to undermine the Chinese Communist Party — a breach of the security law regardless of whether any concrete action resulted.

Before sentencing, Chow posted a written statement saying her conviction declared that "pursuing democracy is a crime." At a previous hearing she told the court the law itself was on trial. After the sentences were handed down, she sent a kiss toward spectators in the public gallery; Lee appeared to pray as guards escorted him from the dock.

Lee's wife, Elizabeth Tang, told reporters it was a "sad day" and said her husband would appeal. Chow's mother spoke to a crowd gathered outside the courthouse, urging those present not to be "overly saddened" and not to "lose heart."

For decades, Hong Kong's annual Tiananmen candlelight vigil ranked among the largest public memorials to the 1989 crackdown anywhere in Chinese territory — capable of drawing more than 100,000 attendees and serving as a powerful symbol of the city's distinct freedoms relative to mainland China. Authorities banned the gathering in 2020, initially citing COVID-19 restrictions; the national security law subsequently made organizing such events a legal risk.

The United Nations, international human rights organizations and numerous Western governments condemned the sentences. Amnesty International called the outcome "a triple tragedy" for the activists, for the victims of the Tiananmen crackdown, and for generations of Hong Kong residents "denied the space to discuss one of the most consequential events in modern Chinese history."

Human Rights Watch said the sentences "expose the cruelty and insecurity of a government afraid of memory and the people." Taiwan's government said pursuing democracy and human rights is not a crime.

The Hong Kong government defended the legal proceedings, maintaining that rights and freedoms remain protected under the national security law and that the government "strongly condemns any biased remarks and smears" against its efforts to safeguard national security.

Time already served since the three defendants were charged in 2021 was expected to be credited against all three sentences.