A Correctional Services Department vehicle arrives at West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts in Hong Kong, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026. (AP Photo)
A Hong Kong court convicted two activists who organized annual vigils marking China’s deadly Tiananmen crackdown of “incitement to subversion” on Aug. 21, with rights groups condemning the silencing of free speech.
Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, “incited other persons to organize, plan, commit or participate in acts by unlawful means with a view to subverting the state power,” said a press summary of the ruling.
The three-judge panel said they found both defendants had committed acts that constituted “overthrowing or undermining the basic system established by the Constitution” of China.
They face a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail, with sentencing expected at a later date.
Lee and Chow were charged with “incitement to subversion” in 2021 and have been behind bars since, under a Beijing-imposed national security law.
Semi-autonomous former colonies Hong Kong and Macau used to be the only places on Chinese soil that permitted public vigils to mourn those who died on June 4, 1989, when authorities sent troops and tanks to crush protests calling for political reform in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
Lee and Chow were leaders of the now defunct Hong Kong Alliance, the group that organized annual vigils in the city’s Victoria Park.
But public commemoration has been effectively banned since Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020, following huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests the year before.
