Hong Kong convicts Tiananmen vigil activists of inciting subversion

(AFP) — A Hong Kong court convicted two activists who organized annual vigils marking China’s deadly Tiananmen crackdown of “incitement to subversion” on Friday, prompting condemnation from rights groups and several countries over the silencing of free speech.Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, had committed acts that constituted “overthrowing or undermining the basic system … established by the Constitution” of China, according to the verdict handed down by the three-judge panel.They face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, with sentencing expected at a later date.Lee and Chow were charged in 2021 and have been behind bars since under a Beijing-imposed national security law.They had incited supporters to “use unlawful means … with the aim of subverting the state power,” the judges said.The semi-autonomous former colonies of Hong Kong and Macau were once the only places on Chinese soil that permitted public vigils mourning 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.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.The judges ruled that the Hong Kong Alliance leaders had breached the Chinese Constitution in their calls to “end one-party dictatorship” after Beijing imposed the security law.Lee and Chow had “intended to cause others to lose confidence” in the Chinese Communist Party and sought to undermine the existing political system by “stirring up hostility and causing division,” the court said.The pair sat silently in the dock as the judges returned their verdict Friday. They had previously rejected the charge against them, arguing that the “democratic transition” they advocated did not exclude the Communist Party’s leadership.Family ‘furious’A third defendant, 74-year-old former lawmaker Albert Ho, pleaded guilty in January. A guilty plea typically results in a reduced sentence.Judge Alex Lee said the court expects to hear mitigation arguments next week.Lee’s wife, Elizabeth Tang, a former union leader, told reporters after the verdict that she felt “furious, angry … because I don’t think he’s guilty.”She said she hoped “the sentence won’t be that severe.”Medina Chow Lau Wah-chun, Chow’s mother, expressed “hope that the environment will become healthier, that flowers of all colours can bloom.”Steve Li, chief superintendent of the police National Security Department, welcomed the ruling.“The Hong Kong Alliance has spent years planting seeds of hatred against the Chinese Communist Party and the central government among the Hong Kong people,” Li said.China’s national security agency in Hong Kong said in a statement that the defendants’ actions “constituted a serious violation of” the national security law and “severely undermined the fundamental interests of China and Hong Kong.”Eric Lai, senior fellow at the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, said the “incitement to subversion” charge gives greater weight to intentions than actions.“Moderation of method offers no protection if the objective itself is held to be unconstitutional” by the national security court, he told AFP.‘Chilling message’Britain said the verdict showed that “even peaceful acts of remembrance” were now being treated “as threats to national security.”Germany and France also condemned the ruling, saying in a joint statement that “peaceful advocacy for human rights does not constitute a crime.”The United States, where Chinese leader Xi Jinping is expected for a state visit next month, also condemned the verdict and called for the “immediate release” of Lee and Chow, Riley Barnes, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for human rights, said on X.Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing claims as part of its territory, urged China to “stop political persecution.”Amnesty International decried the “dismaying verdict.”The ruling “marks another grim milestone in the government’s deliberate campaign” to erase the legacy of the Tiananmen vigil activists, Amnesty spokesperson Fernando Cheung said.Chow said in a blog post ahead of Friday’s hearing that “justice lies in the hearts of the people, there is no need to revere judgements handed down from above, and a single verdict is of little consequence.”The case has been widely criticized as an example of the erosion of freedom of expression in the city.It “sends a powerful and chilling message to civil society: any critique of the state and its policies, however peacefully made, is no longer welcome in Hong Kong,” Urania Chiu, a law lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, told AFP.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads