Tiananmen Square vigil organisers face up to 10 years in jail after being found guilty of 'undermining China'

Two former organisers of Hong Kong's annual vigils in remembrance of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown have been found guilty of subverting the state. Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung, the former leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, now face a maximum prison sentence of ten years. The two were charged with inciting subversion under a controversial national security law - the same used to jail pro-democracy media boss Jimmy Lai. They both pleaded not guilty. The duo, alongside the alliance, was found guilty.The China-imposed legislation was introduced in 2020, and has largely dismantled Hong Kong's once vibrant pro-democracy movement. Three judges ruled the alliance's call to 'end one-party dictatorship' aimed to end the ruling Communist Party's leadership status under the constitution.They also concluded the phrase 'end' carried the meaning of 'overthrowing' and 'undermining', and Mr Lee and Ms Chow's calls after the law's introduction breached the constitution. The defendants 'intentionally encouraged supporters of the alliance to wait for the right time to carry out the goal to `end one-party dictatorship' by unlawful means,' the judges said.'They did not genuinely believe their words and deeds had not violated the national security law. They just refused to pull back from the brink,' they wrote. Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung who organised annual vigils in remembrance of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown have been found guilty of subverting the state June 2019: Thousands of people take part in a candlelight vigil to mark the 30th anniversary of the crackdown of pro-democracy movement at Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989 The former leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China , now face a maximum prison sentence of ten years (Pictured Mr Lee's wife Elizabeth Tang Yin-ngor)Lee and Chow, a barrister who represented herself, said it was about championing democracy. The former leaders of the now-disbanded alliance smiled and waved at the public gallery before leaving the courtroom. Mr Lee also made a heart gesture as the verdict was told to the court. Ms Chow previously wrote to Prime Minister Andy Burnham insisting 'Britain has a non-delegable duty to adopt a more robust stance in the face of the growing threat from a totalitarian and aggressive China'.For decades, the group organised annual candlelight vigils, which were the only large-scale public commemoration of the Tiananmen crackdown in China, drawing tens of thousands of people annually.On June 4, 1989, hundreds of anti-Chinese Communist Party protesters, who were calling for democratic reform, were killed after soldiers began shooting at crowds congregated in the square. More than 1,000 people are estimated to have been killed. In 2020, during the first year of the COVID pandemic, the vigil was banned before being permanently made illegal. Beijing said the security law was necessary for the city's stability. It comes after China strengthened its hold on Hong Kong after large-scale protests in 2019. Meanwhile, critics have accused Xi Jinping's government of taking away civil liberties it had promised to preserve for 50 years after Britain gave it the city state in 1998. The recent court ruling has sparked condemnation from around the globe. Rosie Winterton, the UK Foreign Office's Indo-Pacific minister, said: 'This verdict is a further demonstration that even peaceful acts of remembrance in Hong Kong are now treated by the authorities as threats to national security.'The extensive use of Beijing's national security law to punish and restrict peaceful expression undermines the commitments China made to Hong Kong under the 1984 Sino-British joint declaration.'Meanwhile, Mark Clifford, the president of the Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation committee, said the duo had been 'silenced because they spoke truth to power and held a mirror up to the Chinese Communist Party'.Amnesty International said the verdict marked 'another grim milestone', as they maintained Mr Lee and Ms Show had been jailed 'solely' for organising 'peaceful commemorations'.U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres 'has always believed that people should be allowed to speak and protest and demonstrate peacefully without fear of arrest or prosecution,' his spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, told U.N. reporters when asked for Guterres' reaction to the convictions.Lee and Chow are expected to plead for lesser penalties at a later hearing. Since 2021, Hong Kongers have been able to enter the UK through a special visa.