NewzHONG KONG (AP) — Two former organizers of Hong Kong’s annual vigils in remembrance of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown were convicted by government-approved judges Friday of inciting others to overthrow China's communist leadership.Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung, former leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, were charged with inciting subversion in 2021 under a China-imposed national security law that has effectively crushed the city’s previously thriving pro-democracy movement. The alliance was also found guilty.They both had pleaded not guilty and face a maximum prison term of 10 years.The three judges ruled that the alliance’s call for “end one-party dictatorship” did not aim to demand that the ruling Communist Party return to the system of multiparty cooperation under the constitution, but to end its leadership status under the constitution. They said the “end” in the phrase carried the meaning of “overthrowing” and “undermining.”In the verdict, they wrote that the defendants persisted in the call after the law's introduction, neglecting that it was in breach of the constitution, which states the party's leadership is an essential characteristic of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
That falls within “other unlawful means” under the security law, the judges said.“(The defendants) intentionally encouraged supporters of the alliance to wait for the right time to carry out the goal of ‘end one-party dictatorship’ with unlawful means,” they said.Lee and Chow smiled and waved at the public gallery before they left the courtroom. They are expected to be sentenced at a later date. They will plead for lesser sentences next week, one of the judges said.Observers say the trial is a barometer for Hong Kong’s civil rightsThe verdict is among the latest involving Hong Kong’s once-vibrant pro-democracy movement, which has largely been dismantled after the security law's introduction in 2020.For decades, Hong Kong’s annual candlelight vigil was the only large-scale public commemoration of the Tiananmen crackdown and attracted tens of thousands of people annually.
The crackdown remains a political taboo on the mainland, where authorities tightly censor discussion of the events and prohibit public commemorations. Hong Kong’s greater political freedoms granted under Beijing’s “one country, two systems” governing… Two pro-democracy activists who organised annual vigils to mark Beijing's 1989 deadly Tiananmen crackdown were on Friday convicted of inciting subversion by a Hong Kong court.
Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung were leaders of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance and their case was viewed as a bellwether for freedom of expression in the Chinese city. The former organisers of Hong Kong's vigil in remembrance of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown have been convicted in a case brought under a China-imposed national security law.
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