Hong Kong jails Tiananmen vigil organisers for up to seven years

A Hong Kong court on Friday sentenced three former leaders of the group that ran the city's annual Tiananmen vigil. Chow Hang-tung, 41, a lawyer who represented herself, received seven years and three months. Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, a labour organiser, received seven years. Albert Ho, 74, a lawyer and former lawmaker who pleaded guilty in January, received five years and two months. The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China was fined HK$1.5 million.

Lee and Chow were convicted last month of inciting others to subvert state power under the national security law Beijing imposed in 2020. They had faced up to ten years. Ho's shorter term reflected the guilty plea. The judges, chosen by the city's leader for national security cases, had already held that the Alliance's long-standing call to "end one-party dictatorship" showed an intent to undermine the Communist Party.

In the sentencing remarks the bench noted that the case involved no violence and no timetable for carrying out the slogan. That finding did not bring the terms under five years for the two defendants who fought the charge. Chow told the court earlier that the law itself was on trial. Taiwan's government said the pursuit of democracy and human rights is not a crime.

For thirty years the Alliance's 4 June gathering in Victoria Park was the only large public commemoration of the 1989 Beijing crackdown on Chinese soil. Organisers put some crowds above 100,000. Police figures were lower. The last legal vigil was in 2019. After the security law, the Alliance disbanded. Its leaders had been in custody or fighting charges since 2021.

The slogan at the centre of the case was not new. It sat on Alliance banners for decades while Hong Kong still had a separate legal order. The 2020 statute changed the risk attached to the same words. Prosecutors treated a political demand as an incitement to bring down state power by unlawful means. The court agreed. That reading is now precedent for any group whose charter still names the Party as a problem.

Lee, Chow and Ho are veterans of the city's older opposition. Ho helped found what was once the largest pro-democracy party, which dissolved last year. Lee spent years in labour politics. Chow became the public face of the vigil case after others left the city or pleaded. Their ages matter for the sentences. Ho is 74. Lee is 69. A seven-year term is a late-life sentence even when it is not a life term.

Hong Kong officials present the national security docket as closed business: the big trials are finishing, the city is stable, capital can return. Friday's numbers cut against that brochure. The last organisation that could fill Victoria Park with candles is now a convicted vehicle, its officers in prison, its treasury lighter by HK$1.5 million. No replacement group will apply for a park permit.

The practical effect inside China is already old news. The mainland buried 4 June as a public fact years ago. Hong Kong was the exception. That exception is now a court record and a set of release dates.