HONG KONG — Two organizers of Hong Kong's long-running vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown pleaded not guilty Thursday, while a third pleaded guilty before the trial brought under a national security law that has largely erased dissent in the city.
Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho, former leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, were charged with inciting subversion in September 2021 under the China-imposed national security law. Prosecutors allege "ending one-party rule," what the group had long called for, was against China's constitution.
Lee and Chow pleaded not guilty and a hearing for arguments over defense witnesses was scheduled to resume Friday. They face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Ho entered a guilty plea and was convicted by Judge Alex Lee, who said the court will handle his plea for a lighter sentence after the trial, which is expected to last 75 days.
Trial arguments center on alliance's call
Prosecutor Ned Lai on Thursday said the alliance’s call meant ending the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership and that goal opposed the constitution.
Lai said the alliance promoted that call through different channels, including operating a museum about the 1989 crackdown and hosting activities.
The prosecutor said that after Hong Kong's security law took effect, Ho stated he would press on with calls for “ending one-party rule" and “a democratic China."
The trio of defendants, who were at the heart of the alliance's work, "personally or through the alliance, declared they would persist with the relevant illegal goal of subverting state power and their actions,” Lai said.
In an opening statement that was published online, the prosecution alleged the Hong Kong alliance had promoted its position through discussion of the “June 4th incident," referring to the Tiananmen crackdown, and negative content targeting the country, although specific plans or means to achieve their “unlawful” aim might not have been mentioned by the defendants.
Former pro-democracy district councilor Chan Kim-kam, a friend of Chow who attended past vigils, was one of dozens of people who waited to get seats in the court’s public gallery.
“We need to witness this, regardless of the results,” she said.
Tang Ngok-kwan, a former core member of the alliance, had been waiting since Monday afternoon.
“They use their freedom to exchange for a dignified defense,” he said. “It’s about being accountable to history.”
Trial raises concerns about free expression and civil society
Urania Chiu, lecturer in law at Oxford Brookes University, said the case goes to the heart of freedom of expression.
“The prosecution case hinges on the argument that the Alliance’s general call for ‘bringing the one-party rule to an end’ constitutes subversion without more, which amounts to criminalizing an idea, a political ideal that is very far from being actualized,” she said.
Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director, alleged the case was about “rewriting history and punishing those who refuse to forget the victims of the Tiananmen crackdown."
Hong Kong for decades had been the site of the only large-scale public commemoration of the 1989 crackdown in China. Tens of thousands of people attended the event annually until authorities banned it in 2020 because of COVID-19.
After COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, the park was occupied instead by a carnival organized by pro-Beijing groups. Those who tried to commemorate the event near the site were detained.
Before the alliance voted to disband in September 2021, police had sought details about the group, saying they had reasonable grounds to believe it was acting as a foreign agent. The alliance rejected the allegations and refused to cooperate.
Chow, Tang and another core member of the alliance were convicted in a separate case in 2023 for failing to provide authorities with information on the group and were each sentenced to 4 1/2 months in prison. But the trio overturned their convictions at the city's top court in 2025.
Beijing said the 2020 security law was necessary for the city's stability following huge pro-democracy protests in 2019 that sent hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets.
The same law has convicted dozens of other leading pro-democracy activists, including former media mogul Jimmy Lai in December. Dozens of civil society groups have closed since the law took effect.