Hong Kong activists led by former Alliance members Lee Cheuk‑yan and Chow Hang‑tung have been found guilty of inciting subversion under the city’s national security law.
Lee, 69, and Chow, 41, face up to ten years in prison after courts ruled that their annual vigils in Tiananmen Square, which commemorated the 1989 crackdown, amounted to unlawful encouragement of dissent. Sentencing will take place at a later date.
Another defendant, 74‑year‑old former lawmaker Albert Ho, pleaded guilty in January, joining two of the group’s leaders who had been jailed since 2021.
Prosecutors claim the activists “endangered national security in the name of human rights,” a statement that Chow herself said was a “trial of the law.”
The Hong Kong Alliance, founded in May 1989 to support pro‑democracy student rallies, had called for accountability, free dissidents, and democratic reform over the decades. Its leaders were arrested in 2021 amid the city’s turn towards tighter control.
Amnesty International criticised the case, arguing the law uses vague, broad, and arbitrary definitions of subversion, thereby stifling legitimate protest. The conviction reflects the expanding reach of the national security law, which outlawed a wider range of dissent following its 2020 enactment.
The case underscores the broader tensions between pro‑democracy advocates and China‑backed authorities, as Hong Kong grapples with prospects for continued dissent under a national security framework that critics argue erodes civil liberties.
