Three Hong Kong activists who once organized annual vigils commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre received prison sentences on Sept. 11, in a case that highlights the erosion of civil liberties in the former British colony under Beijing-imposed national security law.
Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang-tung, and Albert Ho are former leaders of the now-dissolved Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which called, among other things, for an “end of one-party dictatorship” in China.
Three Hong Kong government-appointed judges handed down the sentences on Friday, after the three were convicted of inciting subversion. Chow was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison, Lee to seven years, and Ho to five years and two months.
The judges also fined the alliance HK$1.5 million (about $191,000).
“Although the present case did not involve violence or threat of violence, nor had the defendants put forward any specific means of implementation or timetable to carry out ‘end one-party dictatorship,’ the court found that the offence was still of ‘a serious nature,’” the judges wrote.
Lee, a former lawmaker, and Chow, a barrister, pleaded not guilty, while Ho, also a former lawmaker, pleaded guilty when the trial began in January.
In August, Lee and Chow were found guilty, a decision that drew global condemnation.
In 1989, a student-led pro-democracy movement swept across China, ending when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) deployed troops and tanks to crush the protests around Tiananmen Square, leaving an estimated thousands dead and injured.
The event became a taboo subject in China, where public discussion and commemoration have been heavily censored. In Hong Kong, however, the alliance kept its memory alive by holding annual candlelight vigils beginning in 1990.
Since then, the group organized the annual June 4 vigils at Hong Kong’s Victoria Park until authorities banned the event in 2020.
The alliance’s final vigil, held in 2019, drew a massive crowd of an estimated 180,000 Hongkongers to Victoria Park to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the massacre.
In 2023, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers nominated Chow, Lee, and four other Hong Kong activists for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The sentences immediately drew condemnation from rights groups.
Mark L. Clifford, president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, issued a statement saying that Chow, Lee, and Ho should be free because they are “prisoners of conscience.”
“The Hong Kong authorities have tried to pretend these kangaroo-court proceedings weren’t a political trial—but no one is fooled. These long jail sentences send a chilling message: If you challenge the government, even peacefully and legally, you risk years behind bars,” Clifford said.
“The criminals here are the judges who’ve handed down these sentences. Remember their names: Alex Lee, Johnny Chan, and Anna Lai. They’ve punished the Hong Kong Alliance and its leaders for exercising the fundamental right to freedom of expression.”
Megan Khoo, policy director of London-based Hong Kong Watch, called the sentencing “another affront to the rule of law” and called for the trio’s “immediate and unconditional release,” according to a statement.
“These brave individuals have been locked up simply for pursuing democracy and justice while exposing the fragility of a regime that fears subversion by candlelight,” Khoo said.
“This case perpetuates the National Security Law’s aggressive assault on fundamental freedoms and rights. International governments must hold Hong Kong officials accountable for violating their obligations under international law.”
Sarah Brooks, regional director at Amnesty International, called the sentencing “an insult to the [Tiananmen] victims’ memory and an affront to history,” according to a statement.
“This sentencing is a triple tragedy: for the activists being unjustly punished; the survivors and victims of the Tiananmen crackdown itself; and the generations of Hongkongers denied the space to discuss one of the most consequential events in modern Chinese history,” Brooks said.
“The persecution of the Tiananmen activists exposes the profound fear of dissenting voices that defines Hong Kong’s ‘national security’ regime.”
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