Hong Kong convicts Tiananmen vigil activists of inciting subversion

# Hong Kong convicts Tiananmen vigil activists of inciting subversion

*Event date: August 21, 2026*

A Hong Kong court convicted activists Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung of inciting subversion on Friday, handing down a ruling that could carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

The AFP report carried by RFI says the three-judge panel found that the pair committed acts that constituted overthrowing or undermining the basic system established by China’s constitution. Lee and Chow had long been associated with the Hong Kong Alliance, which organised annual vigils in Victoria Park to mark the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

The case has become a symbol of how far Hong Kong’s political space has shrunk. The source says the pair were charged in 2021 and have been behind bars since under a Beijing-imposed national security law. It also says public commemoration of Tiananmen has effectively been banned since the security law took effect in 2020 after the city’s huge pro-democracy protests the previous year.

The judges said the activists had incited supporters to use unlawful means with the aim of subverting state power. The court also found that they had intended to cause others to lose confidence in the Chinese Communist Party and to stir up hostility and division. Those findings go well beyond a dispute over a single rally or slogan; they frame the case as a challenge to the political order itself.

The verdict drew immediate international criticism. The United States, Britain, France and Germany all condemned it, and UN Secretary-General António Guterres said people should be allowed to speak and protest peacefully without fear of arrest and prosecution. Rights groups said the ruling represented another grim step in the city’s campaign to erase the legacy of the Tiananmen vigil activists.

The source also captures the human side of the case. Chow said in a blog post before the hearing that justice lies in the hearts of the people and that a single verdict is of little consequence. Lee’s wife described herself as furious and angry after the decision, while Chow’s mother expressed hope that the environment would become healthier and that flowers of all colours could bloom.

Hong Kong police welcomed the ruling and said the Alliance had spent years planting seeds of hatred against the Chinese Communist Party and the central government. That sharp contrast in reactions shows how politically charged the case remains.

What happens next will matter as much as the verdict itself. A third defendant, former lawmaker Albert Ho, pleaded guilty earlier in the year, and the court was due to hear mitigation arguments later. But the essential fact on the event date was already plain: two of Hong Kong’s most prominent Tiananmen-era activists were convicted of subversion after years of detention.

The verdict will also reverberate well beyond the two defendants. Tiananmen commemorations once made Hong Kong distinctive inside China, and the case now shows how tightly the space for public remembrance has been squeezed. International criticism may not change the court’s ruling, but it does frame the conviction as part of a larger argument over freedom of expression, national security and the city’s political future. The source leaves little doubt that the hearing was about much more than one vigil. It was another test of how much dissent Hong Kong can still tolerate.