--- title: "Hong Kong convicts two Tiananmen vigil organizers of inciting subversion" description: "Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung ran the candlelight vigil that was, for three decades, the only mass commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown held on Chinese soil. A Hong Kong court has now found them guilty of inciting subversion. They face up to ten years." category: "World" category_url: https://newsparlor.com/category/world author: "Priya Sharma" published: 2026-08-21T10:39:58.000Z updated: 2026-08-21T10:39:58.000Z canonical: https://newsparlor.com/article/hong-kong-convicts-two-tiananmen-vigil-organizers-of-inciting-subversion tags: ["hong-kong", "china", "national-security-law", "tiananmen", "courts"] --- # Hong Kong convicts two Tiananmen vigil organizers of inciting subversion Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung ran the candlelight vigil that was, for three decades, the only mass commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown held on Chinese soil. A Hong Kong court has now found them guilty of inciting subversion. They face up to ten years. A Hong Kong court has [convicted Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung of inciting subversion](https://www.nbcnews.com/world/asia/organizers-hong-kong-tiananmen-vigils-national-security-case-rcna593677) under the national security law Beijing imposed on the territory in 2020. The organization they led, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, was convicted alongside them. Both pleaded not guilty. [The offense carries a maximum of ten years](https://hongkongfp.com/2026/08/21/breaking-hong-kong-tiananmen-vigil-activists-convicted-under-nat-security-law-face-up-to-10-years-prison/). Lee is a former opposition lawmaker and trade union leader. Chow is a barrister who [conducted her own defense](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-21/hong-kong-protestors-organisers-tiananmen-vigil-convicted/107063308). Both were charged in 2021 and have been in custody since, meaning they have already served close to five years before any sentence is handed down. The verdict came at West Kowloon Court, before judges approved to hear national security cases rather than a jury. ## What the case was about The Alliance existed to commemorate the crackdown of June 4, 1989, when Chinese troops fired on demonstrators in and around Tiananmen Square. For three decades it filled Victoria Park with candles every June 4, drawing tens of thousands of people in what was the only large-scale public commemoration of the event anywhere on Chinese soil. Among the Alliance's stated aims was ending one-party rule in mainland China. That aim is the center of the case. [The court found that advocating an end to what the group called one-party dictatorship amounted to subversion](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-21/hong-kong-protestors-organisers-tiananmen-vigil-convicted/107063308) under the law. Prosecutors argued the vigils, the Alliance's June 4 museum and its publications formed a body of activity intended to build support for opposition to the Communist Party's rule, and that this met the statutory test. The defense position was that the group was campaigning for democratic reform rather than for the overthrow of the state. Lee told the court the Alliance's advocacy was [not about ending the party's leadership but about moving toward democracy](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-21/hong-kong-protestors-organisers-tiananmen-vigil-convicted/107063308). After the verdict, Chow said that ["justice lives in the hearts of the people"](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-21/hong-kong-protestors-organisers-tiananmen-vigil-convicted/107063308). ## How the vigil ended The commemoration stopped before the prosecutions began. Police banned the 2020 gathering on public health grounds during the first year of the pandemic, weeks before Beijing imposed the national security law on June 30 of that year. It was never permitted again, and the Alliance disbanded in 2021. In recent years, pro-Beijing groups have staged carnivals in Victoria Park on the June 4 weekend. ## Two accounts of the same law The Hong Kong and Chinese governments have consistently said the national security law was necessary, that it ended the disorder of the 2019 protests, and that it restored the stability on which the territory's role as a financial center depends. On this account, prosecutions under it are ordinary law enforcement against conduct that would be criminal in many jurisdictions, and foreign objections are interference in China's internal affairs. The contrary view is that the law's provisions are drawn so broadly that they capture speech and association that no ordinary criminal statute would reach. [United Nations human rights experts have called for the law to be repealed, warning that its wording permits "discriminatory or arbitrary interpretation and enforcement which could undermine human rights protection"](https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/07/1123432). Several governments, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, suspended extradition arrangements with Hong Kong after it took effect. This verdict does not resolve that disagreement, and it was never going to. What it does is mark how far the law now reaches. The conduct at issue was an annual candlelit gathering that ran lawfully in the same park for thirty years, under the same sovereignty for the last twenty-three of them, and a set of political aims the organizers had published openly throughout. The question the case answered was whether that history was a defense. The court found it was not. Mitigation and sentencing are still to come. ## Sources - [Hong Kong Tiananmen Square vigil organisers convicted in national security case](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-21/hong-kong-protestors-organisers-tiananmen-vigil-convicted/107063308) - [Court convicts 2 organizers of Hong Kong's Tiananmen vigils in national security case](https://www.nbcnews.com/world/asia/organizers-hong-kong-tiananmen-vigils-national-security-case-rcna593677) - [Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil activists convicted under national security law, face up to 10 years](https://hongkongfp.com/2026/08/21/breaking-hong-kong-tiananmen-vigil-activists-convicted-under-nat-security-law-face-up-to-10-years-prison/) - [Top rights experts urge repeal of Hong Kong's national security law](https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/07/1123432)