Hong Kong High Court Convicts Two Tiananmen Vigil Organizers of Inciting Subversion

Hong Kong’s High Court convicted two longtime organizers of the city’s annual Tiananmen vigil on Friday of inciting subversion, ruling that their group’s call to “end one-party dictatorship” amounted to an attempt to overthrow China’s political system. The Court of First Instance found Chow Hang-tung, 41, and Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, guilty under Hong Kong’s national security law. A mitigation hearing is set for Aug. 28, with sentencing to follow. The offense can carry up to 10 years in prison in serious cases, or up to five years in lesser ones.

The case centers on former leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, the now-disbanded group that for decades organized Hong Kong’s annual June 4 candlelight vigils marking the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. The ruling is significant both because it targets organizers of one of the city’s best-known public commemorations and because the court treated the Alliance’s core political slogan as subversive.

A third former Alliance leader, Albert Ho, 74, pleaded guilty in January 2026 to the same charge.

According to the court’s reasoning, the Alliance’s objective of “ending one-party dictatorship” was not merely a political view but an attempt to “overthrow” the Chinese government. The court found that even without the use or advocacy of violence, the objective could still amount to “unlawful means” under the security law because it ran contrary to China’s constitutional order.

The judges also said the activists had “stirred up hostility” toward the Chinese Communist Party by comparing the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown with Hong Kong’s 2019 pro-democracy protests.

The defense had argued that the slogan was an expression of support for a democratized China, not a call for violence or unlawful conduct, and that the defendants were exercising rights of free expression and peaceful assembly. The court rejected that argument.

Hong Kong’s government welcomed the verdict. Chief Executive John Lee said: “The acts of the defendants over a long period of time endangered national security; their conspiracy was abundantly clear, which must be brought to justice.”

The Hong Kong Alliance organized annual June 4 vigils from 1990 until it disbanded in 2021 under mounting legal pressure. Often held in Victoria Park, the gatherings became one of Hong Kong’s most visible pro-democracy public events and a rare place on Chinese territory where the 1989 military crackdown was openly commemorated.

After Beijing imposed the national security law on Hong Kong in 2020, authorities banned the June 4 vigils in 2020 and 2021 on COVID-19 grounds. The Alliance later disbanded, and officials have since repeatedly moved against public June 4 commemorations.

The case has drawn criticism from rights groups because Hong Kong’s Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution, preserves the application of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including protections for expression and assembly. Human Rights Watch said the convictions violated those rights. Elaine Pearson, the group’s Asia director, said, “The conviction of these Tiananmen vigil organizers shows that public displays of mourning have become a crime in Hong Kong.”

Chow, in her closing statement as quoted by Human Rights Watch, framed the case as punishment for political speech. “Speaking the truth is branded as inciting hatred… demanding accountability and limits on power is portrayed as violating the constitution, and returning power to the people is condemned as subversion.”