2 pro-democracy activists convicted in Hong Kong, face up to 10 years in jail: ‘Most unjust’
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Two longtime pro-democracy campaigners in Hong Kong have been convicted, and face up to 10 years in prison, for repeating a simple phrase during a vigil commemorating China’s brutal Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41 — heads of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China — were found guilty of inciting subversion for calling for the “end one-party dictatorship” in China in 2021.
Despite the gravity of the conviction, Chow, a barista, could be seen flashing a smile of defiance as he left the West Kowloon Magistrates’ courthouse in the former British colony on Friday.
Lee’s wife, Elizabeth Tang, slammed the verdict as “most unjust,” as she stood outside court.
“Of course there’s no surprises but still I’m disappointed and I’m angry because I don’t think he has committed any unlawful (acts),” Tang told Reuters.
Three Chinese Communist Party-approved national security judges claimed it was Lee and Chow’s repeated use of the words, “end one-party dictatorship” rather than the protest itself that breached China’s National Security Law (NSL).
The defendants “intended to cause others to lose confidence in the CCP by stirring up hostility and causing division, so as to achieve the objective of undermining the fundamental basic system,” the judges stated in a 16-page ruling summary.
Lee and Chow’s group was also scrutinized for the Hong Kong demonstration marking the 1989 CCP crackdown on student protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Death toll estimates from the massacre range from 200 to 10,000, but it is forbidden to discuss in mainland China.
Pro democracy campaigners in Hong Kong, which the British handed over to China in 1997, have long used the anniversary of the massacre to press for freedom of speech and political autonomy.
Protests were previously tolerated in the semi-autonomous city, but were outlawed in 2020 when the NSL came into effect.
Chow, a long-time protester, had attended Tiananmen Square protests since she was an elementary school student.
Lee and Chow were arrested after organizing a protest in 2021, with the two pleading not guilty, citing Hong Kong’s freedoms of speech laws.
While Hong Kong tends to enjoy more freedoms than mainland China, the judges rejected the defense’s argument.