The national security trial of three pro-democracy activists who organised an annual memorial in Hong Kong to mark the Tiananmen Square massacre opened on Thursday, in another landmark case brought under the Beijing-imposed law that has practically crushed protests in the semiautonomous Chinese city.
Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho are charged with inciting subversion under Hong Kong’s national security law. Their trial is one of the most high-profile national security cases to be heard in Hong Kong since Beijing imposed the law in 2020. The defendants face a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment if convicted. The law has a near-100% conviction rate.
The three defendants were key members of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, the group that for decades organised the annual vigil for the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing.
As they entered the courtroom, Lee waved at his supporters, who waved back and said “good morning” to him. Ho sat calmly. Chow thanked her supporters for enduring the windy weather during the night and bowed to her supporters.
Minutes later, Lee and Chow pleaded not guilty, while Ho entered a guilty plea, which could help him get a sentence reduction.
Until the vigil was banned in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, amid a crackdown on free expression in Hong Kong, it was the only mass memorial event for the massacre on Chinese territory. For decades, it was a symbol of Hong Kong’s autonomy from mainland China, an identity that persisted even after Hong Kong was returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997.
Before sunrise, dozens of people had queued outside the court building to secure a seat in the public gallery under a cold-weather warning. Tang Ngok-kwan, a former core member of the alliance, has been queuing since Monday afternoon. He said he wanted to show support for his former colleagues in detention.
“They use their freedom to exchange for a dignified defence,” he said. “It’s about being accountable to history.”
Critics say their case shows that Beijing’s promise to keep the city’s western-style civil liberties intact for 50 years when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997 has weakened over time. But the city’s government said its law enforcement actions were evidence-based and strictly in accordance with the law.
Chow, an internationally lauded human rights barrister, has been detained for more than four years awaiting trial. Lee and Ho, former Hong Kong legislators, have also been previously sentenced for convictions of unauthorised assembly in relation to protests and vigils held during the 2019-20 pro-democracy movement.
Ho was part of a group of activists who were convicted for organising and participating in an unauthorised assembly in August 2019. In 2024, that conviction was upheld by judges on Hong Kong’s top court, a panel which included the British judge David Neuberger.
The annual vigil organised by the Hong Kong Alliance attracted tens of thousands of attenders each year. Organisers estimated that 180,000 people attended the 2019 vigil, which was held days before Hong Kong erupted in a series of protests against the Chinese Communist party’s tightening grip on the city.
Under increasing pressure from the authorities, the Alliance disbanded in 2021.
Three government-vetted judges will preside over the trial, which is expected to last 75 days. Videos related to the alliance’s years of work will be part of the prosecution evidence. The judges had said the court will not allow the trial to become a tool of political suppression in the name of the law.
In reading out the case details that Ho pleaded guilty to, prosecutor Ned Lai took issue with the alliance’s call of ending one-party rule. Lai alleged that ending the Chinese Communist party’s leadership was against the constitution, and there were no legal means to do it.
In a prosecution opening statement published on the judiciary’s website, it alleged that the Hong Kong alliance had used the pretext of democracy or the “June 4th incident”, alongside negative content targeting the country, to promote its calls. June 4 marks the anniversary of the crackdown.
The prosecution alleged the alliance’s core demand of “ending one-party rule” must require acts that violate the Chinese constitution, and that was using “unlawful means” to subvert state power. Although the defendants may not have explicitly mentioned specific plans or means to achieve the illegal goal, the natural and reasonable effect of their words was to aim at ending the party’s leadership, it alleged.
Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for Asia, said: “This case is not about national security – it is about rewriting history and punishing those who refuse to forget the victims of the Tiananmen crackdown.”
Mark Clifford, the president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, said: “The Chinese regime will stop at nothing to erase history and silence those who seek to keep the truth of Tiananmen alive. Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho are courageous patriots who have devoted their lives to representing Chinese people denied basic rights. Sadly, they are also symbols of how far Hong Kong’s once-respected justice system has fallen, persecuted for demanding that Beijing keep its promises to the people of Hong Kong.”
