Hong Kong Convicts Tiananmen Vigil Leaders as Beijing Tightens Its Grip on Dissent

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A Guilty Verdict Years in the Making

Three government-appointed national security judges delivered their verdict Friday at the West Kowloon Law Courts in Hong Kong. Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, sat silently in the dock as they were declared guilty of incitement to subversion.

The two were the public faces of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China. For three decades, the Alliance organized the city's candlelight vigil, the only large-scale public memorial for the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown allowed anywhere on Chinese soil.

Both defendants had pleaded not guilty. According to a press summary read out by the court, judges concluded that Lee and Chow had "all along been hostile towards the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) and the Central Government," and that their activism amounted to an attempt to undermine China's constitutional order. A third defendant, former lawmaker Albert Ho, 74, pleaded guilty when the trial opened in January and awaits sentencing alongside the other two.

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What the Charges Were About

Lee and Chow were arrested and charged in September 2021, months after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong to crush the mass pro-democracy protests of 2019. Prosecutors argued that the Alliance's long-standing call to end "one-party rule" in China amounted to incitement to overthrow the Communist Party by unlawful means. In court, they described the case as one where the defendants "endangered national security in the name of human rights."

Both activists rejected that framing. Chow, a human rights lawyer who represented herself throughout the trial, argued that "ending one-party rule" simply meant ending unchecked, unaccountable power — not violent revolution. Lee told the court his criticism came "not from enmity, but from love" for the Chinese people, and that he wanted to see the country move toward genuine democracy rather than dictatorship.

The trial, originally expected to run 75 days, concluded after just 24. Both defendants now face a maximum sentence of ten years in prison; a date for sentencing has not yet been set.

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Behind Bars for Nearly Five Years

Lee and Chow have already spent close to five years in custody, having been denied bail since their 2021 arrest — a now-common practice in Hong Kong's national security cases. Chow, in particular, has continued to speak out from prison. In a blog post published days before the verdict, she described being restrained in handcuffs and ankle chains during transport to court, saying correctional officers walked her "like a dog."

Despite this, both defendants reportedly remained composed as the verdict was read. Chow blew a kiss to supporters in the public gallery; Lee formed a heart shape with his arms.

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A Movement Already Dismantled

Friday's ruling is the latest in a long series of prosecutions that have eliminated Hong Kong's organized pro-democracy movement since 2020. The Alliance itself voted to disband in September 2021 after police accused it of acting as a foreign agent — an allegation the group denied. Chow and two other former Alliance leaders were separately convicted in 2023 over their refusal to hand over internal records to police, though Hong Kong's top court overturned those convictions in 2025.

Victoria Park, once the site of vigils drawing tens of thousands of mourners every June 4, has since been used for pro-Beijing carnivals. Hong Kong residents who have tried to commemorate the anniversary informally near the park in recent years have been removed by police.

The case fits a broader pattern. Media mogul and pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai, 78, was sentenced to 20 years in prison earlier this year on separate national security charges. Rights groups say dozens of civil society organizations have dissolved since 2020 rather than risk prosecution under the law.

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International Reaction

Human Rights Watch's Asia director, Elaine Pearson, said the verdict showed that Chow and Lee had "exposed the Chinese government's fears of the memory of its own atrocities," and called on foreign governments to hold Beijing accountable for the erosion of Hong Kong's promised freedoms. Mark Clifford of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation described the outcome as "no surprise," arguing the city's judiciary had effectively decided the case in 2021, and called Lee and Chow "true Chinese patriots" punished for speaking truth to power.

Legal scholars have also pointed to the broader significance of the charge itself. Eric Lai of Georgetown University's Center for Asian Law has noted that "incitement to subversion" is the same charge routinely used in mainland China to imprison rights lawyers and intellectuals, including the late Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo — a parallel he says illustrates how closely Hong Kong's national security courts now mirror the mainland's party-controlled judiciary.

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What Comes Next

Sentencing for Lee, Chow and Ho has not yet been scheduled. Under Hong Kong's national security law, all three could receive prison terms of up to ten years. Given the current trajectory of prosecutions in the city, few observers expect leniency.

For Beijing, the case closes another chapter in its campaign to erase the memory of June 4, 1989, from Chinese public life — not just on the mainland, but now in the one Chinese city where that memory was once still permitted to be spoken aloud.

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Sources

1. Associated Press (via NBC News), "Court convicts 2 organizers of Hong Kong's Tiananmen vigils in national security case," Aug. 21, 2026 – https://www.nbcnews.com/world/asia/organizers-hong-kong-tiananmen-vigils-national-security-case-rcna593677
2. Al Jazeera (with AFP/AP), "Hong Kong Tiananmen activists found guilty of national security charges," Aug. 21, 2026 – https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/21/hong-kong-tiananmen-activists-found-guilty-of-national-security-charges
3. CNN, "Hong Kong's Tiananmen vigil fell dark years ago. Now its organizers have been convicted," Aug. 21, 2026 – https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/20/china/hong-kong-china-tiananmen-vigil-verdict-hnk-intl
4. Free Malaysia Today, "Hong Kong's Tiananmen activists found guilty of inciting subversion," Aug. 21, 2026 – https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/world/2026/08/21/hong-kong-s-tiananmen-activists-found-guilty-of-inciting-subversion
5. Associated Press, "What to know about the two former Tiananmen vigil organizers on trial in Hong Kong," Aug. 20, 2026 – https://apnews.com/article/lee-cheuk-yan-chow-hang-tung-alliance-tiananmen-vigil-e916610a4602d3850cdd9eab18791da2

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