Two former leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung, were found guilty by the Hong Kong High Court on 21 August of “inciting others to subvert state power”.
After 1997, Hong Kong became the only part of China where it was possible to commemorate the 4 June 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, discuss political reforms, or organise autonomous trade unions and political parties, until Beijing imposed a National Security Law (NSL) on Hong Kong in 2020. The Alliance had organised 30 consecutive annual 4 June candlelight vigils from 1990, but political pressure led to it disbanding in 2021.
No evidence was presented in court that Lee and Chow had planned a violent coup or any unconstitutional plot to seize state power. Instead, the prosecution focussed on one key demand of the Alliance: “ending one-party dictatorship” and public statements made by the Alliance over the years.
After his escape from Tiananmen, Lee became the founding General Secretary of the autonomous Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, until the HKCTU too was forced by the NSL into disbandment in 2021; by that time Lee had already been convicted of "organising and participating in unlawful assemblies" for his leading role in the 2019 protests against the extradition Bill in Hong Kong. While serving a 14 month sentence he was charged under the NSL, denied bail, and held in remand for over 1500 days. The HKCTU Chief Executive Chris Mung escaped to the UK with a $1million bounty on his head.
As a human rights barrister, Chow had been defending Hong Kong pro-democracy activists and advocating for labour rights lawyers persecuted in China. She stepped up in 2021 to become the Alliance’s public leader when Lee and others were arrested. She was arrested on 4 June 2021, defied police orders to hand over the Alliance’s membership list and defended herself in court, famously asking if typing an article or shouting the slogan "end one party rule" is now a criminal offence in Hong Kong.
The court’s verdict answered Yes to her question. During her prolonged pre-trial detention, Chow was subjected to frequent spells of solitary confinement, triggered by her exercising her freedom of expression while in prison - drafting an acceptance speech for a European human rights award, writing a reflection on her Nobel Peace Prize nomination, and holding a hunger strike to commemorate Tiananmen.
Christopher Mung, now Executive Director of Hong Kong Labour Rights Monitor, has said: “Today’s verdict is not simply a conviction of Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung. It is also a blatant conviction of conscience and truth. For more than three decades, the Hong Kong Alliance promoted democratic ideals through peaceful and non-violent means. To now characterise such advocacy as incitement to subvert state power sends a deeply disturbing message to the world: that there is no longer room in Hong Kong for peaceful dissent or political expression…
"This verdict is therefore about more than the Hong Kong Alliance. It is a further example of the criminalisation of civil society in Hong Kong and the shrinking space for peaceful political and civic participation. History must not become a forbidden subject, and peaceful political advocacy must not be treated as a crime.”
The ITUC, the TUC, Amnesty International, the EU and many other organisations across the world have condemned the verdict and demanded their immediate release. The Labour government must also do so. Free Lee, Chow and all political prisoners in Hong Kong!!
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