By Peter Main

Three organisers of Hong Kong’s annual vigil in commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre were found guilty on August 21 of “inciting subversion of state power” and calling for, “an end to one-party dictatorship”. On September 11, they were sentenced by a panel of “national security judges”, hand-picked by Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, John Lee, himself hand-picked by the Beijing government, quite possibly by Xi Jinping himself.

The three were leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China; Lee Cheuk-yan, who was formerly General Secretary of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trades Unions and chaired the group, was given seven years, Chow Hang-tung, a Vice-Chair, seven years and three months and Albert Ho Chun-can, a former member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council and another Vice-Chair, who pleaded guilty, five years and two months.

Justifying the verdict, Lee said, “the Alliance’s aim was to overthrow and undermine the leadership by the CCP” and “anyone who intends to incite subversion and endanger national security will ultimately be punished in accordance with the law”.

The particular law that Lee was referring to was the National Security Law, imposed on Hong Kong in 2021 but, more generally, the “leading role of the Chinese Communist Party, CCP”, is written into the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, formulated, of course, by the CCP.

As Chow, herself a barrister, argued in the course of the trial, the CCP’s claim, “that they are the choice of the people and they are the only leader, and saying that everyone has legal obligations to uphold this self-proclaimed throne, this is just synonymous with tyranny”. She also pointed out the parallel with the Nazi regime when killing Jews for being Jews was also applying the rule of law.

In recent years, the vigil also kept alive the spirit of what became known as the Umbrella Movement in which millions of Hong Kongers mobilised against Beijing’s early attempts to impose its National Security Law on the territory.

The last vigil to take place was in 2020, when tens of thousands responded to the Alliance’s call, despite the restrictions required by the Covid epidemic. In 2021, a strict ban was imposed under the newly imposed security law, Lee and Ho were arrested in April but Chow maintained the call for a further vigil. By January 2022, she had been arrested, tried and sentenced for her role in both vigils.

For the defendants, the outcome of this trial, for subversion, the verdict of guilty was a foregone conclusion, almost nobody is found innocent if charged under security legislation. It was agreed that Ho, in view of his age, 74, would plead guilty and probably be given a shorter sentence. Normally, that would be a wrong decision since it would undermine the Not Guilty pleas of the others but, since they were all going to be found guilty anyway, this was agreed in advance.

As a barrister, Chow chose to represent herself which meant she could, quite rightly, concentrate on exposing the sham legal arguments and the inbuilt prejudice of the court, no doubt that accounts for the extra three months she will serve. At the “Mitigation Hearing” prior to sentencing, where defendants are expected to plead for moderation in the light of their past activity or previous good record, Chow instead chose to condemn the whole case against her.

Although prevented from completing her statement, she made it clear that, “Inside or outside prison, I will persistently strive to release pro-democracy activists, vindicate the 1989 Democracy Movement, hold those responsible for the Massacre to account, end one-party dictatorship and build a democratic China and Hong Kong … if that makes me a criminal, then I would rather the a criminal than a person who betrays their conscience”. She and Lee plan to appeal but it is not yet known if that will be allowed.

After sentence was passed, Lee’s wife, Elizabeth Tang, pointed to the injustice of adding the seven year sentence on top of the five years he has already been held. Chow’s mother, Chow Lau Wah-chun, thanked all the supporters and commended her daughter for “making sure that the truth of June 4 is now written into the records of the Hong Kong court”.