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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Free China Movement statement on the convictions of Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang-tung and Albert Ho

The Free China Movement expresses its profound respect and gratitude to the former leaders and members of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, who for decades kept alive the memory of June Fourth and stood with China’s democracy movement when people inside mainland China were denied the freedom to mourn publicly.

On August 21, 2026, Hong Kong’s High Court convicted Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung of inciting subversion under the National Security Law. Albert Ho had earlier pleaded guilty to the same charge. Following mitigation arguments on August 28, the court said sentencing would be handed down within two weeks.

Many of us who participated as students in China’s 1989 democracy movement remember the people of Hong Kong standing with us, year after year, through the annual Victoria Park candlelight vigils and through sustained support for democracy and human rights in China. We will not forget that solidarity, and we will not forget those who are now paying a grave personal price for preserving that memory.

We admire the courage of Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang-tung and Albert Ho in facing a legal and political environment that has changed dramatically since the National Security Law was imposed in 2020. Peaceful remembrance, advocacy for democracy, and public discussion of political reform should not be transformed into crimes against the state.

Hong Kong was promised a high degree of autonomy under “One Country, Two Systems.” Article 5 of the Basic Law provides that Hong Kong’s previous capitalist system and way of life would remain unchanged for 50 years after 1997, through 2047. The narrowing of freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and independent civil society raises profound questions about whether those commitments are being honored in substance.

The Hong Kong government maintains that the defendants were lawfully convicted because their advocacy amounted to incitement to subversion. We respectfully disagree with the proposition that peaceful advocacy for democracy, remembrance of the victims of June Fourth, or calls for political change should by themselves constitute subversion.

Call for an independent judiciary

Free China calls on Hong Kong’s courts to act independently, reconsider and reverse these convictions. We believe criminalizing peaceful June Fourth remembrance and democratic advocacy is inconsistent with the Basic Law’s protections for speech and assembly and with the autonomy promised to Hong Kong.

To Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang-tung, Albert Ho, and all those who carried the candles in Victoria Park for so many years: thank you. Your solidarity with the students and citizens of 1989 has not been forgotten. We stand with you now.

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Sources

• RTHK — mitigation and sentencing status
• Hong Kong government statement on the convictions
• Human Rights Watch — convictions
• Hong Kong Basic Law, Article 5