Hong Kong — A Hong Kong court has sentenced three former leaders of the now-dissolved Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China after their convictions for inciting subversion under the National Security Law.
Chow Hang-tung received 7 years and 3 months, Lee Cheuk-yan received 7 years, and Albert Ho received 5 years and 2 months. Lee and Chow had pleaded not guilty; Ho had pleaded guilty.
The Hong Kong Alliance organized the city’s annual candlelight vigils commemorating the victims of the June Fourth 1989 crackdown. According to Reuters, the court treated advocacy including the call to end one-party dictatorship as evidence supporting the subversion case. Associated Press likewise reported that the convictions and sentences arose from the defendants’ leadership of the Alliance and its advocacy around democratic change and June Fourth remembrance.
Hong Kong authorities have maintained that the case concerns national security and the rule of law, not political opinion. Critics, including international rights organizations, argue that the prosecutions criminalize peaceful political advocacy, historical remembrance and freedoms that Hong Kong once allowed more broadly.
Why these sentences matter
The case is significant not only because of the length of the prison terms, but because it tests whether peaceful remembrance of June Fourth and advocacy for democratic political change can be treated as crimes of subversion.
Chow Hang-tung’s case has already become a symbol of this conflict. Five years after her arrest, Free China Movement published a longer background article on the shrinking space for remembrance and nonviolent political participation in Hong Kong: Five Years After Chow Hang-tung’s Arrest, Her Case Remains a Test of Hong Kong’s Freedom to Remember June Fourth.
The broader moral question is also addressed in our companion editorial, When the Law Punishes Conscience: Why Justice Can Stand Above Unjust Law, which examines the Chinese idea expressed here as 义大于法 — that justice, conscience and moral duty can stand above a law used as an instrument of political repression.
Related statement by Lian Shengde
In an earlier Free China Movement statement, co-founder Lian Shengde wrote: “China’s future must not be built on fear or revenge. It must be built on truth, constitutional government, equal rights, and the peaceful transfer of political power.”
Read the full statement: Peacefully Seeking Democracy Is Not Subversion. Remembering June Fourth Is Not a Crime.