HONG KONG – In a significant national security trial, a Hong Kong court has wrapped up the final arguments for two former organizers involved in the city’s vigils commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. This case centers on Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan, previously at the helm of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China.
Judge Alex Lee, among the trio of government-approved judges presiding over the case, indicated that a verdict is anticipated by July. This trial has drawn attention as the alliance, now disbanded, was known for orchestrating what was once the only large-scale public commemoration of the Tiananmen crackdown in China. For years, this event drew tens of thousands of participants annually until it was prohibited in 2020 amidst the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
Both Chow and Lee faced charges in 2021 for inciting subversion under a stringent national security law imposed by Beijing, and they could face up to a decade in prison if found guilty. They entered pleas of not guilty earlier this year in January.
Many observers view their prosecution and the cessation of the vigil as emblematic of the erosion of freedoms Beijing pledged to maintain when Hong Kong was handed back from British to Chinese control in 1997. However, both the Hong Kong and Beijing administrations assert that the national security law is essential for ensuring the city’s stability.
Throughout the trial, prosecutors have pointed to the alliance’s demand to “end one-party rule” as evidence of incitement. They argued that the group’s calls for change were aimed at encouraging illegal methods to challenge the authority of China’s ruling Communist Party.
In previous hearings, the prosecution has focused on “ending one-party rule,” one of the alliance’s core demands, arguing that the group’s advocacy was about inciting others to use unlawful means to overthrow the leadership of China’s ruling Communist Party.
Chow, a barrister who defended herself, said Tuesday that her trial was a “very strange case,” because the defendants neither denied anything they had done nor argued that what they said didn’t reflect their thoughts.
Chow said that “ending one-party rule” means ending a state where power is unrestricted, and that a key question in the case is whether the law is really safeguarding the Chinese Communist Party to rule forever and banning the people from pushing forward democratization.
Chow argued that the standard for determining right and wrong has been turned upside down in this case.
“Speaking the truth has become inciting hatred, seeking justice has become exploiting suffering, limiting power has become violating the constitution, and returning power to the people has become subverting the state,” she said.
She said that if the court fails to gatekeep over the reasonable effects of their statements, it could easily become an accomplice by tolerating the crimes committed by those in power.
The prosecution said Monday that freedoms of speech, assembly and association aren’t absolute rights, accusing the defendants of attempting to blur the focus with human rights arguments.
After hearing arguments from both sides, Lee said Tuesday that the judges can’t specify a verdict date, but hoped to have a decision between mid- and late July.
The trial, which was initially scheduled to last 75 days, moved faster than expected. Tuesday was the 24th day of the trial.
Albert Ho, also a defendant in the case, entered a guilty plea when the trial began in January. Pleading guilty typically could result in a sentence reduction.
Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen vigils mourned the victims who died in a crackdown on student-led protests in 1989, during which tanks rolled into the heart of Beijing and soldiers fired live rounds. Hundreds and possibly thousands of people were killed, including dozens of soldiers.
Authorities banned the vigil in Hong Kong in 2020, citing the COVID-19 pandemic.
But after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, the former vigil site was occupied instead by a carnival organized by pro-Beijing groups. Some people who tried to commemorate the event near the site on June 4, the crackdown’s anniversary, were detained.
