Two Activists Found Guilty in Hong Kong for Holding Tiananmen Square Memorials

A Hong Kong court found Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, guilty on Friday, 21 August 2026, of a crime called "incitement to subversion." That means the government accused them of encouraging people to undermine or challenge its authority. Their offence? Organising candlelit memorial events for Beijing's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, under a law called the national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in 2020. Both face up to ten years in prison, with sentencing expected at a later date. (Al Jazeera)

Lee and Chow were former leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China. That organisation hosted an annual candlelight vigil in Hong Kong's Victoria Park every year since 1990. It drew tens of thousands of people each year and was the only large-scale public commemoration of the Tiananmen crackdown held anywhere on Chinese soil. Think of it as a yearly thermometer for how much political freedom Hong Kong still had compared to mainland China, where such gatherings are not allowed. (Al Jazeera)

The vigils ended in 2020. Authorities banned the gathering that year, citing the COVID-19 pandemic, just weeks before Beijing imposed the national security law on Hong Kong. That law was created to stop the huge antigovernment protests that had swept through Hong Kong throughout 2019. Under the law, the charge of "incitement to subversion of state power" can carry penalties that have now been applied to political activity that took place before the law existed. (Al Jazeera)

Chow Hang-tung, a human rights lawyer, represented herself in court. Both she and Lee pleaded not guilty and were formally charged in 2021. The High Court began hearing the case in January 2026, with final arguments from both sides scheduled from 18 May 2026. (Al Jazeera; Reuters; Amnesty International)

A third defendant, Albert Ho, 74, was also charged alongside Lee and Chow with inciting others to subvert state power. His status in Friday's verdict was not specified in the most recently published reporting. Earlier sources from January 2026, including BBC and The Guardian, had identified him as one of the three former Alliance leaders standing trial. (BBC; The Guardian)

This is not the first prosecution tied to the Tiananmen commemorations. On 13 December 2021, eight activists including Chow Hang-tung were jailed for up to 14 months for organising and participating in the vigils. Those convictions were under public order laws, not national security charges. The current verdicts raise the legal consequences for the same activity into the far more serious category of state security. (Reuters)

The verdicts follow the conviction and 20-year sentencing of Jimmy Lai, 78, the founder of the newspaper Apple Daily and a well-known rights campaigner, earlier in 2026. Together, these cases show how the national security law, enacted in mid-2020, has been steadily applied to key figures and organisations in Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement. (Al Jazeera)

The Hong Kong Alliance itself disbanded in 2021 under the pressure of the national security investigation, ending the organisation that had kept the Tiananmen commemorations going since 1990. Its assets were frozen, and its leaders were targeted for prosecution under provisions that criminalise subversion, secession (breaking away from the state), terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces. (Reuters)

The broader context here is about memory and what happens when a government criminalises it. Hong Kong operates under a framework called "one country, two systems," meaning that although it is part of China, it was promised its own legal system and greater freedoms than the mainland. The Tiananmen vigils were the only sustained, public, mass remembrance of the 1989 crackdown allowed anywhere under Chinese rule. Prosecuting the organisers under a national security law means the act of remembering the event in public is now treated as a threat to the state. The charge does not allege violence, spying, or secret dealings with foreign countries. It targets the public telling of a historical story that the central government has tried to suppress. For governments and rights groups watching the decline of Hong Kong's legal protections, these verdicts confirm that the security law reaches beyond protests and political advocacy into the keeping of collective memory. The upcoming sentences for Lee and Chow will set the price for that exercise.