Hong Kong begins national security trial for organisers of Tiananmen vigils

Hong Kong is the site of a landmark trial involving three activists who staged demonstrations to commemorate the massacre in Tiananmen Square in China.

Former Hong Kong Alliance members Chow Hang-tung, Albert Ho, and Lee Cheuk-yan are charged with “inciting subversion of state power” in the case before the Chinese territory’s High Court.

On Thursday, Lee waved at his supporters as they entered the courtroom, who then responded with “good morning.”

Chow thanked her supporters for surviving the winds during the night and bowed to them as she sat quietly.

Minutes later, Ho admitted guilt while Lee and Chow made a guilty plea.

On Thursday morning, about 70 people waited in line outside the court while dozens of police were stationed nearby.

Beijing’s deadly crackdown on demonstrators in Tiananmen Square was celebrated in Hong Kong every year on June 4, 1989, but those activities have been suspended since 2020.

In response to extensive, sometimes violent pro-democracy demonstrations in the former British colony that year, Beijing passed a national security law.

Rights organizations and some foreign governments have criticized cases involving prominent pro-democracy figures using the law to silence dissent.

According to Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for Asia, “This case is not about national security; it is about rewriting history and punishing those who refuse to forget the victims of the Tiananmen crackdown.”

The trial was referred to as a “sham,” according to Angeli Datt, research and advocacy coordinator for the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders.

The only way to stop all charges and release the three organisers is to ask the Hong Kong authorities to actually follow the law, according to Datt in a statement.

Following the protests in 2019 that prompted hundreds of thousands of people to take to the streets, Beijing has claimed that the security law has brought stability to the city.

The trial, which is scheduled to last 75 days, will be presided over by three government-vetted judges. The prosecution’s evidence will include videos that relate to the alliance’s years of work.

Chow’s earlier request to throw out the case was rejected by the three-judge panel.

In a preliminary ruling, the judges wrote that the court won’t allow the trial to turn into a tool for political suppression, as Chow had previously said.

In May 1989, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China was established to support protesters staging demonstrations in Beijing for democracy and anticorruption.

The Chinese government imposed a heavy censorship on Tiananmen Square’s movement the following month, which the country’s government later heavily censored domestically.

The Alliance demanded that Beijing accept responsibility, release dissidents, and support democratic reform for the next three decades.

Every June 4, the Hong Kong’s Victoria Park candlelight vigils drew thousands of people.

Following the arrest of media mogul Jimmy Lai last month, which received widespread condemnation, the trial of Chow, Lee, and Ho is now underway.

Lai was found guilty of conspiring to extort money from other countries.