Hong Kong Sentences Tiananmen Vigil Organizers Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung to Over Seven Years Each

Since Hong Kong's High Court convicted Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang-tung, and Albert Ho of inciting subversion on August 21, the only open question was how many years each would serve. That answer came Friday, September 11 in Hong Kong (Thursday evening in the US), when the court handed down sentences ranging from five to more than seven years, according to Bloomberg, NBC News, and Euronews.

Lee, 69, got seven years. Chow, 41, got seven years and three months. Ho, 74, who pleaded guilty, got five years and two months, a reduction NBC News noted is typical for a guilty plea. All three have been in custody since their September 2021 arrests, meaning they've already served roughly five years awaiting trial and verdict.

The three led the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, the group that for three decades organized the Victoria Park candlelight vigils marking the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, when Chinese troops killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of pro-democracy demonstrators, according to Euronews. The vigils were the only large-scale public commemoration of the massacre held on Chinese soil, drawing tens of thousands of people annually before authorities banned them in 2020, officially citing COVID-19.

The Alliance itself, also convicted, was fined 1.5 million Hong Kong dollars, about $190,000, NBC News reported.

What the court ruled

Three government-appointed judges ruled in August that the Alliance's longtime slogan calling to "end one-party dictatorship" in China amounted to unlawful incitement to overthrow the Chinese Communist Party, according to NBC News and Euronews. Judge Alex Lee said Friday that the fate of the group's "Pillar of Shame" statue, a monument to the crackdown's victims that was removed from the University of Hong Kong in late 2021, would be decided separately once ownership is settled, per Euronews.

The judges explicitly said the defendants were not on trial for their political views. Prosecutors argued the Alliance's museum archives and its "end one-party dictatorship" language crossed from advocacy into incitement against China's constitutional order, and the panel agreed. Lee testified he had "no enmity in my heart, only love" and said the phrase simply meant letting the Chinese public choose its leaders through elections, not eliminating the party, according to NBC News.

Chow, a barrister who represented herself, rejected the judges' framing entirely. In her mitigation statement she said the 206-page verdict "boils down to saying that pursuing democracy is a crime," and ahead of sentencing she said the prosecution was an attempt "to erase memories," particularly of June 4, according to NBC News and Euronews.

The reaction abroad

The August 21 verdict drew condemnation from the United States, the United Nations, and multiple Western governments, according to NBC News. Assistant Secretary of State Riley Barnes wrote on X that the vigils "sought only to remember the past and honor the lives lost in that assault." Euronews similarly noted human rights groups and foreign governments criticized the case.

A group that spent three decades holding a peaceful, unarmed candlelight vigil is now looking at prison terms longer than some violent crimes carry, under a law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in 2020. Hong Kong's government, for its part, has said the Alliance "planted seeds of hatred" against the Communist Party, per the Times of India, and argues the national security law is a lawful exercise of sovereignty over its own territory, not a speech ban.

What's unresolved

Neither Bloomberg nor NBC News reported whether Lee or Chow plan to appeal the conviction or sentence. The Pillar of Shame statue's legal ownership, and therefore its fate, remains undecided pending a separate court ruling, per Euronews. The sentencing lands the same week Hong Kong courts also convicted the publisher of the Wall Street Journal's local entity over a reporter union matter, underscoring a pattern of national security prosecutions against media and civil society figures that shows no sign of slowing under the 2020 law.