1D54D74C4B788B01A39CE8E6899019C7 Hong Kong sets to dismantle Tiananmen vigil host ahead of China's National Day -->
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Hong Kong sets to dismantle Tiananmen vigil host ahead of China's National Day

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Three leaders of the HK Alliance are charged with incitement to subversion

Originally published on Global Voices

From left to right: Lee Check-yan, Albert Ho, Chow Hang-tung. Image crop from the Stand News. Used with permission.

After putting all core members of a group of activists, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China (HK Alliance) in jail, Hong Kong national security police is now set to dismantle the host of the annual vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre.

Su Xinqi, a journalist from the AFP news agency based in Hong Kong published on Twitter a letter from the head of Hong Kong Security Bureau Chris Tang who recommends that Chief Executive Carrie Lam removes the HK Alliance from the company registry:

The deadline, September 24, comes just one week before October 1, China's National Day. In a similar manner, the Apple Daily, after its management staff were arrested and charged with conspiracy to foreign collusion, was forced to shut down on June 24, one week before July 1, which marks two events: the foundation of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the date of Hong Kong’s handover to China.

The move to dismantle the HK Alliance came right after police pressed charges against Lee Cheuk-yan, Albert Ho and Chow Hang-tung, accusing them of incitement to subversion under the National Security Law (NSL). The top three leaders of the HK Alliance were accused of inciting others to participate in unlawful acts to subvert state power from July 1, 2020 to September 8, 2021. Hong Kong- based CitizenNews revealed more details shared by journalist Alvin Lum regarding the prosecution:

The political prosecution could lead to a maximum of 10-years imprisonment. Albert Ho and Lee Cheuck-yan are already serving separate sentences for participating in authorized protests in 2019.

In the same court, five committee members of the alliance, including Simon Leung Kam-wai, Tang Ngok-kwan, Chan To-wai, Tsui Hon-kwong and Chow Hang-tung, were charged with breaching the implementation rules of the NSL after they declined to comply with police requests. The non-compliance charge can lead to a HK$100,000 (approximately US dollars 13,000) fine and six months behind bars.

All core members of the HK Alliance, along with activists from other civic groups, also face separate charges for organizing, inciting or participating in the banned Tiananmen candlelight vigil on June 4, 2020. Albert Ho together with eleven activists pleaded guilty on September 9 for taking part in the vigil last year. Others, including Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan pleaded not guilty and have their trial pending until November.

The HK Alliance has been organizing massive gatherings on June 4 in Hong Kong since 1990 to commemorate the Tiananmen crackdown on students’ anti-corruption and pro-democratic reform protests in 1989. For 30 years, tens of thousands have been attending the event annually, but in 2020 the police banned the public gathering for the first time, citing health concerns.

As stressed by the former chair of the group, Albert Ho, in his mitigation plea, the HK Alliance has taken it as a duty to remember history and to voice out people’s desire for an open and democratic political system in China out of patriotic sentiment:

…we were driven by our consciences and moral commitment to make our best endeavours to maintain this historic tradition of commemorating June 4, remembering the lesson of history and speaking truth to power.

The police initially accused the HK Alliance of being a ‘foreign agent’ and requested its assistance in providing a list of internal documents for its investigation. The group declined to comply on  September 8: within 24 hours, the police arrested five executive committee members, raided the organization’s warehouse and its historical museum about the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre and froze its HK$2.2 million (US dollars: 283,000) worth of assets.

Tom Grundy from the Hong Kong Free Press tweeted about the police’s crackdown:

Barrister Chow Hang-tung, who at 36 is the youngest among the three, had anticipated her arrest before she handed-in the HK Alliance letter of non-compliance, as journalist Xinqi Su highlighted:

Upon acknowledging that the police would charge her with ‘incitement to subversion’ instead of ‘foreign agent’, the human rights lawyer was ‘relieved’ as she hoped the trial could set the stage for an open debate over the responsibility of the June 4 massacre and China’s political system:

As expressed in political cartoonist Ah To's latest work, the crackdown on the HK Alliance amounts to the suppression of the people's aspiration for democracy and its replacement by nationalism.

Written by Oiwan Lam



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