Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil activist urges court to safeguard ‘dignity, bottom line of law’ in national security trial

“A Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil activist standing in a national security trial has urged the court to safeguard the “dignity and bottom line of the law,” as she warned judges not to become “accomplices” in an alleged government crackdown on free speech. The candlelight vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown in Beijing, in 2018. File photo: Kris Cheng/HKFP. Chow Hang-tung, a former leader of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, said that authorities have been “reshaping” the city’s long-held values by prosecuting activists who advocate for democracy in China. Her statement to the court was made on Tuesday as the prosecution and the defense completed their closing arguments. The three-judge panel said they hope to deliver a verdict in “mid or late July.” Chow is representing herself in the trial, in which she faces a charge of inciting subversion under the Beijing-imposed national security law alongside the Alliance and Lee Cheuk-yan, another former leader of the group. The offence carries a maximum penalty of 10 years behind bars. Prosecutors accuse the Alliance of inciting others to topple the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) through its calls to “end one-party rule” in China, a key tenet of the group since its founding in 1989 after the Tiananmen crackdown in Beijing. Delivering closing arguments on Tuesday, Chow said the crux of the case was whether the law protects the “perpetual rule” of the CCP or the rights of people to advocate democracy. “Ending one-party rule means putting an end to the status quo, in which those in power are not bound by the law,” she said in Cantonese. ‘Unheard of’ Prosecutors previously argued that the Alliance’s calls breached China’s constitution, after a 2018 amendment stipulates that the CCP’s leadership is the “defining feature” of the country’s “fundamental” socialist system. Chow argued on Tuesday that the CCP’s leadership is merely “symbolic” under China’s constitution, as the text has not demarcated the party’s power and function. A Correctional Service Department vehicle arrives at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on January 22, 2026. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. “King Charles III is also the leader of his country, but he has no real power,” she said, drawing an analogy to the UK’s constitutional monarchy. Instead, it is a reality that the CCP is in power, she said. The Alliance’s advocacy aimed at creating “favourable conditions” for the country’s democratisation, not toppling the regime, she added. She argued it was “unheard of” that a government would accuse its citizen of breaching the constitution. “Any document that can be called a constitution in the world is to restrict the operation of power, not ordinary people,” she said. Citing the trial of former South Korean president Chun Doo-hwan, who was responsible for the country’s bloody crackdown of the Gwangju uprising in 1980, Chow said it was those who sought to concentrate power that were ruled to have breached the constitution. ‘Accomplice’ She also dismissed the prosecution’s claim that the only “reasonable and natural effect” of the Alliance’s calls was an incitement of others. Her group was merely making political criticism and had not called for action, she said. She argued that the charge against her demonstrated the government’s “paranoia” and its attempt to silence those making unfavourable opinions, adding that the defendants wholly believed in their advocacy. If the court found the defendants guilty, that would prohibit the political freedom that the city has long championed, she said. From left: Lee Cheuk-yan, Albert Ho, Chow Hang-tung. Photos: HKFP. “If the court cannot rigorously draw a line for what is the reasonable and natural effect [of political speech], it will easily become an accomplice in the authorities’ crime,” she said. “What is on trial is actually the law itself.” Senior counsel Priscilia Lam, representing the Alliance, argued the prosecution had not been able to present evidence of the Alliance’s alleged incitement to subversion. “What did the Alliance do to incite people to subvert state power?” Lam said in Cantonese. “I have heard nothing on this after sitting here for so long.” For decades, the Alliance organised vigils at Victoria Park to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown in Beijing, when hundreds, perhaps thousands, were killed as troops dispersed pro-democracy demonstrators in and around Tiananmen Square. The Alliance disbanded in 2021 after authorities banned the vigil for two years, citing Covid-19 restrictions, and arrested its leadership on national security allegations. Chow and Lee have been behind bars since September 2021. Another defendant, former lawmaker Albert Ho, pleaded guilty when the trial opened in January.

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