Three former members of a Hong Kong organization that held yearly vigils to commemorate China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square tragedy were sentenced to four and a half months in prison for not complying with a Beijing-imposed national security legislation request for information. On Saturday, a magistrate convicted Chow Hang-tung, 38, a famous Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and former vice chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, together with Tang Ngok-kwan and Tsui Hon-kwong.
According to judge Peter Law, “national security is cardinally crucial to public interests and the whole nation.” Hong Kong’s June 4 candlelight memorial for victims of China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown was organized by the now-defunct alliance. The greatest public remembrance in China, the vigil drew tens of thousands each year. Chow remained combative before sentence on Saturday, criticizing the “political” case and the court’s withholding of critical data. “We will always confront deception with truth, indignity with dignity, concealment with openness, crazy with reason, and division with solidarity. “We will battle these injustices wherever we must, be it on the streets, in the courthouse, or from a prison cell,” Chow stated from the dock, stopped numerous times by Law. After receiving HK$20,000 ($2,562.69) in money, prosecutor Ivan Cheung accused the alliance of being a “foreign agent” for an undisclosed organization. Tang and Tsui were released pending appeal, while Chow remained in detention on Saturday awaiting trial in a separate national security matter. They were charged with secession, subversion, and terrorism under the national security statute. After 2020, several pro-democracy activists were suppressed or imprisoned.
On Saturday, Elizabeth Tang, imprisoned in Hong Kong for damaging national security, was freed on bail. Veteran labor activist Tang. I’m puzzled since I work on labor rights and trade unions. “Therefore I don’t understand why I was accused of breaching the law and threatening national security,” she told reporters on Saturday after being freed. Police detained a 65-year-old lady on Hong Kong Island on Thursday for alleged cooperation with a foreign country or external entities to damage national security. She was held for inquiry.
