Hong Kong's Tiananmen activists guilty in national security trial

BREAKING: Two Hong Kong activists, Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung, found guilty of inciting subversion over Tiananmen commemoration vigils, in a landmark case under the China-imposed national security law. They face up to 10 years in jail.

Organising a candlelight vigil is now a crime worth up to ten years in Hong Kong.

Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung were found guilty this morning of inciting subversion under the national security law Beijing imposed on the city. Their offence was leading the group that held annual vigils for the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. You can see them here, at court. Chow smiled as the verdict was read. Lee made a heart gesture to the gallery.

For thirty years, Victoria Park was the one place on Chinese soil where people could openly mourn Tiananmen, and these were the crowds it drew. Authorities banned the gatherings in 2020, and they never came back. Lee is 69. Chow is 41. Both have been behind bars since 2021, and Amnesty International calls them prisoners of conscience who committed no recognisable crime.

Sentencing comes later. In Hong Kong today, remembering the dead can get you a decade.

This is Kateryna Kovalenko, reporting for HIT.