香港天安門紀念活動多年前黯然落幕。如今，其組織者已被定罪 (2/2)

Recently CNN news on-line reported the following:

(Source CNN)

Hong Kong’s Tiananmen vigil fell dark years ago. Now its organizers have been convicted (2/2)

CNN - By Chris Lau

UPDATED AUG 21, 2026

(continue)

Free speech vs prohibited speech

Security was ramped up outside the courthouse on Friday with police checking the identities of many of those lining up to attend, and searching their bags.

Tang Ngok-kwan, a former member of the alliance that organized the vigils, told reporters that police barred him from entering the court building because he refused to give up copies of past news reports about the crackdown.

Another supporter, Margaret Chan, called the case “absurd.”

“Patriotism is in the alliance’s name. We all love our nation. What does it incite people for? To love their country?” she said.

During the trial itself prosecutors said the trio’s alliance incited subversion by calling for an end to “one-party dictatorship.” They argued the calls were aimed at unlawfully trying to topple China’s fundamental system and central political bodies.

By continuing to advocate for the ousting of the Chinese Communist Party after the national security law came into effect, prosecutors said, the alliance’s act amounted to subversion, adding that the group was also behind a host of events that fostered public hatred toward Beijing, including the annual vigil.

The defense denied the suggestion they meant to topple the party, and argued their campaign was about moving toward democracy and urging the party not to enforce a “dictatorship.” They also argued the alliance had not asked people to adopt any illegal means and promoted peaceful protest.

Chow, a trial lawyer by trade, led her own defense during the court case which – like all of Hong Kong’s national security cases – was heard by a panel of three judges selected to oversee such proceedings and not a jury.

“Speaking the truth has become inciting hatred, seeking justice has become exploiting suffering, limiting power has become violating the constitution, and returning power to the people has become subverting the state,” she said during the trial, the Associated Press reported.

The judges ruled that the alliance’s leaders had been actively “advocating and performing activities” that intended to “overthrow” and “undermine” the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Their agenda breached the Chinese constitution and was “unlawful” despite the absence of any use or threat of violence, they wrote in the judgment.

The leaders “had all along been hostile towards the CCP and the central government under its leadership,” they added.

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee - a former security chief - welcomed the conviction. “Their conspiracy was abundantly clear, which must be brought to justice,” he said on Friday.

After the guilty verdict was handed down, Chow blew supporters in the public gallery a kiss, while Lee formed a heart with his arms.

A city transformed

Both Lee and Chow have been kept in pre-trial custody since their arrest in late 2021, a practice that has become commonplace for national security arrests, where bail is harder to achieve.

Chow, Lee and Ho were prominent figures within Hong Kong’s now-defunct democracy movement, which has seen most of its leaders either jailed, fled overseas or fallen silent.

Chow, now 41, studied science at Cambridge University in Britain, before returning to Hong Kong to advocate for labor rights and later joined the alliance Ho and Lee were involved in founding.

She also sought a second career as a barrister after being inspired by some mainland Chinese workers she was commissioned to help, according to a past interview with Reuters.

Lee was a veteran unionist spending his career fighting to improve workers’ conditions while Ho, a lawyer by profession, was a founding member of the city’s biggest opposition Democratic Party, which was disbanded in late 2025.

Eric Lai, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Asian Law and an expert on Hong Kong’s legal system, said the judgment was significant.

“Every actor in Hong Kong’s civil society who assumed that renouncing violence and working with the law would keep them on the right side of the line has to revise that assumption,” he said.

Zhou Fengsuo, a former student leader at the Tiananmen Square protests who now has US citizenship, told CNN the verdict showed “how profoundly Hong Kong has changed.”

“Authorities can extinguish the candles in Victoria Park, but they cannot extinguish the memory of June 4,” he added.

Translation

香港天安門紀念活動多年前黯然落幕。如今，其組織者已被定罪 (2/2)

（繼續）

言論自由與禁止言論

週五，法院外加強了安保，警方檢查了許多排隊等候參加的人的身份，並搜查了他們的包包。

曾是組織燭光守夜活動的聯盟成員的Tang Ngok-kwan告訴記者，警方阻止他進入法院大樓，因為他拒絕交出過去有關鎮壓的新聞報道副本。

另一位支持者Margaret Chan則稱此案「荒謬」。

她說:「愛國主義就寫在聯盟的名字裡。我們都熱愛我們的國家。這煽動人們去做什麼？去愛自己的國家吧？」。

在審判過程中，檢控方稱這三人組成的聯盟呼籲結束“一黨專政”，煽動顛覆活動。檢控方認為，這些呼籲旨在非法推翻中國的基本制度和中央政治機構。

檢控方指出，該聯盟在國安法生效後仍繼續鼓吹推翻中國共產黨，其行為構成顛覆活動。檢控方還補充說，該組織策劃了一系列煽動公眾仇恨​​北京的活動，包括一年一度的守夜活動。

辯方否認他們意圖推翻中共，並辯稱他們的活動是為了推動民主進程，敦促中共不要實行「獨裁」。辯方也辯稱，聯盟並未要求民眾採取任何非法手段，並提倡和平抗議。

鄒女士是一名職業訴訟律師，她在審判中親自為自己辯護。與所有香港國安案件一樣，本案由三名專門負責審理此類案件的法官組成的合議庭審理，而非陪審團。

據美聯社報道，她在庭審中表示：“說真話變成了煽動仇恨，尋求正義變成了利用苦難，限制權力變成了違反憲法，把權力還給人民變成了顛覆國家政權。”

法官裁定，該聯盟的領導人積極「倡導和實施」旨在「推翻」和「破壞」中國共產黨(CCP) 的活動。

判決書寫道，儘管沒有使用或威脅使用暴力，但他們的議程違反了中國憲法，屬於「非法」行為。

判決書還補充說，這些領導人「一直以來都對中國共產黨及其領導下的中央政府抱持敵意」。

香港特首李家超－亦是前保安局局長－對判決表示歡迎。他週五表示：“他們的陰謀昭然若揭，必須繩之以法。”

宣判有罪後，周向旁聽席上的支持者飛吻，而李則用雙臂比出一個心形。

發生了翻天覆地變化的一座城市

李和鄒自2021年底被捕以來，一直被羈押候審。這種做法在以國家安全為由進行的逮捕中已司空見慣，因為保釋更加困難。

鄒、李和何曾是香港民主運動的領導人物，這場運動如今已走向終結。該運動的大多數領導人要么被監禁，要么流亡海外，要么保持沉默。

現年41歲的鄒曾在英國劍橋大學學習科學，之後回到香港，投身勞工權益運動，後來加入了何和李共同創立的勞工聯盟。

根據路透社先前的採訪報道，鄒是在受委託幫助一些內地勞工後，受到啟發，尋求第二職業，成為律師。

李是資深工會成員，畢生致力於改善工人的待遇；何則是律師，也是香港最大的反對黨民主黨的創始成員之一，該黨已於2025年底解散。

喬治城大學亞洲法律中心資深研究員、香港法律制度專家Eric Lai表示，這項判決意義重大。

他說：“所有香港公民社會參與者認為放棄暴力、遵守法律就能確保自身合法權益的人，都必須重新審視這種想法。”

曾參與天安門廣場抗議活動的學生領袖、現已入籍美國的Zhou Fengsuo告訴CNN，這項判決顯示「香港已經發生了多麼深刻的變化」。

他補充說：“當局可以熄滅維多利亞公園的蠟燭，但他們無法抹去六四事件的記憶。”

              So, Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan, two key organizers behind what used to be the only large-scale public commemoration for the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in China have been found guilty of inciting subversion by a court in Hong Kong. They face a jail term of up to 10 years under a national security law imposed on the city by Beijing in 2020. Actors in Hong Kong’s civil society who assume that renouncing violence and working with the law would keep them on the right side of the line have to abandon that assumption. Apparently, the line on free-speech vs prohibited speech has been shifted.