The conviction of two former Tiananmen-vigil leaders makes clear that Hong Kong’s once-public remembrance of the 1989 crackdown now sits inside the city’s national-security enforcement regime.
Hong Kong’s High Court convicted Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung of inciting subversion for their roles in the Hong Kong Alliance, the group that organized the city’s long-running annual vigil for victims of Beijing’s 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. The two face a maximum prison term of 10 years, with sentencing to come later. The case is consequential because the vigil had long made Hong Kong an exceptional place in China: a city where Tiananmen could be commemorated in public. The verdict makes that history part of the national-security order imposed after the 2019 protest movement.
The conviction of two former Tiananmen-vigil leaders makes clear that Hong Kong’s once-public remembrance of the 1989 crackdown now sits inside the city’s national-security enforcement regime.
Hong Kong’s High Court convicted Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung of inciting subversion for their roles in the Hong Kong Alliance, the group that organized the city’s long-running annual vigil for victims of Beijing’s 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.
The ruling shows that Hong Kong’s former space for public remembrance is now governed by national-security law.
When memory itself is prosecuted, history becomes a boundary of power.
When memory itself is prosecuted, history becomes a boundary of power.
Primary evidence first. Reporting second. Inference labeled.