Three Hong Kong activists who organized annual vigils commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre were sentenced on Friday to five to seven years in prison, underscoring the erosion of the city’s civil liberties under the Beijing-imposed national security law.

Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang-tung, and Albert Ho are former leaders of the now-dissolved Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which called, among other things, for an “end of one-party dictatorship” in China. 

Three Hong Kong government-appointed judges handed down the sentences after the three were convicted of inciting subversion. Chow was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison, Lee to seven years, and Ho to five years and two months.

The judges also fined the alliance HK$1.5 million (about $191,000). 

“Although the present case did not involve violence or threat of violence, nor had the defendants put forward any specific means of implementation or timetable to carry out ‘end one-‍party dictatorship,’ the court found that the offence was still of ‘a serious nature,’” the judges wrote.

Lee, a former lawmaker, and Chow, a barrister, pleaded not guilty, while Ho, also a former lawmaker, pleaded guilty when the trial began in January.

In August, Lee and Chow were found guilty, a decision that drew global condemnation. 

In 1989, a student-led pro-democracy movement swept across China, ending when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) deployed troops and tanks to crush the protests around Tiananmen Square, leaving thousands dead and injured.

The event became a taboo subject in China, where public discussion and commemoration have been heavily censored. In Hong Kong, however, the alliance kept its memory alive by holding annual candlelight vigils beginning in 1990.

Police keep watch outside the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts ahead of the national security trial of three pro-democracy activists who organized annual vigils to mark China's 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, in Hong Kong on Sept. 11, 2026. (Wu Ruilue/The Epoch Times)

Since then, the group has organized the annual June 4 vigils at Hong Kong’s Victoria Park, until authorities banned the event in 2020.

The alliance’s final vigil, held in 2019, drew a massive crowd of an estimated 180,000 Hongkongers to Victoria Park to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the massacre.

‘Erase Memories’

The Hong Kong Alliance operated the June 4th Museum, which exhibited books, newspapers, and other materials related to the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. Every year, the group also organized the cleaning of the famous “Pillar of Shame,” a statue remembering the victims. 

Hong Kong police raided the museum in September 2021, and the Pillar of Shame was removed from the University of Hong Kong months later. 

Chow had asked the court to return the Pillar of Shame to Jens Galschiot, the Danish artist who created it. Prosecutors argued the statue was part of an “instrument” used by the defendants to commit the offense and that the government should confiscate all the evidence, according to local media outlet The Witness.

During Friday’s hearing, Judge Alex Lee said the court would decide the fate of the Pillar of Shame in a future hearing, due to disputes over its ownership, according to The Witness. 

A student before the Pillar of Shame in Hong Kong, with the statue’s base showing the words “June 4th Massacre.” (Sung Pi-lung/The Epoch Times)

In a post on platform Patreon before the ruling, Chow said that jailing her and other activists is not the authorities’ main objective.

“This prosecution was meant to erase memories, especially those related to June 4, by deliberately overinterpreting a few slogans,” she wrote.

“Making the historical records collected by the Hong Kong Alliance over so many years disappear forever is probably more important than imprisoning a few of us.”

Responding to the conviction of the three Hong Kong activists, Galschiot said his artwork has “evolved into a symbol of the fight to preserve history.” 

“Fight for freedom of expression and civil rights. Its importance has been proven,” he wrote on X.

Lau Ka-yee, former member of Hong Kong Alliance, makes the “6” and “4” hand gestures as she enters the court ahead of the sentencing in the national security trial of three pro-democracy activists who organized annual vigils to mark China's 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, in Hong Kong on Sept. 11, 2026. (Wu Ruilue/The Epoch Times)

‘Heartbreaking’

Responding to the sentencing, Lee’s wife, Elizabeth Tang, said it was “a heartbreaking day.”

She told reporters outside the court that her husband has been jailed since 2021, noting that they would “definitely appeal” against the result.

Tang said the ruling would also anger many Hong Kong people, as millions had attended the June 4 vigil at Victoria Park every year. 

“This sentence is also a punishment for so many people,” she said. “It’s very hard to accept.”

Chow’s mother, Medina Chow, thanked everyone for standing with these activists.

She joked that she might need to thank those who put her daughter on trial.

“Thanks to them, the truth of June 4 and what has happened in Hong Kong in recent years has been written into the official record of the Hong Kong courts,” she said. 

Chow Hang-tung's mother, Medina Chow (C), and Lee Cheuk-yan's wife, Elizabeth Tang (L), speak to reporters outside West Kowloon Law Courts Building in Hong Kong on Sept. 11, 2026. (Wu Ruilue/The Epoch Times)

‘One Country, Two Systems’ a ‘Lie’

The Taiwanese government condemned what they said was a “heavy sentence” handed down to the Hong Kong activists, saying it “lays bare the true face behind the Chinese Communist Party’s [CCP’s] deceptive claims of democracy.”

“Pursuing democracy and human rights is not a crime. By fabricating charges and conducting political trials under the name of national security, the relevant authorities are shielding the authoritarian regime,” the Mainland Affairs Council, Taiwan’s top China-policy body, said in a statement.

The council said the sentences in the former British colony serve as a fresh reminder to Taiwan, where the communist regime has proposed a Hong Kong-style political union with Beijing. 

“Once again, it shows that the ‘one country, two systems’ is nothing but a lie designed to deceive the world,” it added. 

Anouar El Anouni, European Commission spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said in an X post that the ruling “undermines confidence in the rule of law and harms Hong Kong’s reputation.”

Chow Hang-tung (R), a leader of a Hong Kong Alliance that organized vigils marking China's 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, arrives at the Court of Final Appeal (CFA) in Hong Kong on June 8, 2023. (Iassc Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images)

‘Triple Tragedy’

The sentences immediately drew condemnation from rights groups. 

Mark L. Clifford, president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, issued a statement saying that Chow, Lee, and Ho should be free because they are prisoners of conscience.

“The Hong Kong authorities have tried to pretend these kangaroo-court proceedings weren’t a political trial—but no one is fooled. These long jail sentences send a chilling message: If you challenge the government, even peacefully and legally, you risk years behind bars,” Clifford said. 

“The criminals here are the judges who’ve handed down these sentences. Remember their names: Alex Lee, Johnny Chan, and Anna Lai. They’ve punished the Hong Kong Alliance and its leaders for exercising the fundamental right to freedom of expression.”

Megan Khoo, policy director of London-based Hong Kong Watch, called the sentencing “another affront to the rule of law” and called for the trio’s “immediate and unconditional release,” according to a statement. 

“These brave individuals have been locked up simply for pursuing democracy and justice while exposing the fragility of a regime that fears subversion by candlelight,” Khoo said. 

“This case perpetuates the National Security Law’s aggressive assault on fundamental freedoms and rights. International governments must hold Hong Kong officials accountable for violating their obligations under international law.” 

Tens of thousands of people hold up candles and posters commemorating the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, in Hong Kong on June 4, 2012. (Sung Pi-lung/The Epoch Times)

Sarah Brooks, regional director at Amnesty International, called the sentencing “an insult to the [Tiananmen] victims’ memory and an affront to history,” according to a statement. 

“This sentencing is a triple tragedy: for the activists being unjustly punished; the survivors and victims of the Tiananmen crackdown itself; and the generations of Hongkongers denied the space to discuss one of the most consequential events in modern Chinese history,” Brooks said. 

“The persecution of the Tiananmen activists exposes the profound fear of dissenting voices that defines Hong Kong’s ‘national security’ regime.”