HK's Tiananmen activists guilty in national security trialThree activists were accused of inciting others to subvert state power under the China-introduced law. 8 mins agoAsia

HK's Tiananmen activists guilty in national security trial.

Key points

• Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, face a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail after being convicted under the China-introduced law.
• Authorities banned these gatherings in 2020, citing Covid-19 policies, but they have never resumed.
• Hong Kong applied to be one of the only places in Chinese territory where residents could gather to mark the deadly 1989 crackdown against pro-democracy protesters.
• Weeks afterwards, the Communist Party crushed pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square with troops and tanks.
• The Alliance's leaders were charged in 2021 and have been behind bars since.

Two Hong Kong activists who organised annual vigils to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown have been discovered guilty of inciting others to subvert state power under the city's controversial national security law.

Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, face a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail after being convicted under the China-introduced law. Sentencing is projected at a afterwards date.

Notably, a third defendant, 74-year-old former lawmaker Albert Ho, pleaded guilty in January.

Prosecutors argued the defendants "endanger(ed) national security in the name of human rights". Chow, who represented herself, informed the court in May that the law itself was on trial.

Authorities banned these gatherings in 2020, citing Covid-19 policies, but they have never resumed. This was additionally the year the national security law. It makes illegal a wider range of dissenting acts, officially came into force.

Lee and Chow were leaders of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance (HKS). It was founded in May 1989 to backing students holding pro-democracy rallies.

Weeks afterwards, the Communist Party crushed pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square with troops and tanks. Estimates of the death toll range from a few hundred to plenty of thousands.

Over the next three decades, HKA called on authorities to accept responsibility for the crackdown, free dissidents and introduce democratic reform.

Notably, the Alliance's leaders were charged in 2021 and have been behind bars since.

Rights group Amnesty International has remarked the case "relies on vague, overly broad and arbitrary definitions of 'subversion'".

Taken together, the developments around hK' s Tiananmen activists guilty in national security trialThree activists were accused of point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.