Key Facts

• Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung led the Hong Kong Alliance, which organized annual candlelight vigils for Tiananmen massacre victims.
• Both were found guilty of inciting subversion, a charge linked to violating Hong Kong’s national security law.
• Chow Hang-tung is a Cambridge-educated lawyer who has been jailed since 2021 and conducted hunger strikes every June to mark the Tiananmen anniversary.
• Lee Cheuk-yan has been involved in labor and human rights activism since the 1970s and witnessed the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989.
• The Hong Kong Alliance was dissolved after Beijing imposed the national security law in 2020 following large protests.
• Albert Ho, another leader of the Alliance, pleaded guilty to related charges earlier in 2026.
• The convictions are seen as a sign of increasing limits on free speech and political activism in Hong Kong.
• The activists stated their goal was democratic reform and ending one-party rule but not necessarily the complete elimination of the Communist Party.