Two civil rights advocates were convicted Friday of national security crimes by a special court in Hong Kong, and now face up to a decade in prison. The convictions come as local clergy warn of increased harassment of Church officials in the territory.
Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan were convicted of incitement to subversion for their roles in organizing a prayer vigil in 2021 to mark the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
The activists have been in prison since September of 2021 and, along with a co-defendant who pled guilty in January, are the latest individuals to be convicted under the sweeping National Security Law brought into force in Hong Kong in 2019 by the mainland government.
The convictions highlight the extent to which the Special Administrative Region is taking an increasingly hard line on the exercise of once-tolerated basic civil liberties, with clerics in the region reporting heightened tensions and harassment of Church officials, mirroring similar circumstances on the mainland.
Chow and Lee were key leaders of the now defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, founded in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Their arrest in 2021 followed a candlelit prayer vigil held in Victoria Park on the June anniversary of the massacre, an annual event in Hong Kong previously tolerated by authorities but effectively criminalized following the introduction of the National Security Law in 2019.
The three judge tribunal ruled that the defendants may not have advocated for or participated in violence, or even had “any specific method or timetable on carrying out the goal of ‘end one party dictatorship’” in Hong Kong, but posed a threat to the state none the less.
Chow and Lee “were put on trial not because of their political views or beliefs. Neither did the charge involve any issue relating to democracy, the June 4th Incident or criticisms against the Central Government, etc.” claimed the judges, but instead “advocated [to] ‘end one-party dictatorship’ through various activities, and carried out the acts of incitement in question by making use of issues such as the June 4th Incident and democratic movements in China as a pretext with intent to provoke sentiments such as hatred and disgust among the people towards the State power.”
Next week will be a hearing for the defendants to plead mitigation before being sentenced, and they face up to ten years in prison, in addition to the five years they have spent behind bars since their arrest.
Their case illustrates the extent to which previously acceptable civil demonstrations have become crimes against the state in Hong Kong, which has included increased pressure on civil rights advocates and Catholic leaders.
Hong Kong’s Cardinal Stephen Chow, SJ, has previously said he attended the annual prayer vigils in Victoria Park, prior to being named bishop of the diocese in 2021. Ahead of the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 2024, the cardinal wrote that the event had left “a deep wound in parts of our psyche,” but called for “the different parties [to] move beyond finger pointing and the painful ‘I will never forgive’ mindset.”
Despite Hong Kong’s status as independent of the Vatican’s diplomatic agreement with the mainland government, the cardinal has emerged as a key defender of the arrangement and go-between for Rome and Beijing, working in public to foster closer relations between the diocese and the Church on the mainland and privately expressing concern about Catholics seen as destabilizing to the relationship with local and national authorities.
Senior Church officials told The Pillar that during the ad limina visit of the bishops of Hong Kong and Macau in June of this year, Cardinal Chow specifically raised concerns about Cardinal Joseph Zen, emeritus Bishop of Hong Kong, and Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai, a Hong Kong native and former seminary professor who went on to serve as secretary of the Dicastery for the Evangelization of Peoples. Hon was demoted from that position in 2017 and made papal nuncio to Greece, then Malta, and finally Libya before retiring in February of this year. Senior curial officials have for years said that Hon’s 2017 demotion was a direct consequence of his opposition to the Vatican’s closer relations with the Chinese government which culminated in the 2018 Vatican-China deal.
According to senior sources with knowledge of the ad limina visit, Cardinal Chow told Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin that Zen and Hon were “seeking to undermine him [Chow] and the Sino-Vatican protocol.”
Cardinal Zen, 94, has largely retired from public life. In May of 2022, the cardinal was arrested on national security charges before being convicted of failing to properly register a charity of which he was a patron.
According to senior clerical sources close to the Hong Kong diocese, other Church officials have become the subject of routine harassment from authorities.
On Wednesday, Aug. 18, Hong Kong auxiliary Bishop Joseph Ha Chi-shing was detained by immigration authorities on his way from Hong Kong to neighboring Macao for a priests’ day of reflection. He was later allowed entry into Macao.
The Pillar understands that similar stops and brief detentions have been common for diocesan priests considered by state authorities to be favorable to causes like the once-annual Victoria Park vigil, and the former diocesan vicar general Fr. Dominic Chan has been subject to similar stops since 2019, but clerical sources close to the chancery told The Pillar, Ha’s being detained this week is the first occasion of the bishop being stopped on his way to Macao.
Sources close to the Hong Kong diocese told The Pillar that while Cardinal Chow remains convinced he can manage Church-state relations in the evolving climate, his auxiliary bishops and priests are increasingly pessimistic about the fate of the territory.
“Chow is convinced he can navigate his way through it all, the auxiliaries think ‘we’re doomed’,” said one senior cleric. “Zen thinks they need to show some backbone. The brightest and best Catholic laity have left or intend to do so.”
Prominent Catholic laity in the diocese have come under their own pressures from the government in recent years.
In 2023, Bobo Yip, former chairwoman of the Diocese of Hong Kong’s Justice and Peace Commission, was also arrested on national security grounds, and many pro-democracy politicians and journalists, including several prominent Catholics, have been jailed for various “crimes” related to free speech.
Asked if the apparent escalation of attention being paid to Church officials was intended to effect a particular outcome or send a message, the senior cleric said that generally escalating pressure was seen by the government as necessary.
“These people are Marxists but more importantly Maoist,” the cleric said. “The strategy is to ensure no organised institutional opposition anywhere in China. They understand that tactical consistency is itself strategic.”