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Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil activist admits to subversion, 2 others deny charges
Albert Ho admits pushing for end to mainland China’s one-party rule, while Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung to be tried for national security crimes
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A former vice-chairman of the group behind Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen Square vigil is facing up to 10 years in jail after he admitted to advocating an end to Communist Party rule in mainland China in breach of the national security law.
Former opposition lawmaker Albert Ho Chun-yan, 74, on Thursday pleaded guilty to inciting subversion by promoting an end to “one-party dictatorship”, one of the five operational objectives of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China.
On the first day of the high-profile trial at West Kowloon Court, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Ned Lai Ka-yee said Ho and his accomplices continued to pursue the alliance’s causes after the city adopted the national security law in June 2020, including by appealing for donations and holding exhibitions at a now-closed June 4 museum.
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The group also provoked public hatred and disaffection towards the regime by spreading negative information about the nation under the guise of promoting democracy and commemorating the Tiananmen Square crackdown, according to prosecutors.
Since 1990, the alliance had held an annual candlelight vigil in Victoria Park on June 4 to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing – the only large-scale public commemoration on Chinese soil.
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Ho is among three former alliance leaders accused of violating the Beijing-decreed legislation.
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