Three Hong Kong activists who organised annual vigils commemorating Beijing’s 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protests have been handed prison sentences of up to seven years. Two of the defendants – Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41 – were convicted last month of inciting others to subvert state power, under the city’s controversial national
Lee and Chow were also leaders of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance (HKA). The HKA was founded in May 1989 to support students holding pro-democracy rallies. Weeks later, 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 many thousands.
