Hong Kong convicts two Tiananmen vigil activists of inciting subversion

A Hong Kong court found two pro-democracy activists who organised annual vigils to mark China's deadly Tiananmen crackdown guilty of "incitement to subversion" on Friday. The closely watched national security case was seen as a bellwether for freedom of expression in the Chinese city. Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung were leaders of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance, a group that organised annual candlelit vigils to commemorate the victims of Beijing's 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. Read more'The world has let this happen': Wu'er Kaixi on Hong Kong's loss of freedoms A third defendant, Albert Ho, pleaded guilty in January. Here is what you need to know about the three activists: Chow Hang-tung Chow, 41, is a Cambridge-educated lawyer who represented herself at the trial, speaking at a brisk pace and responding to questions quickly. Part of a generation that came of age after Hong Kong's 1997 return to Chinese rule, she attended the vigils from childhood and joined the Alliance in 2010 as a volunteer. She became a spokesperson for the Alliance after Beijing imposed a national security law on the city in 2020, following huge and sometimes violent protests the year before. Jailed since 20...