Tiananmen vigil organisers charged with inciting subversion

Hong Kong police have charged the group that organises the city’s annual Tiananmen candlelight vigil and three of its leaders with subversion under the national security law, amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent.

The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China has said that the group, its chairman, Lee Cheuk-yan, as well as vice-chairs Albert Ho and Chow Hang-tung were charged late on Thursday with “inciting subversion of state power”.

This was done under the national security law Beijing imposed more than a year ago.

Lee and Ho are already serving jail terms for their roles in protests in 2019. Chow and four others who were arrested this week were also charged with failing to comply with the requirement to provide information for a national security investigation.

The charges follow police also raiding the closed June 4th museum, which was run by the alliance to commemorate the bloody

Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing on 4 June 1989.

As per the police, 2.2 million Hong Kong dollars worth of assets belonging to the alliance were also frozen.