Tiananmen vigil organizers face trial in Hong Kong

National security police accuse the group of being a foreign entity and its members foreign agents

A pro-democracy group that used to organize an annual vigil in Hong Kong to commemorate the 1989 deadly Tiananmen crackdown by China’s communist regime is facing trial for allegedly being “foreign agents.”

The trial hearing against the now-defunct group started on Dec. 22 before Principal Magistrate Peter Law at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts, reported Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP).

Defense lawyer Philip Dykes stated that national security police failed to establish the organization was a foreign entity and that the members were foreign agents.

Tsui Hon-kwong, Chow Hang-tung, and Tang Ngok-kwan – all members of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China which organized the vigil until 2020 appeared before the courts.

“It could not be established that the Commissioner of Police believed or reasonably believed that the Alliance is a foreign agent, because that connection was not made out,” Dykes said.

The alliance had played a key role in organizing the city’s annual candlelight vigils for decades to commemorate victims of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown in Beijing until it was shut down last September last year.

The three members were accused of non-compliance to a notice from national security police requesting information, including personal information about standing committee members and staffers dating back to 1989.

The defense counsel questioned whether the provisions of the national security law imposed in 2020 could be retroactively applied in this instance.

“Nothing in the national security law explains that it operates retroactively, or it authorizes the implementation rules to operate retroactively,” said Dykes.

The Beijing-imposed national security law empowers the police chief with approval from the secretary for security issue notices to foreign or Taiwanese political groups and their agents to request information such as financial records.

Prosecutors have vehemently argued in court that the Alliance functions as a foreign agent, which was refuted by the defense counsel.

Dykes argued that for an organization to be “deemed as a foreign agent they must not only receive funding from an external source but must also conduct activities for the benefit of the funding provider… which was not proven in this case.”

The prosecutors have accused the Alliance of receiving HK$20,000 (US$2,564) for a foreign group identified in court only as “Organization 4” and thus acting as a ‘foreign agent’.

The identity of “Organization 4” was concealed in court after the prosecution cited Public Interest Immunity (PII) grounds stating that the disclosure of such information would harm the public interest.

The defense counsel also questioned the police chief’s right to order the Alliance to request documents and information.

“In other ordinances where authorities were allowed to request documents from citizens, the nature of the documents was either specified by law, or by the person making the request,” said Dykes.

The counsel also argued that the rules did not state that documents could be requested using a notice, nor did the police chief specify what types of documents he wanted from the defendants.

“You can see the mischief if it is left to the individual to say this [document] is relevant, and the Commissioner of Police saying it’s not…they run the risk of prosecution,” said Dykes.

The implementation rules permitted authorities to issue orders to request certain documents, but police could not “seek such material by serving the notice they had used,” Dykes argued.

The defense counsels also raised their concern about giving a fair trial to the defendants.

Barrister Albert Wong, who was also representing Tsui, said the police chief must consider the issue of human rights and “ensure that the notice was issued only when necessary.”

The prosecution at the request of the magistrate had presented highly redacted documents including the police investigation report citing that they fall under the protection of PII.

Chow, who represented herself in court, had opposed the prosecution’s PII claim throughout the trial and case hearings beforehand.

Hung Ngan, the now-acting senior superintendent of the national security police who appeared as a prosecution witness was permitted to refrain from answering questions that might risk disclosing materials protected by PII.

The Alliance, Chow, and two of the group’s ex-leaders Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho have also been charged in a separate case under the national security law for inciting subversion.

The Tiananmen crackdown on June 4, 1989, ended months of the student-led democracy movement in China.

Chinese authorities claim about 241 people died including soldiers with around 7,000 wounded in the crackdown. However, other estimates have put the toll further high.

Hong Kong was the only Chinese territory to observe the Tiananmen massacre commemoration for decades until Beijing banned the event in 2020, citing the Covid-19 pandemic.

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