In Hong Kong, three pro-democracy activists—Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan, and Albert Ho—have been sentenced to prison not for violence, but for the act of remembrance: organizing candlelit vigils to honor those killed in the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Their convictions under Beijing's national security law, imposed on Hong Kong in 2020, mark a moment in which collective memory itself has been rendered a criminal act. What was once one of the last places within China's sphere where history could be openly mourned has now, by deliberate legal design, gone dark.
Hong Kong Vigil Organizers Sentenced to Prison Under Beijing's Security Law
Three pro-democracy activists imprisoned for organizing peaceful commemorative vigils.