Court Rejects Bid to Quash Trial Against Organizer of Tiananmen Vigil
Hong Kong’s high court has rejected an application by former Tiananmen vigil organizer Chow Hang-tung (鄒幸彤) to have the subversion charge against her dismissed.
Chow, the former vice chair of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, is being tried along with former alliance chairpersons Albert Ho (何俊仁) and Lee Cheuk-yan (李卓人). They face up to life in prison for inciting subversion, a crime under the national security law imposed by China following the 2019 pro-democracy protests.
The alliance organized an annual candlelight vigil in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to commemorate victims of the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, when Chinese troops and tanks crushed student-led protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
The vigil attracted tens of thousands of people to commemorate Tiananmen and call for an end to one-party rule in China for three decades until authorities banned the gathering in 2020 and the organization voted to disband.
Chow and Lee Cheuk-yan have been detained for more than 1,500 days. Ho has been held for more than 1,300 days.
Trump Asks Xi to Free Jimmy Lai
U.S. President Donald Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to free jailed Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai (黎智英) when the two leaders met on the sidelines of the APEC summit in South Korea last week.
The news was first reported on X, formerly Twitter, by EWTN News White House Correspondent Owen Jensen, citing a White House official. According to Jensen, the official told him: “As President Trump said, Jimmy Lai should be released and he wants to see that happen.”
Lai, founder of the Apple Daily newspaper, was first arrested in August 2020 and has been held in solitary confinement since December 2020. He faces a life sentence on charges of publishing seditious material and colluding with foreign forces.
Supporters fear Lai, who is 78 and suffers from heart problems and diabetes, may die in prison.
Political Arrests Increase in 2025
There have been 36 political arrests so far in Hong Kong this year — more than the 31 in 2024, according to figures compiled by the Hong Kong Democracy Council and updated by Domino Theory based on the latest arrests reported this week.
These include the April 30 arrest of the brother and father of wanted U.S.-based democracy activist Anna Kwok (郭鳳儀) on suspicion of attempting to handle her financial assets, the June 6 arrest of jailed democracy activist Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) for “collusion with foreign forces” and “money laundering” while he was in prison serving a prior sentence, and the October 1 arrest of an 89-year-old for “sedition” in Causeway Bay.
In the latest arrests, two men were apprehended on Wednesday on suspicion of stealing and damaging posters for next month’s “patriots only” Legislative Council election.
Democracy Activist Granted Early Release
Hong Kong politician and democracy activist Andrew Chiu (趙家賢) was granted early release from prison late last month on grounds of good behavior.
Chiu, who would have been released in February 2028 if he had served the entirety of his seven-year sentence, was among 45 people from the “Hong Kong 47” group of politicians and activists who were arrested and charged for participating in unsanctioned primary elections in 2021.
Prisoners in Hong Kong are traditionally granted a remand of one-third of their sentence for good behavior. But the 2024 Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, commonly known as Article 23, made it so that the Hong Kong’s prison chief must be satisfied that a prisoner’s early release will not be contrary to national security.
Bookseller Kidnapped in Thailand Still Missing
October marked the 10th anniversary of the kidnapping of bookseller Gui Minhai (桂敏海) by Chinese state agents in Thailand.
Gui, a Chinese-born Swedish national, published books about China’s Communist leaders that were banned in mainland China. He went missing in Pattaya on October 17, 2015 and reappeared a year later in Chinese detention.
In 2020, Gui was given a 10-year prison sentence for “illegally providing intelligence overseas.” His current whereabouts are unknown, and his daughter and Swedish consular authorities have been unable to visit him.
Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said in a post on X that she had raised the issue with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (王毅) during her recent visit to China.
Gui’s bookstore, Causeway Bay Books, is now located in Taipei. Gui was one of five people connected to Causeway Bay Books who went missing in 2015.
Hong Kong Expands AI Surveillance
Hong Kong plans to have installed 60,000 surveillance cameras that will use AI facial recognition by 2028, AFP reports, with more than 4,000 of the cameras already installed under the city’s SmartView Initiative.
AI is currently being used to read license plates and monitor crowds and “will naturally be applied to people, such as tracking a criminal suspect,” Hong Kong security chief Chris Tang (鄧炳強) told lawmakers. “That is something we must do.”
The 4,000 or so CCTV cameras currently in use are installed on lampposts, smart lampposts, government buildings and police vehicles. The first traffic light-mounted cameras are planned before the end of the year, according to a report in Time Out Hong Kong.
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