AMNESTY HONG KONG OVERSEAS
QUOTE
4 June 2026
To mark the 37th anniversary of the 1989 pro-democracy movement in China and the bloody crackdown on 4 June, over 52,000 petitions were handed over to Hong Kong government urging the immediate release of the city’s Tiananmen vigil activists Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan ahead of their verdict.
Fernando Cheung, spokesperson of Amnesty International Hong Kong Overseas, said:
“No amount of censorship and suppression by the Chinese and Hong Kong government can erase or rewrite the truth of the Tiananmen crackdown or silence the calls for accountability.
“For 37 years, instead of acknowledging its human rights violation and delivering justice to the victims, the governments have been doubling down — surveilling victims’ families, arresting and jailing those who simply stand in solidarity with them.
“This is the seventh year Hong Kong’s Victoria Park candlelight vigil has been extinguished by the authorities. But it cannot be extinguished worldwide. From Hong Kong to diaspora communities worldwide, people continue to keep the memory of 4 June alive with creativity and resilience.
“This global petition, backed by more than 52,000 signatories worldwide, and solidarity actions joined by supporters in Belgium, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, and Taiwan on and around 4 June, demonstrates the breadth of solidarity and sends a clear message to Hong Kong authorities ahead of the verdict: Chow and Lee must be immediately and unconditionally released.
“Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan did nothing but legitimately exercise their human rights in their Tiananmen commemorations. Every day they remain behind bars is one day too many.
“Ahead of the verdict next month, we demand their immediate release. They, and all people in Hong Kong, must be free to commemorate 4 June 1989 without fear.”
Background
The prosecution and defence finished their closing statements in the trial of Hong Kong’s Tiananmen vigil activists on 19 May 2026, and the verdict is scheduled to be delivered in July 2026.
Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan were among the members of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (Hong Kong Alliance) charged with “inciting subversion of state power” under the Beijing-imposed National Security Law in September 2021.
They have been held in pre-trial detention ever since, having been repeatedly denied bail, and face up to 10 years’ imprisonment if convicted. Both have been designated prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International.
Authorities said the annual Tiananmen vigil the Hong Kong Alliance had organized since 1990 was evidence of the group “endangering national security”.
Amnesty International has repeatedly raised concerns that Hong Kong’s National Security Law, enacted in June 2020, is being used to target civil society groups, journalists, political activists and academics for actions that are fully protected under international human rights law.
The Tiananmen vigils commemorated the events of 4 June 1989, when Chinese troops opened fire on students and workers who had been peacefully protesting for political reforms in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Hundreds – possibly thousands – of people were killed. Tens of thousands more were arrested across China in the suppression that followed.
In the 37 years since the crackdown, all discussion of the incident has been heavily censored in China, and authorities have effectively erased it from their version of history.
While commemorating the Tiananmen crackdown was forbidden in mainland China, in Hong Kong crowds reaching hundreds of thousands of people would gather annually in centrally located Victoria Park to peacefully remember those killed. The vigil participants called on the Chinese authorities to reveal the truth about what happened and accept accountability for the atrocity; local government as a practice did not interfere or object.
The last major vigil organized by the Hong Kong Alliance was held in 2019. The Hong Kong vigil was banned in 2020 and 2021, ostensibly on Covid-19 grounds. Since then, the National Security Law has effectively criminalized peaceful protest in the city – including Tiananmen commemorations.