Two men have been charged with subversion under Hong Kong’s national security legislation following their arrests over an alleged illegal weapons training programme.
Gallian Pang and Lee Chun-sum appeared at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Monday, after they were arrested by the police force’s National Security Department on Thursday on suspicion of conspiring to commit subversion.
Police officers and a police dog outside the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on December 15, 2025, when media mogul Jimmy Lai heard the verdict in his national security case. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.They were denied bail after Chief Magistrate Victor So said there was insufficient basis to believe that the two men would not continue to act endangering national security.
Their case was adjourned to March 20, local news outlet The Witness reported.
Pang and Lee, aged 24 and 25 respectively, are among 10 people arrested last week for allegedly conducting “unlawful drills” in an industrial unit in Kowloon, including firearms training, knife techniques and combat exercises.
Pang and Lee were the first two to be charged so far.
The two allegedly “conspired together and with other persons to organise, plan, commit or participate in acts by force or threat of force or other unlawful means with a view to subverting state power” between an unknown date in 2021 and December 11 this year, according to a court document.
While they were arrested under the “illegal drilling” provision of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, the city’s locally enacted security legislation, known as Article 23, they were formally charged with conspiracy to commit subversion.
Pang and Lee were arrested along with seven other men on Thursday.
In addition, the city’s national security police arrested another individual – a 26-year-old woman – on Friday on suspicion of “unlawful drilling” under Article 23.
The woman was granted police bail and will be required to report back to the police in mid-January.
Mourners pay their respects to those who died in the fatal fire in Tai Po, pictured on November 30, 2025. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.Chief Superintendent Steve Li of the force’s National Security Department said on Friday that some of the suspects had recently appeared at the memorial site for the Wang Fuk Court fire, which claimed at least 160 lives in late November – the worst blaze in Hong Kong in almost eight decades.
Police investigating their actions at the Tai Po fire site noticed that the men were dressed in clothing similar to that seen during the 2019 pro-democracy demonstrations and unrest, when protesters mostly wore black. “This suggests the ‘seeds of unrest’ are present,” Li said.
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