Public health is part of national security, police officer tells trial of Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil activists

2026-02-04 - 11:18

A Hong Kong police officer testifying at the national security trial of two Tiananmen vigil activists has said that she opposed the candlelight commemorative gathering in June 2020 out of public health concerns. A Tiananmen commemoration in Hong Kong, 2016. Photo: Todd Darling. Superintendent Chow Wing-yee also told the court on Wednesday that the idea of national security was “broad” and that public safety and public health were parts of her understanding of what constituted national security, according to The Collective. The police officer was testifying for the prosecution in the trial of Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung, both former leaders of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which organised decades of candlelight vigils to mark the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown in Beijing. The pair have pleaded not guilty to “inciting subversion” under the Beijing-imposed national security law. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail. On Wednesday, defence lawyer Erik Shum, representing Lee, cross-examined Chow Wing-yee, who issued a letter of objection opposing the Alliance’s vigil planned for June 4, 2020. It was the first time the authorities had banned the vigil in three decades since 1990, when the first gathering was held to honour the hundreds, perhaps thousands, killed when China’s military crackdown down on protesters in Beijing. In objecting to the 2020 vigil, Chow Wing-yee cited Hong Kong’s Covid-19 anti-pandemic social distancing rules. The police officer on Wednesday agreed that her decision was unrelated to the Alliance’s political demands, including calls for an end to one-party rule, but disagreed when she was asked if national security was not involved. “At that time, I considered public safety and public health as parts of national security,” she said in Cantonese, according to local media. From left: Lee Cheuk-yan, Albert Ho, Chow Hang-tung. Photos: HKFP. Judge Alex Lee, one of the three handpicked national security judges presiding over the case, sought to clarify with the witness what other factors relating to national security she had considered before issuing the ban. In response, Chow Wing-yee said national security was a broad concept and that she was emphasising public health at that time. “So there was none,” the judge said, to which the police officer agreed. Chow Wing-yee also said she was not aware of the Alliance’s political demands and did not know the group had advocated for ending one-party rule. She was also unable to recite the full name of the group. She told the court that she was aware of the Alliance’s record of having held the vigils for 30 years and that the gathering had not been opposed before, according to local media. 2018 Amendment Shum’s questioning was interrupted by the bench on multiple occasions as the lawyer sought to press the witness about her understanding of the history of the 1989 crackdown and the Alliance’s advocacy. Chow Wing-yee mostly responded to questions by saying she lacked knowledge or had no opinion. The lawyer said that the defence will seek to establish that the Alliance’s course of advocacy had not changed since 1989, despite China’s constitutional amendment in 2018 and the introduction of the national security law in 2020. In response, Judge Lee said the prosecution’s argument was that the Alliance’s advocacy had become unlawful after the changes of the law: “Even though something was permitted before, it does not mean it is still so after 2018 or after 2020, when the national security law took effect.” A Correctional Service Department vehicle arrives at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on January 22, 2026. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. The 2018 amendment introduced the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party as the “defining feature” of China’s socialist system into the country’s constitution. Prosecutors have argued that the Alliance’s advocacy for ending one-party rule had breached the constitution and amounted to subverting the state. The bench adjourned the trial until March 9 after Shum completed his cross-examination, while Chow Hang-tung, a barrister representing herself, did not cross-examine the witness, local media reported. The high-profile national security trial is scheduled to last for 75 days. A third defendant, Albert Ho, pleaded guilty when the trial opened last month. Chow and Lee Cheuk-yan have been behind bars for over 1,600 days since they were arrested in September 2021. The Alliance chanted slogans calling for democracy and an end to one-party rule during the annual vigils, which were first banned in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The following year, the Alliance disbanded after the government banned the vigil again and arrested its leaders.