HONG KONG — A Hong Kong court heard final arguments on May 18, 2026, in the national security trial of two organizers of large vigils commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan were charged in 2021 with inciting subversion under a national security law imposed by Beijing and have pleaded not guilty, facing up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

The hearing was scheduled to continue in the afternoon of the same day. The trial was initially scheduled to last 75 days but is now expected to end earlier. The judges have not indicated when a verdict will be delivered.

The prosecution argued that the alliance's demand of "ending one-party rule" was an attempt to incite others to use unlawful means to overthrow the leadership of China's Communist Party, and alleged that the defendants were not advocating amending the constitution. Prosecutor Ned Lai accused Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung of attempting to blur the focus with human rights arguments. "The freedoms of speech, association and assembly mentioned by D2 and D4 are not 'trump cards' that can override the law," Lai said.

In previous hearings, Lee denied that "ending one-party rule" means ending the Communist Party's leadership, arguing instead that it means moving toward democracy by letting the people decide who leads them and that the Communist Party should not enforce dictatorship. Chow said her past writing was not about inciting action or hatred and was intended to foster Hong Kongers' understanding of mainland China. A lawyer for the defense said the prosecution had not presented evidence to prove what exactly the alliance had asked residents to do.

Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director Sarah Brooks said prosecutors' case relied on vague, overly broad and arbitrary definitions of subversion and called for the charges against Chow and Lee to be dropped. The governments of Beijing and Hong Kong say the national security law is necessary for the city's stability.

Public vigils commemorating the 1989 crackdown were banned in Hong Kong in 2020. For decades, Hong Kong was the only place in China where a large-scale public commemoration was held, with tens of thousands of people attending the annual vigils until authorities banned them. After COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, the former vigil site was occupied by a carnival organized by pro-Beijing groups, and some people who tried to commemorate the event near the site on June 4 were detained.

Beijing promised to maintain Western-style civil liberties in Hong Kong for 50 years when the city returned to Chinese rule in 1997.