Hong Kong Prominent Human Rights Defender Chow Hang-tung, Sentenced to 7 Years and 3 Months, Appeals Conviction and Sentence

（Weiquanwang Information Center report）On October 7, 2026, this website learned that on September 11, 2026, a Hong Kong court handed down sentences in the Hong Kong Alliance case: Chow Hang-tung was sentenced to 7 years and 3 months, Lee Cheuk-yan to 7 years, and Albert Ho Chun-yan to 5 years and 2 months. On October 5, 2026, Chow Hang-tung appealed her conviction and sentence for “inciting subversion of state power”. The case has not yet been scheduled for hearing.

Biography of Chow Hang-tung: Female, born January 24, 1985; English name: Tonyee Chow Hang-tung; formerly a British Hong Kong national, now a People’s Republic of China (Hong Kong) national; Hong Kong barrister; former vice-chair of the Hong Kong Alliance; recipient of the 35th “Chinese Outstanding Democracy Activist Award”; democracy and human rights fighter; social activist; political prisoner in China.

In her early years, she studied physics at Homerton College, University of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom. After graduating, she went on to study law at the School of Professional and Continuing Education, University of Hong Kong, and subsequently became a practising barrister in Hong Kong; from 2016, because of her commitment to China’s democracy and human rights cause, she began serving as vice-chair of the Hong Kong Alliance (the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China). During that period, she actively promoted and organised the annual June 4 candlelight vigil in Victoria Park (known as “Victoria Park”); in 2020, when veteran Hong Kong democrats and senior Alliance figures including Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho Chun-yan were successively persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party Hong Kong government and imprisoned, she bravely stepped forward and became a leading organiser of continued commemorations of June 4 by Hong Kong residents; on June 4, 2021, under the control of the Hong Kong version of the “National Security Law” led by the Chinese Communist Party, Hong Kong police banned the Alliance from holding that evening’s June 4 candlelight vigil in Victoria Park, citing epidemic prevention (coronavirus disease 2019, COVID-19); in response, the Alliance immediately lodged an appeal, but after it was quickly rejected, she publicly stated that she would attend the commemoration in her personal capacity; the following day, she was arrested by police on suspicion of “publicising an unauthorised assembly”; on August 5 of the same year, she was provisionally released on bail pending trial, but on September 8, 2021, she was arrested again by Hong Kong police for refusing to submit Alliance documents to the Hong Kong National Security Department by the deadline; the next day, she and a total of eight people, including Alliance chair Lee Cheuk-yan and vice-chair Albert Ho Chun-yan, were formally charged with suspected “inciting subversion of state power”. They were accused of publishing statements on social networks and in the media intended to encourage the public to take part in an unauthorised June 4 assembly, and their actions were said to have violated relevant provisions of the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law, warranting sentencing; in December 2021, a Hong Kong court handed down a joint judgment in the case of the eight, sentencing her to 1 year (12 months) for “inciting subversion of state power” and the 2020 offense of “inciting others to take part in an unauthorised assembly”; on January 4, 2022, a Hong Kong court sentenced her to a further 1 year and 3 months (15 months) for two offenses of “inciting others to take part in an unauthorised assembly” in 2020 and 2021; because part of the sentences in the two judgments were to be served concurrently, the final term to be served was 22 months; dissatisfied with the judgment, she appealed and maintained that her posts and articles were intended to urge people not to forget June 4, not to incite people to gather and cause trouble; on December 14, 2022, following a further ruling by the Hong Kong High Court, the June 4 incitement-to-assembly charge was ultimately declared not proven, and that conviction and sentence against her were therefore set aside; on March 11, 2023, she and two other former Hong Kong Alliance Standing Committee members, Deng Yuejun and Xu Hanguang, were sentenced by the West Kowloon Court in Hong Kong to four and a half months’ imprisonment for 「failing to provide information as required by a notice」, after being accused of 「violating relevant provisions of the National Security Law and refusing to provide relevant information」; dissatisfied with the ruling, she appealed again, but remains in custody to this day; on May 18, 2023, she received the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, awarded by South Korea’s largest human rights organisation, the 「May 18 Memorial Foundation」; on September 10, 2024, it was learned that she had been imprisoned for three years, but was still accused by a Hong Kong court, together with Lee Cheuk-yan, in the Hong Kong Alliance case of suspected “inciting subversion of state power”, with the trial due to begin on May 6, 2025; however, it was repeatedly postponed, and on November 10, 2025, it was learned that the trial in the “inciting subversion” case against the two, scheduled to begin the following day, had again been postponed; on August 21, 2026, the Hong Kong High Court found the two guilty of “inciting subversion of state power”, and she and Lee Cheuk-yan, together with Albert Ho Chun-yan, who had earlier pleaded guilty to the same offense, were to be sentenced at a later date; on September 11, the cases of the three were finally adjudicated together: she was sentenced to 7 years and 3 months in prison, Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho Chun-yan were sentenced to 7 years and 5 years and 2 months respectively, and the Alliance was fined HK$1.5 million; her sentence is expected to run until January 2030. She is currently serving her sentence in a Hong Kong prison.