# Seven years for lighting a candle

> Three Hong Kong activists who ran the city's Tiananmen vigils are now serving years in prison for a slogan.
- Title: Seven years for lighting a candle · BBC News | Shortify
- Summary: Three Hong Kong activists who ran the city's Tiananmen vigils are now serving years in prison for a slogan. Hong Kong's national security law now reaches…
- Keywords: hong kong, china, tiananmen, national security law, human rights, news, world, Seven, years, lighting, candle, BBC News
- Source: BBC News — https://bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgyvk2djk4o
- Published: 2026-09-11T02:49:29.46+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: hong kong, china, tiananmen, national security law, human rights, news, world
## Three organisers, years in jail
Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, Chow Hang-tung, 41, and Albert Ho, 74, ran Hong Kong's annual Tiananmen vigils. On Friday a court sent all three to prison for subversion.
## The sentences handed down
Chow got seven years and three months, Lee seven years. Ho, who pleaded guilty in January, got five. The Hong Kong Alliance was fined HK$1.5m, about $191,000.
## A slogan was the evidence
The case turned on the group's call to "end one-party dictatorship". The court held that those words incited people to undermine the Chinese Communist Party.

> incited other persons to organise, plan, commit or participate in acts by unlawful means
## Chow said the law was on trial
Speaking in court in May, Chow argued the national security law itself was what stood accused. Back in 2022 she had told the BBC she was ready for this.

> prepared to be arrested" and "willing to pay the price for fighting for democracy
## Smiles and a blown kiss
Chow and Lee stood and smiled at a packed public gallery. Lee seemed to pray as he left the dock. Chow blew a kiss to the people watching.
## The vigils that vanished
The Alliance was founded in May 1989 to back Beijing's student protesters. Its yearly vigils drew crowds organisers put above 100,000, until a 2020 Covid ban that never lifted.
## A government afraid of memory
The UN rights office wants the sentences quashed. Amnesty calls it a triple tragedy for the activists, the Tiananmen victims, and Hongkongers denied the space to remember.

> the cruelty and insecurity of a government afraid of memory and the people
## Key takeaway

Hong Kong's national security law now reaches backwards, punishing the people who kept the memory of Tiananmen alive in the one Chinese city where that was still allowed.