Chow hang-tung

Chow Hang-tung
Tonyee Chow Hang-tung born on 24 December on 1985 is a Hong Kong activist, barrister and politician. During the crackdown by authorities on the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which began in June 2021 and was mainly based on national security charges over the Alliance’s annual vigils in remembrance of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, Chow was cast into the limelight, having become the convenor of the group after the arrest of leaders Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho in April.Chow was born and grew up in Hong Kong. She studied geophysics at University of Cambridge. Chow realised that human rights issues were her real interest, so she gave up doctoral studies and returned to Hong Kong in 2010, where she studied law at the University of Hong Kong after having spent some time working at an NGO.Chow serves as vice chairwoman of the Hong Kong Alliance, which organised annual marches and vigils to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. On 4 June 2021, Chow was arrested for promoting an unauthorised assembly on the 32nd anniversary of the protests.
Human rights lawyer and China’s labour rights advocate Chow Hang-tung, currently imprisoned, was charged for “inciting subversion” under the new National Security Law on September, 9th 2021 and faces potential 10 years imprisonment. She, together with other core members of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (the Alliance), was targeted simply for peacefully commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.he isbarrister and woman human rights defender in Hong Kong. She has advocated for the protection and promotion of labour rights, as well as for the rights of persecuted human rights defenders in mainland China. She is one of the current vice-chairs of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (the Hong Kong Alliance), a grassroots advocacy group established in 1989 in Hong Kong to campaign for the release of Chinese political prisoners, democratic reforms in China, and accountability for the extrajudicial killings and other violations by the Chinese authorities during the lethal crackdown on pro-democracy protests in June 1989. As a barrister in Hong Kong, she has also provided legal assistance to activists and protesters targeted by police and judicial actions for their involvement in pro-democracy activities.For China’s Communist Party rulers, historical memory must be vigilantly patrolled. The government attempts to airbrush out events such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

Chow Hang-tung resisted. She kept the flame alive — literally, by helping organize candlelight vigils commemorating the violent attack on pro-democracy student protesters. Ms. Chow, a 38-year-old lawyer in Hong Kong, has been imprisoned for her actions and her beliefs; she is awaiting trial.The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the U.N. Human Rights Council found that Ms. Chow’s imprisonment is a breach of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which China signed in 1998. What’s more, the U.N. group has sharply criticized the new national security law that China imposed on Hong Kong, and under which Ms. Chow is being prosecuted. The group concluded Ms. Chow should be freed. The group is right.In 2016, Ms. Chow became vice chair of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China. The group campaigned for democracy and the release of individuals wrongly imprisoned, organizing annual public gatherings on June 4 to commemorate the Tiananmen massacre. Some years, these vigils attracted as many as 180,000 people. A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers has nominated Ms. Chow and five others in Hong Kong for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize.Ms. Chow also worked for labor rights and in defense of human rights on the mainland. This put her in the crosshairs of the Hong Kong authorities, who answer to China’s party bosses in Beijing. From 2020 onward, she was arrested four times and released three times. She was arrested June 23, 2020, for participating in that year’s Tiananmen commemoration. She was released, then arrested June 4, 2021, on the same charge, based on a social media post urging people to light candles throughout the territory, and again released. The third arrest came June 30, 2021, this time on suspicion she had encouraged people to participate in a pro-democracy demonstration, but evidence was lacking; she was released on bail after 37 days in pretrial detention.Her fourth arrest came Sept. 8, 2021, along with that of other alliance leaders, for refusing to comply with a police order to turn over information about the group. The authorities wanted to determine if it should be labeled a “foreign agent” under the new national security law. The alliance leaders decided to dissolve the organization on Sept. 25, 2021. Yet she has remained in prison and has been denied bail on the latest charges, all while battling the earlier ones linked to the Tiananmen commemorations. One conviction was overturned on appeal. In March, she and two other members of the alliance were convicted of one charge under the national security law for refusing the police request. Ms. Chow still faces another charge, “incitement to state subversion,” which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.She is representing herself from prison, where she has no internet access, no computer and limited access to books. The U.N. group expressed concern about overly broad application of the national security law to harass and close media outlets; block online content; arrest and arbitrarily detain journalists, politicians, academics, students and human rights defenders who have expressed dissenting views; and carry out censorship. Moreover, the group said any law must be precise enough so that people can follow it — and the new national security law is “clearly lacking” this basic principle. The group Hong Kong Watch said the law is being “used for political reasons without regard for the rule of law.”

Exercising freedom of expression and association — such as by carrying a candle in memory of Tiananmen — should not be a crime. Ms. Chow is wrongly imprisoned and should be freed.A prominent Hong Kong activist has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for incitement for a banned vigil to commemorate those who died in Beijing’s crackdown in Tiananmen Square in 1989.