Former Hong Kong vigil organizer strives to mark Tiananmen crackdown despite convictions

HONG KONG (AP) — Tang Ngok-kwan still occasionally visits the places where Hong Kong once publicly remembered Beijing’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown .

Though Tang's fellow activists were locked up in prison, accused of inciting subversion, and an annual candlelight vigil they previously organized to mourn the crackdown's victims vanished, the 58-year-old continues to personally and discreetly remember the event, which is a political taboo on mainland China.

At Victoria Park, where tens of thousands of people once gathered for the only large-scale public commemoration of the crackdown in China, Tang bowed on the eve of the anniversary and read of a list of the victims in a low voice. He sometimes returns to two university campuses where commemorative sculptures once stood, even though most traces of their existence already have vanished.

Two of Tang's former colleagues were convicted Friday under a Beijing-imposed national security law, facing a maximum prison term of 10 years. Their vigil organizing group also was found guilty. Government-approved judges ruled the pair had incited others to overthrow the leadership of China’s Communist Party through unlawful means.

Many observers say the convictions were the latest case reflecting the decline in freedoms in the former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Tang told The Associated Press that the arguments in the verdict did not convince him and he felt wronged on behalf of those convicted.

“After the alliance was convicted, I feel that whenever people bring up the alliance, there’ll be a sense of wariness around it,” he said.

Tang was an ordinary young man when he joined a wave of people who marched in Hong Kong in support of Beijing's student-led, pro-democracy protests in May 1989.

When tanks rolled into the heart of Beijing on the night of June 3-4 to quell the protests, Tang didn’t sleep. Hundreds, possibly thousands of people, were killed during the crackdown.

Shortly after the bloody event, some members of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, along with others sympathetic to the protesters, mobilized to help bring those wanted by authorities to safety. The group also ran the massive public candlelight vigil that attracted tens of thousands of people annually for three decades.

Tang says he feels a moral burden because he believes Hong Kong's support might have left the students in a position with no easy exit in 1989. That kept the volunteers who became the core members of the alliance working behind the scenes for years.

Authorities banned the annual vigil in 2020, citing risks to public health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Weeks later, Beijing imposed the security law, saying it was necessary for the city's stability following massive protests in 2019.

The alliance's fate was called into question in 2021. A mainland Chinese official criticized those chanting “end one-party dictatorship,” without naming the group. Police also sought details about its operations and finances in connection with alleged links to pro-democracy groups overseas, accusing it of being a foreign agent.

But the group refused to cooperate and told reporters in September 2021 that the request was an “abuse of power.” Tang knew by then he would be imprisoned for not handing in the information. He recalled he was frightened when he saw a large crowd of reporters at the venue.

“It really feels like everyone is watching how you die and then coming to see you off on your way,” he said.

Days later, Tang was arrested over the refusal, alongside several other core members. The alliance's chair and vice-chairs, Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang-tung and Albert Ho, were charged under the security law. The group voted to disband soon after and two commemorative statues and one relief were removed at university campuses in late 2021.

Tang, Chow and another core member were sentenced to 4 1/2 months in prison each in 2023 for failing to provide authorities with information. Tang's prison term overlapped with the 35th anniversary of the crackdown. To remember it, he ran 35 laps barefoot.

The trio’s convictions were quashed in 2025 by Hong Kong’s top court, though they had already served their terms.

The legal battle involving the vigil organizers did not end there. The trial for Lee and Chow began in January and Tang was a regular presence in the courtroom's public gallery. Ho entered a guilty plea, a move that typically results in a sentence reduction.

Before their trial, commemorating the crackdown publicly had already become politically sensitive. Police took away some people who tried to do so near the former vigil site on the crackdown anniversary. After the lifting of pandemic restrictions, an annual carnival occupied Victoria Park on every anniversary.

Police wouldn’t let Tang enter court Friday if he insisted on bringing along “sensitive” materials, including bookmarks printed with the words “vindicate June 4,” he said.

He has walked repeatedly between a subway station and the trial court to remember the years Lee and Chow spent in custody awaiting trial, he said, noting there are 64 steps leading up from the subway station exit, a number echoing the June 4 anniversary.

Tang has an eye for details like that, he said, joking it was “pathological.”

“When there’s nothing concrete you can do, the only option, to put it bluntly, well, it's just another kind of way to balance your psychology,” he said.