Organisers of HK Tiananmen vigil labelled ‘foreign agents’

Hong Kong, China - A Hong Kong court ruled on Wednesday that prosecutors could label organisers of the city’s annual Tiananmen vigil ‘foreign agents’ without having to reveal who the group is accused of working for.

The decision was made on national security grounds but those being prosecuted argue that the precedent-setting ruling makes it harder to prepare their defence ahead of trial.

For three decades, the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance held vigils commemorating victims of China’s deadly 1989 crackdown on democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Those commemorations have been driven underground since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong following democracy protests three years ago. Authorities charged the alliance with ‘incitement to subversion’, a national security offence, and ordered it to turn over years of data about its membership, finances and overseas ties.

Police arrested five alliance leaders, including vice chair Chow Hang-tung, last year after they openly defied the order to surrender information. As basis for their data demand, police accused the alliance of working as a ‘foreign agent’ - rhetoric that matches Beijing’s stance that the Tiananmen protests were instigated by foreign forces rather than being a popular movement.

Pre-trial hearings under Hong Kong’s national security law are often shrouded in secrecy and covered by strict reporting restrictions. But this week’s hearing was a rare session held in open court.

Three Alliance defendants will go on trial on July 13, which coincides with the fifth death anniversary of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Tiananmen activist Liu Xiaobo.