A now-dismantled political alliance and its former leaders were found guilty of inciting subversion under the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region National Security Law by stirring up public hatred toward the Communist Party of China (CPC) and advocating ending its leadership.

The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, its former chairman Lee Cheuk-yan, vice-chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan, who pleaded guilty in January, and vice-chairwoman Chow Hang-tung were charged in 2021.

In the judgment handed down on Friday at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building, three national security judges, Alex Lee Wan-tang, Johnny Chan Jong-herng, and Anna Lai Yuen-kee, said the defendants understood that the alliance’s agenda of ending the leadership of CPC would contravene the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China after the implementation of the HKSAR NSL on June 30, 2020, but “refused to pull back from the brink and were bent on embracing the resistance line of the Alliance to the very end”.

ALSO READ: Anti-China activists’ open court trial boosts public trust in HK courts

The judges also criticized the defendants for using the “Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill” disturbance in 2019 to “stir up the hostility of their target audience towards the CPC, eroding and undermining the public’s confidence in the leadership by the CPC”.

The case had been adjourned to Aug 28 for pleas.

Chief Superintendent Steve Li Kwai-wah of the police’s National Security Department welcomed the judgment, saying that after the promulgation of the HKSAR NSL, there had been much discussion in society pointing out that the activities organized by the alliance would be illegal, but Lee, Ho and Chow continued to organize such activities.

Looking at the various activities collectively, he identified three characteristics: defendants used human rights as a shield to organize large-scale public events that stirred up emotions, they colluded with external forces, and added new elements to boost participation when they noticed that public sentiment was cooling down.

Moreover, during the trial, a considerable amount of evidence was disclosed indicating that the sole purpose of organizing these activities was to incite others to subvert the state power, he said.

READ MORE: Albert Ho pleads guilty to subversion charge

Priscilla Leung Mei-fun, a lawmaker, veteran barrister, and member of the HKSAR Basic Law Committee of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, called the verdict “expected and well-deserved”.

Leung noted that the amendment to the nation’s Constitution in 2018 explicitly enshrined the leadership of the CPC. As the constitutional foundation of the SAR's Basic Law derives from the national constitution, she said, subversion of state power cannot be tolerated in the city. Furthermore, the HKSAR NSL explicitly prohibits any incitement or commission of subversion, with the country's fundamental system embodied in CPC leadership and socialism.

She added that the defendants “refused to turn back”, adding that they intentionally and persistently incited public hostility against the CPC and pushed to end CPC’s leadership. Their actions carried a “clear political agenda”, she said.

Contact the writer at stacyshi@chinadailyhk.com