HRIC Condemns Arrest of Chow Hang-tung and Five Others for Tiananmen Massacre Commemoration: Who They Are and Why They Matter
On May 28, Hong Kong police from the National Security Department arrested five women and one man for allegedly the city’s new security law Article 23.This was the first arrest under the law which was enacted in March.
The six individuals are accused of anonymously posting on a social media page since April 2024, using an upcoming sensitive date to incite hatred towards the central government, the HKSAR government, and judicial institutions. They are also accused of encouraging netizens to organize or participate in illegal activities. The Facebook page involved is reportedly the "Chow Hang Tung Fan Club" (https://t.co/uSYbhSVPH2). This year marks the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre, and the "Chow Hang Tung Fan Club" page began posting related content daily from April 30th.
Those arrested include former Hong Kong Alliance vice-chair Chow Hang-tung, Chow's mother, former Alliance standing committee members Lau Ka-yee and Albert Ho, former Tsuen Wan district councillor Katrina Chan Kim-kam, and dentist Dr. Lee Ying Chi.
The arrest including the mother of Chow. The picture is the gift given by the mother to Chow‘s supporters during her jail time.
Chow Hang-tung, already in custody at Tai Lam Centre for Women, was arrested again. She is serving a 15-month sentence for inciting the Tiananmen vigil and an additional 4.5 months for failing to provide information about the Alliance to national security authorities. Chow, denied bail repeatedly since her September 8, 2021 arrest, remains in detention over the Alliance's alleged subversion case. She has received multiple awards for her human rights work, including the Fritz Bauer Award, the 2023 Gwangju Human Rights Award, the 35th Chinese Democracy Education Foundation's Outstanding Democracy Activist Award, and the HKJA's Lam Chiu Memorial Award.
Chow became involved in human rights work while studying in the UK, eventually giving up her PhD to return to Hong Kong to study law. She has long advocated for human rights and labor issues in China, participating actively in the Alliance and the annual Tiananmen vigil. Chow credits her mother for her political awakening, as she took her to the vigils since elementary school.
Lau Ka-yee, a former Alliance standing committee member and part of the Tiananmen Mothers movement, was denied entry to Beijing twice in 2009. Albert Ho, also a former Alliance volunteer and committee member, has been active in vindicating the Tiananmen movement for years. On June 3, 2023, Yau and Ho held A4 papers at Victoria Park, stating their intent to fast for 89,643.4 seconds (around 25 hours) to mourn the Tiananmen victims and support the Mothers. They were arrested for "seditious intention" but later released on bail.
Lau Ka-yee, the one to the right.
Katrina Chan Kim-kam, a registered social worker, has long been concerned with women's rights and domestic violence. During the 2019 protests, she joined the Social Workers' General Union street station and later won a Tsuen Wan district council seat in the November 2019 elections. Chan resigned in 2021 to run a stall in Sham Shui Po. A week before June 4th, 2023, she displayed and distributed electronic Tiananmen candles from the Mothers group, prompting police to surround her stall on June 4th, demanding their removal.
Katrina Chan Kim-kam
 Dr. Lee Ying Chi, a dentist, has rarely appeared in the media except as an ordinary citizen attending the annual Tiananmen vigils and July 1st marches. In 2016, she was nominated by the True Universal Suffrage Doctors' Alliance to run for the Chief Executive Election Committee subsector. On June 3, 2023, Lee was mourning near Victoria Park when she was arrested for "seditious intention," detained for 32 hours, and then released. She appeared alone in Causeway Bay on July 1st that year before being stopped and leaving.

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