Kinaforum

lørdag 22. august 2026

Why are Hong Kong’s Tiananmen vigil organisers facing prison?

Two prominent Hong Kong activists who helped organise annual vigils commemorating China’s deadly 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown have been convicted of inciting subversion under the city’s national security law.

On Friday, Hong Kong’s High Court found former legislator Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and lawyer Chow Hang-tung, 41, guilty of what is one of the most serious offences under the sweeping security law imposed by Beijing in 2020.The pair, who pleaded not guilty to inciting subversion, have been held in detention since they were charged in September 2021. They face up to 10 years in prison, with sentencing to take place at a later date. A third defendant, veteran activist Albert Ho, 74, pleaded guilty before the trial began.

The case is among Hong Kong’s highest-profile prosecutions under the national security law and has renewed scrutiny of the erosion of political freedoms in the territory as Beijing expands its influence there. Here is what we know.

China-appointed Panchen has asserted that ‘true Dharma’ begins with observing the coercive ethic unity law

While members of China’s so-called ethnic Minority groups in the free world, including Tibetans, as well as the international community, have condemned China’s recently implemented Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law as a tool of forced assimilation, the Chinese government-installed “11th Panchen Lama” Gyaltsen Norbu has on Aug 14 called the law a powerful instrument of national law and also an embodiment of the true Dharma on which religious precepts should be based, according to China’s online Tibet news service eng.tibet.cnAug 18.

Ethnic unity is the foundation of national unity, the cornerstone of social harmony, and the source of development and progress. The law offers robust institutional safeguards for strengthening the sense of community for the Chinese nation and consolidating the foundations of ethnic unity, and serves as a fundamental measure to consolidate and advance the cause of ethnic unity and progress in the new era, he has said.

Latest satellite images confirm China’s continuing assault on Larung Gar Buddhist learning centre in Tibet

Latest satellite images are stated to confirm reports that China has been carrying out large-scale demolitions at the famed – and the world’s largest Buddhist learning centre – located in a Tibetan County and prefecture in Sichuan Province. This has come as China began implementing its so-called Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law in its latest forced assimilation move that targets ethnic minorities and their cultural roots. Such demolitions have especially meant the expulsion of large numbers of various categories of students – monks, nuns and lay students and practitioners from other parts of the PRC as well as from other countries.

Citing satellite imagery analyzed by Radio Free Asia (RFA), rfa.org said Aug 18 that Chinese authorities had over the past month continued and expanded demolition at the Larung Gar Buddhist Academy, located in Serthar County of Kardze Prefecture, which at its peak in the early 2000s was stated to be home to 40,000 Buddhist monastics.

Facts on Record: The Second Fact-Finding Delegation to Tibet, 1980

Recently, a friend sent me a video (attached here) in which a person was giving a commentary about the delegation and its visit to Tibet. As I listened to it, I felt that the commentary had either been prepared in great haste or that the commentator had not had the opportunity to research and understand the subject fully. I noticed a number of factual errors and felt that it was important, as someone who was actually a member of the delegation, to put some of the facts on record.

According to the commentator, we allegedly said to Ngapo ‘Ape’ Ngawang Jigme, “You sold Tibet in Chamdo; why didn’t you fight against the Chinese? etc.” I have no recollection whatsoever of such a statement being made by any of us.

What I do remember clearly is that we spoke openly and frankly with Tibetans, even in the presence of Chinese officers and local Tibetan and Chinese officials. We did not hesitate to speak about what we had seen and learned on the ground. Our conversations were straightforward, open, and confident. We were there to see the situation for ourselves.

AP reporter Christopher Bodeen, a tenacious chronicler of China’s rise, dies at 55

Christopher Bodeen, a tenacious, old-school wire service reporter who brought a keen analytical eye and a wry sense of humor to decades of work in China,Taiwan and in war zones and natural disasters across the globe for The Associated Press, has died. He was 55.

Bodeen died Monday after a struggle with cancer and complications from a stroke, his daughter, Ingrid, said Thursday by telephone from Taiwan.

Bodeen, who spoke fluent Mandarin with a proud Taiwan accent, spent much of his career detailing China’s rise to an economic, political and military superpower — and the accompanying friction from what critics have long called Beijing’s heavy-handed efforts to establish dominance in Asia and beyond.

China investigates comedian after he altered a revolutionary song lyric onstage

One of China’s best-known comedians is under investigation and several of his shows have been canceled after he changed the lyrics of a revolutionary song during a performance.

Guo Degang, the country’s most prominent performer of traditional xiangsheng, a form of Chinese comedic dialogue, is under investigation by local authorities in the city of Wuhan in central China, local media reported. Guo’s show on Friday in the northwestern city of Xi’an was canceled due to “venue issues,” a statement on ticketing platform Damai released by his promotion company showed.

The company offered refunds for tickets as well as travel and hotel expenses. The exhibition center hosting the performance in Xi’an, which also cited “venue issues” on Wednesday, said the show had been “postponed,” without giving a new date.

2 organizers of Hong Kong’s Tiananmen vigils convicted in national security case

Two former organizers of Hong Kong’s annual vigils in remembrance of th1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown were convicted Friday for what the government-approved judges ruled was inciting others to overthrow China’s communist leadership.

Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung, former leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, were charged in 2021 with inciting subversion under a China-imposed national security law that has effectively crushed the city’s previously thriving pro-democracy movement. They face a maximum prison term of 10 years. The alliance was also found guilty.

The three judges ruled that the alliance’s call to “end one-party dictatorship” aimed to end the ruling Communist Party’s leadership status under the constitution, and that the “end” in the phrase carried the meaning of “overthrowing” and “undermining.”

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

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.

South Korea Was Given No Notice Before Trump Announced Drill Cut, Foreign Minister Says

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said Wednesday that Seoul was given no notice before President Donald Trump announced that he would be scaling back joint military operations between the two countries. “Neither our government nor U.S. officials knew what President Trump wrote on his Truth Social," Cho told the National Assembly Committee on Foreign Affairs and Unification. "We were not notified in advance.”

Cho added, however, that Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back was in “close consultation” with his U.S. counterparts regarding the reductions to South Korea-U.S. military exercises.

Trump on Sunday announced in a Truth Social post that he had instructed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” joint military exercises with South Korea, citing the country’s refusal to participate in the U.S.-Israel war against Iran and his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Evergrande tycoon at the heart of China’s property crisis sentenced to life in prison

The founder of embattled property behemoth Evergrande and formerly one of China’s richest men was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday, according to state media, the latest chapter of ignominy for a one-time symbol of the nation’s economic boom.

Hui Ka Yan pled guilty in April to multiple charges related to his time as chairman of China’s largest real-estate developer, including fraud and misuse of funds. It completes a dramatic downfall for Hui – also known as Xu Jiayin – who emerged from humble origins during a turbulent political era, to climb to the highest levels of influence and wealth.

Hong Kong’s Tiananmen vigil fell dark years ago. Now its organizers have been convicted

Two key organizers behind what used to be the only large-scale public commemoration for the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre on Chinese soil have been found guilty of inciting subversion by a court in Hong Kong.

The verdict is the latest chapter in a years-long crackdown by Hong Kong authorities against publicly marking the moment in 1989 when the ruling Chinese Communist Party sent tanks in to violently quell peaceful, student-led democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

Chow Hang-tung, a prominent young human rights lawyer who conducted her own defense, and former opposition lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan were found guilty of inciting subversion at West Kowloon Court on Friday. They face a jail term of up to 10 years under a national security law imposed on the city by Beijing in 2020.

‘Please stay strong’: Brother sends message to American deemed wrongfully detained in China

The brother of an American scholar detained in China welcomed the news Thursday that he was declared wrongfully detained, saying he hopes that it will help lead to his release.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the wrongful detention determination after an “extensive review of the circumstances” around Min Zin’s detention, Assistant Secretary of State Dylan Johnson announced Thursday. Min Zin has been jailed since early June. The designation comes ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s expected meeting with President Donald Trump in the United States next month.

“When I heard the news, I teared up a little bit,” Aung Maw Zin told CNN Thursday, saying it gives the message to Beijing that his older brother’s case is a priority.

After a sexual assault case went viral, China’s corporate drinking culture is under fire

What started as a business dinner between local officials and executives celebrating a lucrative real-estate deal has sparked public outcry in China, after two men were accused of sexually assaulting a woman in their party.

Authorities in the affluent tech hub of Hangzhou have placed a senior executive and a public official under criminal detention for allegedly “forcibly molesting” the woman at a karaoke bar after their dinner, according to an official report of the ongoing investigation. The woman was injured and had to be hospitalized, the report said. Both men have been dismissed from their posts.

News of the case swiftly went viral across Chinese social media after being made public in recent days, racking up over half a billion views on the X-like platform Weibo alone.

Pivot! Pivot! Trump’s Asia Policy Is Giving America’s Friends Whiplash

President Donald Trump has given skeptics of his Indo-Pacific policy more ammunition to pronounce dead the U.S. pivot to Asia, this time by calling war games with ally South Korea "inappropriate and hostile" to the North and its strongman leader Kim Jong Un.

Kim has been "unthreatening and respectful" during his presidency, Trump said on Truth Social, in an announcement to scale down annual preparedness drills just hours before they were scheduled to begin. He also took a swipe at his South Korean counterpart for declining to join his war in Iran.

North Korea, which flouted multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions only last week by testing more ballistic missiles, is learning the utility of its rhetorical threats against the United States. And if it wasn’t clear already, America’s enemies are understanding the true value of even a modest nuclear arsenal like the one held by Pyongyang.

If President Donald Trump makes good on his threat to pull funding from military drills with South Korea, the United States would gain little while eroding trust in Seoul and other key allies in the region, South Korean analysts warn.

In a Truth Social post Tuesday, Trump said he was unhappy with the "costly" exercises and that he had directed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to significantly reduce them, touting his "very good relationship" with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump also pointed out that South Korea had rejected his request to send military forces to assist the U.S. in its "denuclearization" of Iran. Trump met with Kim three times during his first term in a failed bid to walk back his nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. The president has said he remains open to another meeting.

America’s Scientific Elite Is Fueling China’s Military Machine

Scientists at U.S. institutions continue to co-author thousands of papers with Chinese military researchers and China’s defense-industrial base, despite growing efforts by the U.S. government to stop the loss of its innovation ecosystem to China, according to exclusive data obtained by Newsweek.

The collaborations include those with researchers at China’s nuclear weapons development complex and two elite groups of military-affiliated schools known as the "Seven Sons of National Defense" and the "Seven Sons of Ordnance Industry," as well as other People's Liberation Army institutions including medical ones and state-owned defense companies, the new data that tracks activity between January 2025 and the present shows.

World’s Tallest Empty Skyscraper Adds Record-Breaking Feature

China's Tianjin 117 Tower is set to gain another record when it opens: the world's tallest elevator in a building. Also known as the Goldin Finance 117 or China 117 Tower, Tianjin 117 holds the Guinness World Records title as the world's tallest unoccupied building. Named for its 117 above-ground floors, the skyscraper in Tianjin, north China, rises nearly 600 meters (about 1,968 feet).

This week, Connecticut-based Otis announced it will supply 251 elevators and escalators throughout the tower, having been selected as the sole provider of the building's integrated vertical transportation system. Among them will be two Otis SkyRise elevators featuring maximum rises of more than 597 meters (1,958 feet), creating what the company describes as "the world's longest elevator hoistways in a building."

Pentagon orders audit of 30 universities’ partnerships with foreign institutions

The Department of Defense has ordered 30 U.S. universities to audit their partnerships with mostly Chinese universities and military training institutions as the Trump administration scrutinizes the country’s growing global influence.

If the schools don’t complete a review and terminate any arrangements deemed problematic within the next two weeks, they face losing funding. The goal is to protect taxpayer-funded research from theft and exploitation, the Pentagon said Monday.

“The Department of War has zero tolerance for academic partnerships that compromise our national security,” Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s chief technology officer, said in a news release.