Chow Hang-tung is among leaders of a group that organized annual vigil for the 1989 Tiananmen massacre victims
Hong Kong barrister and rights activist Chow Hang-tung is serving a 15-month sentence for “inciting” people to hold a vigil for the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. (Photo: AFP)
South Korea’s leading rights group, the 5.18 Memorial Foundation, conferred an award on jailed Hong Kong lawyer and pro-democracy activist Tonyee Chow Hang-tung on May 18, ignoring pressure from Beijing.
The Seoul-based organization presented its 2023 Gwangju Human Rights Award to a friend of Chow's at a ceremony several days after three Chinese consular officials visited the group asking the award to be withdrawn, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported.
A friend and fellow activist, Na Hyun-Phil, received the award.
Choking up during his speech, he said he expected not to be allowed to enter China or Hong Kong as a result of receiving the award on her behalf.
"This human rights award represents that we stand with the people of Hong Kong," said Na, a Korean and head of the non-profit, Korean House for International Solidarity.
Chow, 38, a barrister and politician, is serving a 15-month sentence after being convicted of “incitement” and taking part in a vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing.
"Chow's friends and supporters from Hong Kong didn't dare come to the award ceremony"
She was among the leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements, which organized Hong Kong's annual June 4 candlelight vigil for victims of the Tiananmen crackdown. The memorial was organized in 2021 and 2022 despite the Bejing-imposed repressive national security law, enacted in June 2020, banning this and other unauthorized gatherings.
Chow faces a separate, graver charge of “subversion of state power” for her association with the group that allegedly plotted to overthrow the Chinese government.
After receiving the award, Na vowed to light a candle outside the Chinese embassy in Seoul on June 4 every year, the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, until her release.
He told RFA that Chow's friends and supporters from Hong Kong didn't dare come to the award ceremony for fear of reprisals by the Chinese authorities.
"The main reason [I accepted the award for her] is because it would be ... very risky for Hong Kongers to attend the award ceremony for the Gwangju Human Rights Award," Na said.
"The award ceremony was a public event, and all of the information [on those who take part] will be publicly available," he said.
"This means that the Chinese government will know who accepted the award on her behalf.
"Hong Kong is a silent society"
"I, as a Korean, was thought the better choice, so as to protect her family and friends," Na said, adding that it would now be risky for him to travel to Hong Kong following the event.
"I would very much like to go to Hong Kong, but can't be sure that it would be safe for me or other friends there, so I ... won't be going to Hong Kong or mainland China now," he said.
He said of Chow that she “shines like a candle, as the hope of Hong Kong's democracy movement, so it was fitting for the Gwangju Human Rights Award to go to her.”
Na, who also has a background in the labor rights movement, said he visited Hong Kong during the 2014 Occupy Central pro-democracy movement.
He said the former British colony has fallen "silent" since the national security law was imposed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party in 2020, criminalizing public dissent and peaceful political opposition.
"Hong Kong is a silent society, and we can't find a way to fight for democracy there right now," he said.
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