Chow Hang-tung, who was the vice-chairperson of the group behind Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen vigils, was urged to use “proper terminology” to refer to the crackdown on student protesters in Beijing on June 4, 1989.
Hong Kong activist Chow Hang-tung has been barred from using the phrase “Tiananmen massacre” during a national security trial, with a magistrate instead urging her to use “proper terminology.”
Chow, who was the vice-chairperson of the group behind Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen vigils, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, appeared before Principal Magistrate Peter Law at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Wednesday as her trial resumed after an almost two-month adjournment.
Chow and two other former standing committee members of the Alliance, Tang Ngok-kwan and Tsui Hon-kwong, stand accused of not complying with a national security police request for information.
Two other defendants in the case, Simon Leung and Chan To-wai, pleaded guilty and were sentenced to three months in jail.
Law, one of Hong Kong’s handpicked national security judges, made the decision to bar Chow from saying “Tiananmen massacre” as she was cross-examining Hung Ngan, who is now acting senior superintendent of the national security police.
Chow was asking Hung if he knew when the Alliance was formed when prosecutor Ivan Cheung objected to the barrister’s use of the phrase. Cheung suggested Chow use the term “June 4th incident” instead.
Law said he would not “allow” Chow to say “Tiananmen massacre,” adding “we are not putting anything [political] in the court.” He then asked Chow to use “proper terminology in [a] neutral form.”
“I do protest to the term Tiananmen incident, what is a massacre cannot be downgraded to an incident, this is not a neutral term,” Chow said in response.
