In April, the 70th month since Beijing imposed the national security law, the Hong Kong government applied to the court to seize assets belonging to Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

On National Education Day, a top Chinese official delivered a warning about those who “politicised” the deadly Tai Po fire and tried to “stir up chaos” in the city.

Gov’t seeks to seize Jimmy Lai’s assets

The Hong Kong government filed an application with the High Court on April 2 to seize “offence-related” properties owned by jailed pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai on national security grounds.

In a statement issued the same day, the government mentioned Lai’s earlier convictions under the Beijing-imposed national security law. It said the High Court had found that he was the “mastermind and driving force behind the case, consciously using Apple Daily and his personal influence” to undermine local and Beijing authorities.

In a writ dated April 2, the secretary for justice listed HK$127 million in assets to be “forfeited” to the authorities.

The assets include credit balances in bank accounts belonging to or linked to the Apple Daily founder.

Fifteen bank accounts under Lai’s name – 10 with HSBC, two with Hang Seng Bank and three with Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank – have over HK$32 million.

The government is also seeking to seize bank accounts belonging to 17 companies linked to Lai. It is also demanding that Lai give up shares in 17 companies, some of which overlap with the 17 firms whose assets the government is seeking to seize.

Among the companies whose assets and shares the government wants to seize are Dico Consultants Ltd, which has over HK$404,302 in its HSBC account, and Lai’s Hotel Properties Ltd, which has over HK$3.1 million in its four HSBC accounts.

Lai has been summoned to the High Court on July 8 to hear the government’s application. The case will be presided over by Esther Toh, one of the three judges who heard his national security trial.

The move to seize Lai’s assets came after the government designated three companies linked to Lai’s now-defunct Apple Daily tabloid “prohibited organisations” in late March and removed them from the corporate registry. Police cordoned off the Apple Daily building in Tseung Kwan O a day later.

The three firms were tried and convicted alongside the Apple Daily founder in his high-profile national security case. Lai was sentenced to 20 years behind bars in early February, while the companies were each fined over HK$3 million.

Political commentator appears in court

A Hong Kong political commentator charged with disclosing details of a national security investigation appeared at the District Court on April 28.

Wong Kwok-ngon, known by his pen name Wong On-yin, has been detained since his arrest in December for allegedly divulging in a YouTube video details of enquiries made by police during a national security investigation.

Judge Stanley Chan said the pre-trial review would take place behind closed doors on August 11, and the trial would begin on October 9.

Wong’s offence falls under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, a homegrown security law known as Article 23. It was added to the ordinance in May as part of subsidiary legislation, and Wong is the first to be charged under the new law.

He is also charged with sedition over videos posted on YouTube between January 3 and December 6 last year. He plans to plead not guilty to both charges.

The defendant, who continues to represent himself, told the court he had dropped his legal aid application.

Asked by the judge whether he had legal knowledge for self-defence, Wong said he had “three law degrees” and was confident of handling the case.

Nat. security clauses for restaurant licences

Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan said in early April that all Hong Kong restaurant licences would include national security clauses from September.

Tse made the remarks on April 7, nearly a year after the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) introduced the provisions for restaurant licence renewals in May.

“With restaurants renewing their licences gradually, we expect that by September this year, all restaurant licences will contain the clauses,” Tse told reporters, according to RTHK.

Retiree jailed over seditious Facebook posts

A Hong Kong man was jailed for a year under the city’s homegrown national security law after pleading guilty to making seditious remarks on Facebook, including comments supporting Hong Kong’s and Taiwan’s independence.

Raymond Chong pleaded guilty before national security judge Victor So at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on April 14 to one count of knowingly publishing publications with a seditious intention – an offence under the city’s local security law, also known as Article 23.

The magistrate handed Chong, a retiree in his early 60s, an 18-month sentence but discounted it by six months after considering his guilty plea.

Chong was accused of making 53 seditious social media posts between March 2024 and November 2025, local media reported.

The posts had wording such as “dissolving the Chinese Communist Party is the most important thing” and “Hong Kong independence is within sight.”

The defendant posted on a public Facebook page called “Holy Raymond,” which features the Chinese phrase “Heaven will destroy the Chinese Communist Party, God bless Hong Kong” as its profile picture.

During mitigation ahead of sentencing, his lawyer argued that Chong was a Falun Gong believer who had come to hate the Chinese Communist Party because of false information that the CCP engaged in live organ harvesting.

Beijing official warned of ‘politicising’ Tai Po fire

China’s top official in charge of Hong Kong affairs warned of some people who “politicised” the deadly Tai Po fire and tried to use the disaster to “stir up chaos” in Hong Kong.

Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, delivered his remarks on April 15 via a recorded video shown at a National Security Education Day ceremony.

In his speech, Xia mentioned the massive fire that broke out at Wang Fuk Court, a government-subsidised housing estate in Tai Po, on November 26, killing 168 people.

“After the Tai Po fire, some malicious people politicised the tragedy, attempting to use the disaster as a means to disrupt Hong Kong,” Xia said in Mandarin, without giving further details.

“Once again, it reminds us that along Hong Kong’s path toward prosperity under good governance, there will be various risks and challenges.”

Speaking at the same event, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee also warned that some people were “using the disaster to stir up chaos” and “to incite hatred” in Hong Kong.

“Only through the government’s swift action and decisive law enforcement has the situation been able to return to normal,” Lee said in Mandarin.

French journalist denied entry to city

A French journalist was denied entry to Hong Kong in November, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in late April, accusing the city’s authorities of “weaponising visas” against foreign media workers.

Antoine Vedeilhe, who was shooting a documentary for French public broadcaster France Télévisions, was questioned upon arrival at Hong Kong International Airport on November 2 last year, RSF said in a statement on April 24.

He was detained for three hours before being deported without being given a reason, it added.

The press freedom NGO said Vedeilhe was the 13th foreign media worker who had been denied entry or a visa by the city’s authorities following Beijing’s imposition of the national security law in 2020.

“In the journalist’s view, his detention was a reprisal for his work on a documentary examining Beijing’s grip on Hong Kong,” RSF said.

Another cameraman for the documentary was able to enter the city, RSF said, but he was followed by “unidentified individuals that he suspects were Hong Kong’s national security police.”

“In the following days, there was a hacking attempt on Vedeilhe’s private email account and his sources in the documentary were harassed by the national security police,” the NGO said.

In an emailed reply to HKFP’s enquiries, the Hong Kong government said it “strongly condemns the smearing remarks and distorted narratives by” RSF.

Prosecution and arrests figures

As of April 1, a total of 394 people have been arrested for “cases involving suspected acts or activities that endanger national security” since Beijing’s national security law came into effect, according to the Security Bureau. That figure includes those arrested under Article 23 and for other offences.

Of the 208 people and five companies that have so far been charged, 180 people and four companies have been convicted or are awaiting sentencing.

In total, 100 people and four companies have been charged under Beijing’s national security law, with 79 persons and three companies convicted. Thirteen people have been charged under Article 23, 10 of whom have been convicted.

A Hong Kong government proposal that will allow the city’s leader to certify criminal acts as national security offences is intended to “make the law clear,” Chief Executive John Lee has said.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Lee said the new subsidiary legislation for Hong Kong’s homegrown national security law, the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, commonly known as Article 23, “is purely to make the law even clearer.”

Shortly after, Lee approved the subsidiary legislation during a meeting with the Executive Council, the city’s top decision-making body.

Under the new law, which was gazetted and came into effect the same day, the chief executive will be able to certify “other offences endangering national security.”

Criminal cases classified as endangering national security will have tougher court procedures, such as a higher bar for bail and trial before designated judges.

“The purpose of introducing the subsidiary legislation is to make it clear, make it much, much clearer, how offences… endangering national security under the law of Hong Kong will be so classified,” Lee told reporters on Tuesday.

“It is not intended and will not expand the definition of the offences, and it’s not adding any new offences or any new powers or punishments. It also does not expand the scope of the application of the law,” he added.

‘Sensitive’ information

Lee said the new piece of legislation would reduce “controversy or debate in court” about what constitutes national security offences.

Asked whether he was concerned about giving an impression of further centralising power into his hands, Lee said the city’s chief executive must shoulder the “important responsibility” of safeguarding national security.

Lee said he would exercise the new power with “prudence and seriousness,” but added that, as city leader, he has access to exclusive information regarding threats to national security.

A lot of activities endangering national security “are committed by state players of another place. They are professional, sophisticated, and the series of information that may be available to indicate the seriousness of the matters [is] privy to the chief executive,” he said.

“A lot of this information is sensitive and not suitable for public disclosure,” he added.

Under the government proposal, the certificate issued by the chief executive will be binding on the city’s courts and cannot be challenged.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Secretary for Justice Paul Lam said the designation of national security offences involves “highly confidential” information that would not be available to the courts.

“The judiciary would not be capable of making such a decision,” Lam said.

Asked whether the chief executive’s certificates will be announced, Lam only said “people will know” as court proceedings are open to the public.

“If you see designated judges or other special arrangements in a trial, you will know” that the case has been designated as relating to national security, he said.

The landmark trial of Tiananmen vigil activists neared its conclusion in May, with both defendants and prosecutors delivering their closing submissions.

The government allocated more money to the national security fund and lashed out at Reporters Without Borders (RSF) after the NGO once again placed Hong Kong low on its annual press freedom index.

Trial of Tiananmen vigil activists

The national security trial of Tiananmen vigil activists Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan heard closing arguments from the defendants and the prosecution. Lee and Chow were leaders of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China.

Lee’s defence lawyer, Erik Shum, spoke before a three-judge panel on May 18, urging the court not to merely “pay lip service” to human rights protections.

He argued that calls to “end one-party rule” in China should be considered legitimate political expression.

Lee, Chow, and the Alliance are facing a charge of “inciting subversion,” an offence under the Beijing-imposed national security law, over the group’s calls to end one-party rule in China during decades of candlelight vigils commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. The offence carries a maximum penalty of 10 years behind bars.

The Alliance had never proposed an “action plan” to mobilise supporters to topple the CCP, the lawyer said. “In the past 30 years, there has been no evidence showing that any person acted under the Alliance’s specific instruction,” Shum said in Cantonese.

In his closing submission, prosecutor Ned Lai argued the Alliance’s calls had exceeded the legitimate boundary of freedom of expression as the defendants intended to stoke hatred against Beijing.

“We say that their behaviour had crossed the line,” he said in Cantonese. “Freedom is not absolute.”

Chow, a barrister who represents herself in the trial, delivered her closing arguments on May 19.

She urged the court to safeguard the “dignity and bottom line of the law” and warned the judges not to become “accomplices” in an alleged government crackdown on free speech.

Chow said the crux of the case was whether the law protects the “perpetual rule” of the CCP or the rights of people to advocate democracy.

“Ending one-party rule means putting an end to the status quo, in which those in power are not bound by the law,” she said in Cantonese.

Senior counsel Priscilia Lam, representing the Alliance, argued the prosecution had not been able to present evidence of the group’s alleged incitement to subversion.

“What did the Alliance do to incite people to subvert state power?” Lam said in Cantonese. “I have heard nothing on this after sitting here for so long.”

The Alliance disbanded in 2021 after authorities banned the vigil for two years, citing Covid-19 restrictions, and arrested its leadership on national security allegations. Chow and Lee have been behind bars since September 2021.

Another defendant, former lawmaker Albert Ho, pleaded guilty when the trial opened in January.

The three-judge panel said they hope to deliver a verdict in “mid or late July.”

Gov’t reacts to UK trial conviction

The Hong Kong government denied any link to a high-profile UK court case after its trade officer was convicted of spying on overseas activists.

“From the outset, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government has been clearly stating that the allegations in this case are absolutely not related to the HKSAR Government and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London (London ETO), nor are we party to the case,” a government statement sent to the media on May 8.

The statement was issued a day after Bill Yuen, an office manager at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London, and former UK Border Force official Peter Wai were found guilty under Britain’s national security laws of assisting a foreign intelligence service.

Yuen and Wai – both British-Chinese dual nationals – were accused of spying on Hong Kong pro-democracy activists living in Britain.

Among those the pair were said to have surveilled was Nathan Law, who is wanted by Hong Kong’s national security police with a bounty of HK$1,000,000.

Wanted activist arrested in Thailand

Hong Kong authorities declined to comment on reports that an activist wanted by the city’s national security police could face deportation to China after being arrested in Thailand for allegedly overstaying her visa.

Responding to media queries about concerns that wanted activist Zhang Xinyan could be transferred to China, the Security Bureau said on May 11 that it would not comment on news reports about law enforcement actions in other jurisdictions.

“Endangering national security is an extremely serious crime… no fugitive should harbour the illusion that they can evade criminal liability by fleeing Hong Kong,” the bureau said in a statement.

Zhang, 54, is wanted by Hong Kong’s national security police for allegedly committing subversion, a crime under Article 23 – also known as the city’s homegrown national security law.

She is among a group of 19 activists named in a round of arrest warrants issued in July 2025, with bounties between HK$200,000 and HK$1 million.

From February to June 2025, they were allegedly involved in the “Hong Kong Parliament,” a group of overseas activists who held unofficial polls outside the city to form a shadow legislature to “pursue the ideal of Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong.”

According to Human Rights Watch, Zhang holds refugee status issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

New allocation for national security fund

The Hong Kong government allocated an additional HK$5 billion to a national security special fund.

The government unveiled the funding on May 15, when it gazetted the government accounts for the fiscal year 2025-26.

It was the third allocation for national security since Beijing imposed the national security law in Hong Kong in June 2020.

The special fund was established the same year. It received an initial allocation of HK$8 billion in December 2020 and an additional HK$5 billion in the financial year ending March 31, 2023.

The latest allocation thus brought the total amount to HK$18 billion.

In response to Ming Pao’s enquiry, the Financial Secretary’s Office said authorities will not disclose details of the funding, citing Article 14 of the national security law. It did not respond to whether the previous HK$13 billion funding had been depleted.

Worsening press freedom, FCC survey finds

Two out of three journalists say the working environment in Hong Kong has changed “for the worse” in the past year, according to the latest survey by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, released on May 11.

The 2026 FCC Press Freedom Survey, which received 78 responses from members, found that “67 per cent of respondents said the working environment for them as a journalist had changed for the worse in the last 12 months.”

The FCC pointed out that the survey “happened to take place” after Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai was convicted and sentenced to jail, as well as Beijing’s national security office in Hong Kong, the Office for Safeguarding National Security (OSNS), summoned representatives of several major foreign media outlets, shortly following the deadly Wang Fuk Court fire.

One respondent said that the warning by the OSNS to foreign journalists “should be seen as a watershed moment here in Hong Kong. It has created an increased chilling effect.”

Another respondent said that the 20-year sentence handed down to Lai “only further chills the local reporting environment.”

Gov’t reacts to RSF press freedom index

The Hong Kong government and the Legislative Council (LegCo) condemned Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in early May after the city was ranked low in the NGO’s annual press freedom index.

They also hit out after German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) awarded Lai, the jailed media tycoon, a press freedom prize on April 30.

In RSF’s 2026 global press freedom index, released on April 30, Hong Kong was ranked 140th out of 180 countries and territories – the same position as last year. The press freedom NGO highlighted the 20-year sentence handed down to Lai, who was convicted last year under the security law.

In response, the Hong Kong government issued a press release on May 1. It said that it “strongly condemned the attempts by an anti-China organisation and foreign media to sugarcoat the criminal acts of national security offender [Jimmy] Lai Chee-ying and to slander, smear, as well as attack the HKSAR by releasing a so-called press freedom index and presenting a so-called ‘award’. Such despicable behaviours totally disregarded the rule of law and twisted the facts, which must be strongly condemned.”

In a separate statement on the same day, the LegCo Secretariat said it “strongly condemned the release of a so-called press freedom index by a foreign media organisation and presentation of a so-called award to the national security offender Lai Chee-ying to sugarcoat his criminal acts, and smear the press freedom and rule of law” in Hong Kong.

RSF’s Aleksandra Bielakowska – who was denied entry to the city in 2024 – responded to the Hong Kong authorities.

“To make it clear once again: defending journalism is not ‘anti-China’; it is pro–press freedom,” she said on May 2. “At RSF, we stand arm in arm with Hong Kong journalists. We will not be intimidated and we continue supporting all media in Hong Kong, with the hope that one day we will see positive change and that the city will return to its golden years as an exemplar and beacon of press freedom.”

3 charged over alleged weapons training

Three people were charged with conspiracy to commit subversion after they were arrested by national security police over alleged illegal weapons training last year.

Students Wong Kit-lun, 20, and Tang Ngai-pok, 23, as well as waiter Chan Hiu-chun, 23, appeared at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on May 15.

The trio stood in the dock beside Gallian Pang and Lee Chun-sum, who were also charged with conspiring to subvert state power – an offence under the Beijing-imposed national security law – on December 15.

The five men are among a group of 10 people – nine men and one woman – arrested on December 11 and 12 for alleged “unlawful drilling” – an offence under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, the homegrown national security law, also known as Article 23. The arrests marked the first time authorities had invoked the unlawful drilling offence.

Last month, the prosecution accused Wong, Tang and Chan of conspiring with Pang, Lee and “other persons unknown between November 1, 2024, and December 11, 2025, to organise, plan, commit or participate in acts to subvert the state power.”

Wong faced an additional charge of possession of child pornography, an offence under the Prevention of Child Pornography Ordinance.

The prosecution also charged Lee with allegedly possessing explosives and radio communications apparatus without a licence.

Prosecution and arrests figures

As of May 1, a total of 399 people have been arrested for “cases involving suspected acts or activities that endanger national security” since Beijing’s national security law came into effect, according to the Security Bureau. That figure includes those arrested under Article 23 and for other offences.

Of the 208 people and five companies that have so far been charged, 181 people and four companies have been convicted or are awaiting sentencing.

In total, 100 people and four companies have been charged under Beijing’s national security law, with 79 persons and three companies convicted. Thirteen people have been charged under Article 23, 11 of whom have been convicted.

Chinese President Xi Jinping suggested that imprisoned Hong Kong pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai is unlikely to be released, US President Donald Trump said Friday.

Asked about the fate of political prisoners in China following a high-stakes summit in Beijing, Trump said that Xi would “strongly” consider the release of a pastor of an underground church, but that freeing Lai was a “tough one for him to do.”

Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One, Trump said of Lai’s fate: “I did bring him up, it’s a tougher one for him, it’s a tougher one.”

Trump added: “He told me, Jimmy Lai is a tough one for him to do.”

Lai, the 78-year-old founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, was found guilty in December on charges of foreign collusion and seditious publication and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The sentence was the harshest penalty doled out so far under a national security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing after widespread pro-democracy protests in 2019 and received international condemnation.

Trump added Friday that Xi promised “He’s going to strongly consider the pastor,” referring to Jin Mingri, the founder of a prominent Chinese underground church detained in October in a sweeping national crackdown.

Jin founded the unregistered Zion Church in 2007 in Beijing. It grew to 1,500 members before shuttering in 2018 under pressure from Chinese authorities.

But the church maintained an online presence that flourished during the Covid pandemic, amassing a following across 40 Chinese cities.

Jin was arrested on October 10 on “suspicion of the illegal use of information networks.”

Eric Lai, senior fellow at Georgetown Center for Asian Law, said that while it was clear that Jimmy Lai’s case was not a priority at the summit, it was still significant that Trump raised it.

“Obviously, the CCP does not compromise on its perception of regime security and they have never changed their attitudes and positioning towards Jimmy Lai and his imprisonment,” he said referring to China’s Communist Party.

“That said, it is also evident that international attention and internal pressure in US society remains essential to the US government keeping an agenda on Jimmy Lai alongside other political prisoners in China,” he added.

Hong Kong police took away seven people in Causeway Bay, where past public commemorations for China’s 1989 Tiananmen crackdown were once held, on Thursday, the 37th anniversary of the event.

Police said late on Thursday that five men and two women, aged 17 to 79, were stopped by officers on suspicion of “disrupting order” near Great George Street and East Point Road in Causeway Bay.

They were taken away from the scene for further investigation and were released later, according to police.

“The police force will act according to threats to national security, public safety, and public order,” they added.

Activists and members of the public defied a heavy police deployment at and around Victoria Park, the former site of the city’s annual Tiananmen vigils, as they showed up in Causeway Bay on Thursday to mark the 1989 crackdown.

In Pictures: Activists stopped near ex-vigil site amid large police deployment on Tiananmen crackdown anniversary

Chan Po-ying, chairperson of the now-defunct League of Social Democrats, a pro-democracy party, arrived in Causeway Bay holding a yellow paper flower. She was quickly told by police at the scene to put away the flower and was later taken away in a police vehicle.

A young man in a black T-shirt was intercepted by police after he put on a blindfold and used a red marker pen to write on his arm outside the Sogo department store at around 7.15pm.

The man was driven away in a police van. He was also taken away from Victoria Park by law enforcement during the Tiananmen crackdown anniversaries over the past two years.

HKFP saw two other men taken away in a police van: a man holding a candle and another man sitting cross-legged on the ground outside the Sogo department store.

Police also took away a woman gesturing “six” and “four” with her hands, local media reported.

For the fourth consecutive year, on the day of the crackdown anniversary, a patriotic food carnival was being held in Victoria Park, at the same spot where hundreds of thousands of people attended the Tiananmen vigils. The carnival will run until Sunday.

Some people walked around the park to remember the crackdown and the past vigils. A 70-year-old man surnamed Tin told HKFP it was a “pity” that Hong Kong has lost its tolerance for public commemoration on June 4 – the date of the 1989 crackdown.

Compared with previous years, police officers appeared more relaxed on Thursday, patrolling the park and its vicinity in smaller groups and conducting fewer searches than before.

The Tiananmen crackdown occurred on June 4, 1989, ending months of student-led demonstrations in China. It is estimated that hundreds, perhaps thousands, died when the People’s Liberation Army cracked down on protesters in Beijing.

Leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, the group that organised the vigils for decades, are standing trial for “inciting subversion” under the national security law. They face up to 10 years behind bars if convicted.

A verdict is expected in July.

The US consulate in Hong Kong displayed commemorative candles in its windows on the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown on Thursday, while other diplomatic missions paid tribute with social media posts.

The annual move is often blasted by local and Chinese authorities, and has been cited by Beijing as “evidence” of foreign interference in a 6,300-word “fact sheet.”

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, died when the People’s Liberation Army cracked down on protesters around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Hong Kong used to be one of the few places on Chinese soil where annual vigils were held to commemorate the people who died in the 1989 crackdown.

But police banned the gathering at Victoria Park for the first time in 2020, citing Covid-19 restrictions, and imposed the same ban the following year.

No official commemoration has been held since the vigil organiser, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, disbanded in September 2021. Its leaders were arrested and are currently on trial.

Currently occupying Victoria Park – historically the site of Hong Kong’s vigils – is a five-day patriotic carnival organised by pro-Beijing groups.

Diplomatic commemorations

Earlier on Thursday, Britain’s embassy in China shared a social media post featuring an animation with scenes from the bloody crackdown. It was shared without commentary.

The British consulate in Hong Kong posted a reel of a mobile phone held aloft with its torch on, apparently referencing the candlelit vigils.

Washington’s mission in Beijing shared a quote from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stating: “Those who sacrificed to uphold their unalienable rights of free expression and peaceful assembly will be vindicated someday.”

In response, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Beijing had “long since reached a clear conclusion regarding that political turmoil that occurred in the late 1980s.”

The Canadian consulate in Hong Kong shared a Facebook post, which read: “Today, Canadians honour the memory of all who lost their lives, were injured or went missing during the Tiananmen Square crackdown on June 4, 1989. Canada stands with the survivors and the families and loved ones who continue to demand accountability.”

Meanwhile, the Australian consulate in Hong Kong shared on Facebook a photo of candles and a statement reading: “Today, we stand with communities worldwide in remembering those who lost their lives at Tiananmen Square on 4 June 1989. Australia remains steadfast in its commitment to upholding human rights, including freedom of association, of expression, and of political participation.”

In June 2019, then-leader Carrie Lam said that the city’s annual vigils were “proof that Hong Kong is a free place.”

A Hong Kong court is now hearing a landmark trial of the Alliance and two vigil leaders, Chow Hang-tung and  Lee Cheuk-yan. They are accused of “inciting subversion” under the national security law, an offence that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years behind bars. 

Another vigil leader – Albert Ho – pleaded guilty when the trial opened in January.

The Hong Kong government has allocated an additional HK$5 billion to a national security special fund, bringing the total amount to HK$18 billion.

The funding is the third allocation for national security since Beijing imposed the national security law in Hong Kong in June 2020.

The government unveiled the funding on Friday, when it gazetted the government accounts for the fiscal year 2025-26.

It showed a HK$5 billion allocation for non-recurrent expenditure as special funding for safeguarding national security.

Hong Kong established the special fund in 2020 to finance expenses related to safeguarding national security after the national security law took effect in June that year.

It received an initial allocation of HK$8 billion in December 2020 and an additional HK$5 billion in the financial year ending March 31, 2023.

The latest allocation thus brought the total amount to HK$18 billion.

In response to Ming Pao’s enquiry, the Financial Secretary’s Office said authorities will not disclose details of the funding, citing Article 14 of the national security law. It did not respond to whether the previous HK$13 billion funding had been depleted.

According to Article 14 of the national security law, no institution, organisation, nor
individual in Hong Kong shall interfere with the work of the Committee for Safeguarding National Security, and information relating to its work shall not be subject to disclosure.

The government said in July that it would not disclose any details of the special fund in a report to the legislature on the control and management of the special fund, citing the same article of the national security law.

It said authorities had established “a dedicated accounting and financial unit” in the secretariat of the Committee for Safeguarding National Security.

“The unit, which reports directly to the [financial secretary], is responsible for the revenue and expenditure arrangements and financial matters relating to such work,” the government said.