From the Sixth of the Fourth to the "incitement to subversion": Zhou Jian, Li Xiao were convicted after five years of detention, and Hong Kong's peaceful memorial entered the National Security Criminal Law

1990 to 2019: Windhouse candles.

Citizens of Hong Kong have held the Six and Four Candles Party in Victoria Park for decades in a row. The Confederation has long been involved in organizing activities, demanding to investigate the responsibility for the 1989 Tiananmen suppression and put forward political demands such as “end to the one-party dictatorship”.

2020: Beijing changes the rules.

After Beijing's implementation of the National Security Law in Hong Kong, Hong Kong's original political space has rapidly shrunk.The sixth and fourth rallies were banned by the authorities on epidemic grounds in 2020 and 2021, and public mourning has continued to be restricted by the police.

2021: People are imprisoned and organizations disappear.

The association dissolved under political pressure. Former vice president, lawyer Zhou Zhou and former chairman Li Xiaoping were placed in long-term detention. Another former chairman, Hu Jintao, later pleaded guilty to the same “incitement to subversion.”

August 21, 2026: Peaceful political claims are written into "subversion" by the court.

The High Court of Hong Kong ruled that Zhou Jian, Li Jiang, and the already dissolved branch association were guilty.The court believes that the long-standing claim of the branch association to "end the one-party dictatorship" constitutes an attempt to overthrow China's existing state system.

The most iconic part of the verdict is that the court did not discover a violent plan.

On the contrary, Human Rights Watch, citing the judgment, noted that the court acknowledged that the association had never used or advocated violence to its objectives; but the judge still held that the objectives of ending the rule of the Communist Party of China conflicted with the political system established by the Chinese Constitution, so that the relevant initiative itself could become what the National Security Law called an “illegal means.”

This puts the case beyond an important legal boundary: whether a citizen commits violence is no longer the necessary boundary to judge “subversion”; peace requires a change in the governing system and can also enter the national security criminal law.

Human Rights Watch said that the designated National Security Judge refused to summon some scholars and activists to testify, and refused to submit photos and recordings of parts involving the Six-Four events.

She also revealed on her social platform on August 20 that she was subjected to multiple constraints such as bracelets, legs, waist chains, etc. Human Rights Watch believes that such treatment may involve cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

The court will hold an interrogation on August 28 and then enter the sentencing phase.According to the relevant provisions of the National Security Law, the two are most likely to face 10 years in prison.

From the candlesticks of hundreds of thousands of people to the two organizers who stood before the National Security Law Court for judgment, this timeline records not only the fate of two political figures. After Beijing imposed the National Security Law on Hong Kong, even the commemoration of a historic massacre and the demand for peaceful change in the political system can be redefined as a threat to national security.

The CPC has not responded to the history of the Sixth and Fourth Century through public discussion, nor has it allowed an independent investigation to investigate the responsibility for the murder of the year; today, its national security system is further bringing those who adhere to memory into criminal trial.

When a regime needs to use criminal law to protect itself from the challenge of peaceful political claims, it is protected not only by "national security", but by the permanent rule of the CCP itself.