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2026
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government today strongly condemned and opposed baseless slanders and smears against Hong Kong by Western countries, anti-China media, organisations and politicians regarding yesterday's court verdict on the "Hong Kong Alliance" incitement to subversion case. The Hong Kong SAR Government pointed out that the constitution forms the foundation of Hong Kong’s constitutional order. Under the Preamble to the Constitution, the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is the core and foundation of the constitutional order of the People's Republic of China (PRC). No country allows citizens to subvert its constitutionally established order. The Hong Kong SAR Government stressed that the court’s verdict clearly emphasised that the defendants were tried based strictly on law and evidence, not for their political views. The court noted that the defendants remained hostile toward the CPC and the central government. Following the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law (HKNSL), they refused to back down and pursued the Alliance's resistance line. The defendants ignored the fact that their actions exceeded lawful boundaries of free speech. The courts earlier clarified the boundaries of exercising freedoms and rights. The Court of Appeal's judgment in another case affirmed that criticising the Government, the administration of justice including judgments of courts, or engaging in debates about or raising objections to government policies or decisions, however strong, vigorous or critical that may be, does not constitute a seditious intention. The crucial issue is whether there is intent to incite hatred or subversion. In this case, the defendants intended to undermine the fundamental system of the PRC by stirring up hostility against the CPC and causing division. The conspiracy was clear and required judicial action. The Hong Kong SAR Government added that many rights and freedoms are not absolute. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights allows legal restrictions on free speech to protect national security, public safety and public order. The public must distinguish between this subversion case and the lawful exercise of the freedoms of association, assembly and speech. Hong Kong is a society ruled by law. The HKNSL and the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance guarantee the principle of the rule of law. Defendants receive a fair trial by an independent judiciary, as guaranteed by the Basic Law and the Hong Kong Bill of Rights. The court’s well-reasoned verdict meticulously detailed the legal principles and evidence supporting the conviction. The Hong Kong SAR Government reiterated that safeguarding national sovereignty, unity and the territorial integrity of the PRC is the common duty of all Chinese citizens, including Hong Kong compatriots. Hong Kong residents must clearly recognise that incitement to subversion is a severe offence, and the Government will resolutely combat acts and activities endangering national security.
Secretary for Justice Paul Lam will lead a 40-member cross-professional delegation to Xinjiang, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan tomorrow to strengthen legal and professional service co-operation. Co-organised with the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), the visit aims to promote Hong Kong's roles as a bridge between the Chinese Mainland and the global market, showcasing its professional services. The delegation includes Commissioner for Belt & Road Nicholas Ho, alongside representatives from the HKTDC, Invest Hong Kong, the Financial Services Development Council, the Law Society of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, and local and international law firms. Financial and accounting professionals are also part of the group. In Urumqi, Xinjiang, on August 24, Mr Lam will attend the opening ceremony of the Hong Kong Common Law and Dispute Resolution Practical Training Course, organised by the Hong Kong International Legal Talents Training Academy. He will also meet local officials. The delegation will then visit Almaty, Kazakhstan, from August 25 to 26 to attend the “Collaborate2Win” seminar, co-organised by the HKTDC and the Department of Justice, to network with local legal and business representatives. Afterwards, the delegation will depart for Tashkent, Uzbekistan, to meet local officials and study the development of the local legal services industry. Mr Lam will return to Hong Kong on August 30. Deputy Secretary for Justice Cheung Kwok-kwan will be Acting Secretary for Justice during his absence.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government today conducted the first stress test of passenger and vehicular flows with Shenzhen authorities at the Huanggang Port. More than 10,000 civil servants participated in the exercise. They took various modes of public transport to the port and practised immigration procedures before departure. Cyclical trials involving more than 400 departures using vehicles dispatched by public transport operators simulated the flow of people and vehicles arriving and departing from the port. The drill marked the first trial of the “collaborative inspection” automated channels for passenger clearance. Participants departed through the automated channels or manual counters at the departure hall. The stress test also included a “crowd concentrated-flow test”. Participants were held on designated floors and released in several major batches within a short period. This simulated peak-hour conditions where a large number of arriving passengers proceed to the public transport interchange simultaneously. Meanwhile, the drill conducted a vehicle-flow stress test involving nearly 1,000 vehicle trips on the joint one-stop vehicle lane level. Participating vehicles entered the port through the new connecting road in batches. The drill simulated the risk assessment process by the Customs & Excise Department, queuing for joint one-stop vehicle lanes for inspection and clearance or routing to the inspection area for further checks. Chief Secretary Chan Kwok-ki, alongside Secretary for Security Tang Ping-keung, Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung and Secretary for Transport & Logistics Mable Chan, inspected the drill. Mr Chan said the drill was conducted smoothly, with a large number of passengers and vehicles entering and leaving the port building in an orderly manner and a public transport interchange capable of absorbing substantial passenger flows within a short period of time. He noted that the Hong Kong SAR Government will work closely with the Shenzhen side to press ahead with various preparatory tasks at full steam. Once both sides confirm the port is ready for safe and smooth operation, the governments of Guangdong and Hong Kong will finalise and announce the official opening date of the Huanggang Port. Representatives from various bureaus, departments and organisations participated in the drill, including the Security Bureau, the Transport & Logistics Bureau, the Civil Service Bureau, the Hong Kong Police Force, the Transport Department, the Highways Department, the Immigration Department, the Hong Kong Customs & Excise Department, the Department of Health and the Fire Services Department. Also participating were the Architectural Services Department, the Electrical & Mechanical Services Department, the Government Property Agency, the Digital Policy Office, the Office of the Communications Authority, the Food & Environmental Hygiene Department, the Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department, the Civil Aid Service, the Auxiliary Medical Service and various public transport operators.
Chief Executive John Lee said the defendants’ conspiracy was abundantly clear and they must be brought to justice after the Court of First Instance of the High Court delivered the verdict in the incitement to subversion case of "Hong Kong Alliance". The court today delivered the verdict in the case concerning the Alliance, Lee Cheuk-yan, Ho Chun-yan and Chow Hang-tung, who were charged with "incitement to subversion". The Alliance, Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung were convicted as charged after trial, while Ho Chun-yan pleaded guilty earlier and was convicted. The court adjourned the case to next Friday for mitigation. Mr Lee noted that the Alliance had long been deliberately planting seeds of hatred against the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the central government in Hong Kong society, attempting to incite disaffection, hatred and other sentiments among members of the public against the CPC and the central government through various means, and inciting people to subvert state power. “The acts of the defendants over a long period of time endangered national security; their conspiracy was abundantly clear, which must be brought to justice,” Mr Lee said.He emphasised that incitement to subversion is an extremely serious offence. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has the responsibility to safeguard national security, and will resolutely prevent, suppress and punish acts and activities endangering national security. “This case once again demonstrates that no matter how offenders disguise their real agendas with sophistry and rhetoric, as long as they commit an offence endangering national security, the Hong Kong SAR Government will ensure that laws are observed and strictly enforced to bring the offenders to account." Welcoming the court's verdict of conviction, the Hong Kong SAR Government highlighted that during the trial of this case, external forces blatantly and repeatedly smeared the Judiciary, the Department of Justice and law enforcement agencies, using political tactics and misleading remarks in an attempt to interfere with the fair trial of the case, and making baseless attacks against the Hong Kong SAR's efforts in protecting human rights and freedoms as well as safeguarding national security. The Hong Kong SAR Government strongly condemned their despicable attempt to openly trample on the rule of law. It reaffirmed that the law never allows anyone to openly harm one's own country and compatriots under the pretext of human rights, democracy and freedom. It added that the court reached its verdict strictly in accordance with the law and evidence, free from any interference, and absolutely without any political considerations. Any suggestion that certain individuals or organisations should be immune from legal consequences for their illegal acts is no different from advocating a special privilege to break the law, and this totally runs contrary to the spirit of the rule of law. The court emphasised that the defendants were put on trial not because of their political views or beliefs, adding that it only considered the law and evidence relevant to the case to decide whether the prosecution was able to prove the charge beyond reasonable doubt. It pointed out that when ordinary reasonable persons received the messages of the Alliance and other defendants, they must have understood that the aim of their agendas was to end the leadership of the CPC, and that other people were being encouraged to put the agendas into action. In addition, the court pointed out that the defendants had all along been hostile towards the CPC and the central government under its leadership, and adhered to the course of resisting the central government and refusing to make any compromise. After the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law, the defendants refused to pull back from the brink and were bent on embracing the resistance line of the Alliance to the very end. Even though the defendants knew that what they had said and done might have already gone beyond the scope of lawful freedom of expression, they paid no regard to it. The defendants intended to cause others to lose confidence in the CPC by stirring up hostility and causing division, so as to achieve the objective of undermining the fundamental system of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The Hong Kong SAR Government added that the Hong Kong SAR is an inalienable part of the PRC. The state provides the fundamental guarantee for the prosperity and development of Hong Kong, and the highest principle of "one country, two systems" is to safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests. The Hong Kong SAR Government will resolutely safeguard the fundamental system of the state established by the Constitution and the security of state power, and will, in strict accordance with the principle of the rule of law, prevent, suppress and punish acts and activities endangering national security with full force and in accordance with the law.
Secretary for Security Tang Ping-keung stressed today that the Constitution is the most important component of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's constitutional order and of paramount importance to “one country, two systems”, following a court's guilty verdict in an incitement to subversion case. Meeting the media this afternoon, Mr Tang said the court's ruling enabled justice to be done in the case against the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance as well as Lee Cheuk-yan, Ho Chun-yan and Chow Hang-tung, who were charged with “incitement to subversion”. He highlighted that the alliance, since its establishment, had adopted so-called fundamental agendas and objectives to end the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and overthrow the fundamental system of the People's Republic of China (PRC) established by the Constitution. “We must all acknowledge that the Constitution is the fundamental law of the State,” Mr Tang said. He noted that Article 22 of the Hong Kong National Security Law (NSL) explicitly prohibits the overthrowing or undermining of the PRC's fundamental system or overthrowing the PRC's central power. “In this case, even after the Hong Kong NSL took effect, the defendants continued with various acts, including attempting to hold unauthorised assemblies, inciting the public through slogans and so-called resistance, publishing content, media interviews, and speaking publicly, attempting to incite others to subvert state power, as well as overthrow or undermine the CPC leadership status by unlawful means constituting the offence stipulated under the Hong Kong NSL. “Finally, I would like to reiterate that regarding any attempt to endanger national security, we will act in strict accordance with the principle of the rule of law and never show leniency,” he added.
The Government has pressed ahead with inter-departmental drills at the Huanggang Port Hong Kong Port Area, testing operational readiness across cross-boundary passenger clearance and vehicle inspection procedures. Multiple departments, including the Police Force, the Immigration Department, the Customs & Excise Department, the Department of Health and the Government Property Agency took part in the exercises to ensure full preparedness ahead of the port’s commissioning. During passenger clearance simulations at the departure hall, the Immigration Department tested contingency measures for a “Collaborative Inspection & Joint Clearance” automated channels breakdown that triggered heavy queuing. In response, frontline staff redirected travellers to manual counters and co-ordinated with the Shenzhen General Station of Exit & Entry Frontier Inspection to set up temporary manual counters. Officers also deployed handheld devices to perform departure clearance for eligible Hong Kong residents, rapidly clearing the backup. In separate passenger scenarios, immigration officers escorted a traveller who failed to pass through the automated channel to the duty room for identification document verification. Similarly, at the arrival hall, officers guided a visitor denied entry into Hong Kong to the duty room for examination, before co-ordinating Customs inspection and escorting her back to Shenzhen. Vehicle inspection drills at the vehicle departure hall involved the Customs & Excise Department, the Police Force, the Immigration Department, and other departments testing responses to multiple operational scenarios. In one mock situation at the “Customs front kiosk”, a vehicle was scanned for its licence plate, and officers found that it lacked a valid Closed Road Permit. In another, a vehicle was stopped after passengers failed to disembark for Customs inspection, prompting Customs officers to direct the vehicle to an inspection area for follow-up. Meanwhile, at the vehicle arrival hall, the Immigration Department simulated a system failure across the “joint one-stop” vehicle lanes. Officers smoothly transitioned to manual checks of identification documents and licence plates. Concurrently, the Department of Health deployed to the kiosk to execute manual temperature screening using handheld infrared scanners.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government is conducting a series of inter-departmental emergency drills at the Huanggang Port Hong Kong Port Area, including mock scenarios of a traffic accident, power outage, lift failure and electrical short circuit, to test departmental emergency response ahead of the port’s opening.One of the drills simulated a traffic accident involving three private cars at the public transport interchange inside the Hong Kong Port Area. The scenario involved multiple injuries, prompting emergency crews to rush to the scene. Firefighters first ensured that the area was secure and that no one was trapped before assessing the casualties and then standing by with a charged hose line as a precaution. Ambulance personnel then provided further medical treatment before taking the injured to hospital. Meanwhile, police officers investigated the cause of the simulated crash and conducted a breath test on a driver. The Fire Services Department also staged a rescue operation inside the port building, where four travellers were simulated as trapped in a lift, complaining of dizziness and discomfort. Firefighters safely opened the lift doors using a manual key after confirming that the power supply was switched off. After initial checks, two of the rescued travellers were sent to hospital for further treatment. Another drill simulated an electrical appliance short circuit in a building rest area, forcing a large number of travellers to evacuate. Emergency teams directed travellers out of the building, while arriving firefighters deployed a hose line to prevent potential flare-ups. One traveller felt unwell and was taken to hospital. In a separate development, the Electrical & Mechanical Services Department, together with other government departments, staged emergency scenarios including a simulated power failure, a breakdown of the air-conditioning system and a sudden escalator failure. Under the department’s supervision, technical staff carried out emergency repairs to ensure a swift resumption of services. After the establishment of the Hong Kong Port Area, the Hong Kong SAR Government continues to conduct drills and exercises of varying scales to ensure relevant departments and units familiarise themselves with handling different emergency situations.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government conducted an interdepartmental tabletop exercise today in preparation for the opening of Huanggang Port. Held at Police Headquarters, the exercise aimed to bolster collaboration and emergency response capabilities across participating departments and relevant stakeholders. The session focused on realistic simulation scenarios involving potential safety incidents and emergencies once the port commences operation. Key scenarios tested responses to extreme weather, power failures, fires within the port building, major traffic accidents on the new connecting road or in the public transport interchange, and suspected infectious disease outbreaks among arriving passengers. Through detailed scenario analysis and contingency reviews, participating bureaus and departments assessed their emergency response plans, interdepartmental communication mechanisms, and collaborative decision-making processes. Secretary for Security Tang Ping-keung inspected the exercise and commended the participating parties for their effective co-ordination. The exercise brought together key government bodies, including the Security Bureau, the Transport & Logistics Bureau, the Police Force, the Fire Services Department, the Immigration Department, the Customs & Excise Department, the Information Services Department, the Electrical & Mechanical Services Department, the Architectural Services Department, the Government Property Agency, the Department of Health, the Transport Department, the Highways Department, the Civil Aid Service, the Auxiliary Medical Service, and the Digital Policy Office. Representatives from the Shenzhen side also participated in online exchanges to strengthen the notification and co-ordination mechanism between relevant units in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. The Hong Kong SAR Government will continue to strengthen risk management to ensure the smooth and orderly operation of the port upon its official opening.
In preparation for the 94th INTERPOL General Assembly, scheduled for late November in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF), in collaboration with other government departments and relevant organisations, conducted a comprehensive inter-departmental exercise covering the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Victoria Harbour and the West Kowloon area. The exercise held last night covered a wide range of measures and arrangements such as simulating crowd-flow management for approximately 1,000 delegates, their movement between event venues, command and coordination of land and sea transport, a wireless network stress test and contingency plans for unexpected situations. The exercise also simulated a scenario where terrorists rammed a vehicle into the venue and opened fire during the General Assembly, resulting in mass casualties. Concurrently, a neighbouring educational institution was evacuated due to a separate incident. Participating departments and organisations swiftly activated their emergency response mechanisms. The exercise thoroughly tested the coordination capabilities of relevant stakeholders across various key operational areas including immediate tactical intervention, emergency response, triage and casualty care, handling of suspicious objects and management of affected persons. The operation mobilised over 2,600 personnel from multiple government departments and entities, including the HKPF, the Fire Services Department, the Hospital Authority, the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (Management) Limited and the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority. Commissioner of Police Chow Yat-ming observed the exercise on site and commended all participating units for their professional performance and coordination.
Secretary for Security Tang Ping-keung and Shenzhen Vice Mayor Luo Huanghao met today to discuss the planning and development of boundary control points, following an inspection of preparatory work at Huanggang Port. Mr Tang and Mr Luo co-chaired a meeting of the task force on Hong Kong-Shenzhen control points development. Prior to the meeting, delegations from both cities visited Huanggang Port Hong Kong Port Area. In addition to Huanggang Port's progress, officials also exchanged views on the Sha Tau Kok Boundary Control Point redevelopment project. Mr Tang noted that preparations for the upcoming opening of Huanggang Port are in full swing, with testing and drills actively underway. Both sides aim to ensure the port operates safely, efficiently and smoothly while providing high-quality services for residents and travellers. Representatives from the Architectural Services Department, the Customs & Excise Department, the Immigration Department, the Hong Kong Police Force, the Department of Health and the Government Property Agency also attended the meeting.