Benedict Rogers in Hong Kong Watch of 1 September 2026 asks the same kind of question I aksed many years ago in a symposium about NGOs [see Chapter 4, titled “From human rights projects to strategies: The search for coherence,” in the book NGOs in China and Europe: Comparisons and Contrasts edited by Yuwen Li – 2012].
Benedict Rogers writes iner alia: Within the past week, the Chinese regime has convicted a Hong Kong barrister and a trade unionist for the crime of organizing a peaceful vigil to commemorate the Tiananmen massacre and sentenced a Chinese artist to three years in prison for satirical sculptures of the long-dead leader Mao Zedong, responsible for the deaths of millions of Chinese civilians during his rulen.In so doing, Xi Jinping’s dictatorship has proven once again its thin-skinned paranoia, its neurotic fear of dissent and humor, and its ruthless determination to silence freedom of expression and bury history and truth.
Hong Kong lawyer Chow Hang-tung, aged 41, and trade unionist Lee Cheuk-yan, aged 69, representing the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, were convicted on Aug. 21 of the crime of “inciting subversion” — simply for having organized candle-lit vigils to remember the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. They now face up to ten years’ imprisonment.
Both have already been in jail for the past five years and have now been convicted under Hong Kong’s draconian national security law imposed on the city by Beijing in 2020.
Both the conviction of Chow and Lee, and the sentencing of Gao [https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2026/08/27/chinese-artist-gao-zhen-sentenced-to-the-maximum-of-3-years-prison-over-satirical-mao-statues/], have drawn international condemnation from the United Nations, international human rights organizations, and governments.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights defenders, Andrea Bolanos Vargas, said she is “deeply concerned” about Chow and Lee’s verdict, and called for their immediate release. She said: “Peacefully preserving memory and calling for truth, justice and accountability are human rights activities and must never be criminalized.”
These two cases are just the latest examples of Beijing’s intensifying intolerance of dissent. They follow the 20-year prison sentence imposed on Hong Kong media entrepreneur and devout Catholic Jimmy Lai, aged 78, earlier this year, and the imprisonment of hundreds of other pro-democracy campaigners, human rights defenders, journalists, bloggers, and religious practitioners in Hong Kong and across China….
All these cases combined raise an important question. If China is — as Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party want us to believe — the world’s new superpower, why is it so terrified of a barrister and a trade unionist and a media entrepreneur lighting candles, or an artist making satirical sculptures?
If the regime in Beijing is as strong as they suggest, why are they so scared of Christians gathering to pray, Tibetans meditating on the Dalai Lama’s teachings, Uyghurs fasting during Ramadan, or Falun Gong practitioners practising physical exercises similar to yoga and promoting “truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance?” And why does it consider it a crime to promote understanding of different ethnic and religious cultures?
The truth is, the regime in Beijing hates humour, is scared of jokes, and is terrified of any opinion or belief that diverges from total loyalty not only to the Chinese Communist Party’s ideology but also to its key leaders, contemporary and historical. Any perceived mockery of Mao is deemed an insult to Xi, any attempt to remind the world about the tragedy of Tiananmen is seen as an assault on today’s regime, and any practice of religion or spirituality is regarded as a rejection of the regime’s attempts at self-deification.
In other words, this is a fragile regime, scared of its own shadows, its own murderous history, and its own people. Such a regime may be able to lock up brave dissidents, lawyers, trade unionists, journalists, artists, and religious believers for a time. It may be able to shut down free expression and freedom of religion for a while. But it can never silence the souls of its people, for whom the courage of Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan, Gao Zhen, and so many others stands as a light in the darkness.
This article was published in UCA News on 31 August 2026.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 