MAC calls for release of pro-democracy HK activists

The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday called for the immediate release of two Hong Kong pro-democracy activists after Hong Kong’s Court of First Instance convicted them and the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China of subversion.The MAC expressed “deep regret and sorrow” over the convictions, and urged the Chinese and Hong Kong governments to stop what it described as political persecution.Hong Kong media outlet Sing Tao Daily said the convicted defendants are former alliance chairman Lee Cheuk-yan (李卓人) and former vice chairwoman Chow Hang-tung (鄒幸彤). Elizabeth Tang Yin-ngor, center, wife of former Hong Kong Alliance leader Lee Cheuk-yan, leaves West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts in Hong Kong yesterday. Photo: Reuters Another former vice