HONG KONG (Reuters) - Dozens of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists will be sentenced later this week in a years-long subversion trial that has spotlighted what critics say are erosions to the city's freedoms under a China-imposed national security law.

The U.S. has described the trial and its guilty verdicts as "politically motivated," and has demanded that the defendants be released.

Democrats in Hong Kong once enjoyed wide-ranging freedoms under a "one country, two systems" formula, after Britain handed the city back to Chinese rule in 1997. But in 2020, a year after pro-democracy protests swept the city, China imposed a national ...

Police have stepped up security since the weekend, ahead of final hearing in biggest prosecution under Beijing-decreed national security law.