This Is What Can Land You in Jail for Sedition in Hong Kong | Three men sentenced to prison under new Beijing-imposed “Safeguarding National Security” ordinance
This Is What Can Land You in Jail for Sedition in Hong Kong | Three men sentenced to prison under new Beijing-imposed “Safeguarding National Security” ordinance
The link is to the full (non-paywalled/gifted) article. Some excerpts below:
>The three men were the first to be convicted and sentenced to prison under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, which was [passed in March at the behest of Beijing](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/19/world/asia/hong-kong-security-law-article-23.html) by a legislature lacking any opposition lawmakers. The legislation had previously been shelved for two decades because of fierce local opposition.
>The three were all convicted under a part of the ordinance targeting sedition, which the law describes as “hatred, contempt or disaffection” for China and the Hong Kong government. It replaced a colonial-era anti-sedition law by increasing penalties to as much as seven years in prison, up from two. If the person “colludes with an external force” the sentence can be as long as 10 years.
>The first man sentenced last week was Chu Kai-pong, 27, arrested in June at a subway station for wearing a T-shirt that said, “Free Hong Kong” in English and “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times,” a popular protest slogan, in Chinese.
>Shortly after Mr. Chu’s ruling, Judge So sentenced Chung Man-kit to 10 months in jail for scrawling “seditious” graffiti on public bus seats between March and April.
>Au Kin-wai, 58, pleaded guilty to “knowingly publishing publications that had a seditious intention” on social media. Mr. Au, who had no more than 20 online followers, got a 14-month sentence for his crime, which included hundreds of antigovernment posts on Facebook, YouTube and X.
Somewhat surprising to me, NYT have not disabled comments under this article (they usually do for anything CCP-related). Anyway, I’m interested in the sub’s comments and discussions on this. Ten years ago, people were hopeful that HK could be isolated from Beijing’s tyranny. Some even thought HK could serve as laboratory of sorts for more liberal policies “with Chinese characteristics” that could be applied to the mainland. Today it seems what made HK different is, in fact, already gone – and that Beijing will only tighten its grip.
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Why isn’t John Bolton running for president?
The link is to the full (non-paywalled/gifted) article. Some excerpts below:
>The three men were the first to be convicted and sentenced to prison under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, which was [passed in March at the behest of Beijing](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/19/world/asia/hong-kong-security-law-article-23.html) by a legislature lacking any opposition lawmakers. The legislation had previously been shelved for two decades because of fierce local opposition.
>The three were all convicted under a part of the ordinance targeting sedition, which the law describes as “hatred, contempt or disaffection” for China and the Hong Kong government. It replaced a colonial-era anti-sedition law by increasing penalties to as much as seven years in prison, up from two. If the person “colludes with an external force” the sentence can be as long as 10 years.
>The first man sentenced last week was Chu Kai-pong, 27, arrested in June at a subway station for wearing a T-shirt that said, “Free Hong Kong” in English and “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times,” a popular protest slogan, in Chinese.
>Shortly after Mr. Chu’s ruling, Judge So sentenced Chung Man-kit to 10 months in jail for scrawling “seditious” graffiti on public bus seats between March and April.
>Au Kin-wai, 58, pleaded guilty to “knowingly publishing publications that had a seditious intention” on social media. Mr. Au, who had no more than 20 online followers, got a 14-month sentence for his crime, which included hundreds of antigovernment posts on Facebook, YouTube and X.
Somewhat surprising to me, NYT have not disabled comments under this article (they usually do for anything CCP-related). Anyway, I’m interested in the sub’s comments and discussions on this. Ten years ago, people were hopeful that HK could be isolated from Beijing’s tyranny. Some even thought HK could serve as laboratory of sorts for more liberal policies “with Chinese characteristics” that could be applied to the mainland. Today it seems what made HK different is, in fact, already gone – and that Beijing will only tighten its grip.