A Hong Kong man was sentenced on Thursday, September 19, by a Hong Kong court to fourteen months in prison for wearing a T-shirt with slogans “seditious”becoming the first person convicted under a new national security law. Chu Kai-pong, 27, pleaded guilty on Monday to the charge of“acts with seditious intent”.
Mr Chu was arrested for wearing a T-shirt and mask with protest slogans on June 12, a date associated with the large and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests of 2019.
One of the slogans on Mr. Chu’s clothing, “Liberating Hong Kong, a revolution of our times”was judged “Likely to incite secession” during previous judicial proceedings.
The court’s chief magistrate, Victor So, said on Thursday that the court should “fully reflect the legislator’s position on the seriousness of the crime”. “The accused took advantage of a symbolic day, with the intention of reviving the ideas that were at the origin of the riots”So said, referring to the 2019 pro-democracy protests.
Chu had said the slogan called for Hong Kong’s return to British rule, the court heard, and that he had chosen the costume to remind people in the territory of protests in 2019, when the slogan was widely used by demonstrators.
The Hong Konger already served a three-month prison sentence in January for sedition, for carrying and storing in his luggage clothing and flags with protest slogans. Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s China director, said Mr Chu’s imprisonment for his choice of clothing constituted “a blatant attack on the right to freedom of expression”.
Following a separate trial, the same judge on Thursday sentenced a former bank employee to ten months in prison for writing slogans “seditious” on bus seats. Chung Man-kit, 29, was arrested in June and admitted to writing slogans such as: “a self-sufficient nation, an independent Hong Kong” AND “Liberating Hong Kong, the revolution of our time” during bus trips. Judge Victor So said that his sentence should be dissuasive, so that it corresponds to “the intention of the legislator to prevent crimes before they are committed”.
Colonization law relaunched in 2020
Hong Kong adopted a tougher national security law in March, the second such legislation, following one imposed by Beijing in mid-2020 following major pro-democracy protests in 2019. The revised law strengthened the crime of sedition to include inciting hatred toward Chinese communist leaders and increased the maximum prison sentence from two to seven years. It also punishes five categories of crimes: treason, insurrection, sabotage, espionage and external interference.
The crime of sedition was introduced during the British colonial era of Hong Kong, which ended in 1997, but was rarely enforced until Hong Kong authorities revived it in 2020 and charged more than 50 people and four companies.
Critics of the law, including Western countries such as the United States, say it will only further erode freedoms and silence dissent in Hong Kong. Since last month, more than 300 people have been arrested under the two national security laws, of whom 176 have been prosecuted and 160 convicted.
