Hong Kong student shot during 2019 protest featured as remorseful in police-promoted TV special
Hong Kong Free Press
A Hong Kong protester shot by police in 2019 has been featured in a police-promoted television special showing remorse over his frontline participation in the unrest that year, saying he took part because “everyone else was doing the same.”
Tsang Chi-kin, who is serving a protest-related jail sentence, appeared in a programme that aired on broadcaster TVB on Monday. The programme, called National Security Law – the Cornerstone of Prosperity and Stability, featured clips of a male silhouette and the interior of a prison. The clips did not show his face.
In the two-minute episode, Tsang – a secondary school student during the 2019 protests – said that he became a frontline protester because of the “intensifying atmosphere” and that “everyone else was doing the same.”
He added that he had since learned skills to “manage [his] emotions” after joining a rehabilitation programme called Project PATH. The programme was launched by the city’s correctional services targeting those jailed over the protests four years ago.
Tsang was caught up in clashes between protesters and police on October 1, 2019, when the city saw widespread demonstrations to “mourn” National Day amid protests sparked by a controversial amendment to the city’s extradition bill.
That day, an officer fired a live round at Tsang at close range in Tsuen Wan. The then-18-year-old was shot in his left lung, three centimetres from his heart, leaving him in hospital in a critical condition. He later went through surgery to remove the bullet.
Last year, it emerged that Tsang – facing protest-related charges – was among four men who hid in safehouses for two years on the run from authorities. They were arrested last July near a pier in Sai Kung, where police said a boat was arranged for them to flee to Taiwan.
He was sentenced to three years and 11 months in prison in October after he pleaded guilty to charges including rioting and preventing the course of justice. It is unclear how police gained access to Tsang in custody.
In the TVB programme, Tsang said that during the two years when he was in hiding, he experienced being left with no electricity, insufficient food, and no bed. He added that he was concealed in cardboard cartons while being moved between safehouses.
“When moving between safehouses, we hid in cardboard boxes to be transported as if we were goods,” Tsang said.
According to the narration in the episode, Tsang gave his savings of HK$100,000 to a “middle person” to plan his escape. But the police arrested Tsang, along with three others as the group attempted to flee by sea.
“Act thoughtfully [and] avoid being incited and instigated. Otherwise, it is only ourselves and our families who bear the consequences in the end,” Tsang said at the end of the programme.
Protests erupted in June 2019 over a since-axed extradition bill. They escalated into sometimes violent displays of dissent against police behaviour, amid calls for democracy and anger over Beijing’s encroachment.
Promoting national security
The 12-episode programme aimed at “strengthening” the public’s understanding of Beijing’s national security law, according to the police’s YouTube channel, where the TVB series was also uploaded.
The programme also sought to “correct citizens’ misunderstanding of the law and enhance people’s sense of safeguarding national security,” a description in Chinese said.
Monday’s episode featuring Tsang followed earlier episodes that centred around the implementation of the security law, “colour revolution,” and national security legislation in other countries such as the US, UK, and Singapore.
The show did not have end credits. Instead, the episodes conclude with text reading “information sponsored by the Hong Kong Police Force.”
Local media reported that the programme was produced by TVB with assistance from the police. HKFP has reached out to TVB and the police for comment.
Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution in June 2020 following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts – broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure. The move gave police sweeping new powers, led to hundreds of convictions amid new legal precedents, whilst dozens of civil society groups disappeared. The authorities say it restored stability and peace to the city, rejecting criticism from trade partners, the UN and NGOs, despite an overall rise in crime.
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