Hong Kong gov’t says ‘clear lines drawn’ after first sedition convictions under new security law
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong’s new security law is “unambiguous” about what counts as unlawful seditious acts, the city’s government has said, after a man was sentenced to 14 months in jail in the first conviction under the legislation.
Chu Kai-pong, 27, was sentenced on Thursday after he earlier pleaded guilty to one count of “doing with a seditious intention an act or acts that had a seditious intention,” marking the first conviction under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, known locally as Article 23.
Within a day, two more men had been handed jail terms for sedition. Chung Man-kit, 29, received a 10-month jail term on Thursday and Au Kin-wai, 58, was sentenced to 14 months on Friday.
The government issued a statement on Thursday following Chu’s sentencing, saying the law was unambiguous when it came to sedition.
“Clear lines have been drawn between unlawful seditious acts and expressions, and lawful constructive criticisms under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance,” a government spokesperson said in the statement.
It added that residents’ rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly are protected under the mini-constitution the Basic Law and the Hong Kong Bill of Rights.
“Hong Kong is a society underpinned by the rule of law, where laws must be obeyed and lawbreakers be held accountable,” it said.
Chu’s sentence was condemned by international rights NGOs Amnesty International and Human Rights Foundation. The former called it “a blatant attack on the right to freedom of expression,” while the latter said: “HRF condemns the Hong Kong government for using vaguely written laws backed by Beijing to escalate a climate of fear and calls officials to drop all charges and immediately release Chu Kai-pong.”
‘Endangered unity’
Chu was arrested on June 12 – a date associated with the pro-democracy protests and unrest in 2019 – over wearing a T-shirt and a mask bearing protest slogans deemed seditious by authorities.
Magistrate Victor So, a judge handpicked by the city’s leader to hear national security cases, ruled that Chu had intended to disrupt the peace and stir up hatred against the government by displaying the protest slogans in public.
One of the slogans was “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times,” which was found to be capable of inciting secession during the city’s first trial under a security law imposed by Beijing in July 2021.
So had “clearly pointed out” that the slogans in question involved advocating secession of Hong Kong from China, which had “seriously [endangered] the unity and territorial integrity of the state,” the government said in the statement on Thursday.
The sentencing of Chung and Au was also handled by So, with Chung convicted for writing seditious graffiti on bus seats and Au for making seditious comments on social media. Both had pleaded guilty to their charges.
Both Chu and Au had served time in prison under a colonial-era sedition law, which carried a maximum penalty of two years in jail for a first offence but was repealed when Article 23 came into effect in March.
The new law upped the maximum penalty for sedition to seven years in jail, or 10 if the offence was committed in collusion with foreign forces. Article 23 also targets treason, insurrection, sabotage, external interference, theft of state secrets and espionage.
The security legislation was fast-tracked through the city’s opposition-free legislature and enacted on March 23, two decades after an attempt to pass similar legislation in 2003 failed following mass protests.
The law has been criticised by rights NGOs, Western states and the UN as vague, broad and “regressive.” Authorities, however, cited perceived foreign interference and a constitutional duty to “close loopholes” after the 2019 protests and unrest.
In July 2021, Tong Ying-kit became the first person jailed under Beijing’s security law for inciting secession and committing terrorist acts. The national security legislation also criminalised collusion with foreign forces and subversion.
At that time, the government did not issue a statement in response to the ruling. Instead, security chief Chris Tang responded to reporters questions, saying that authorities would “thoroughly study the judgement.”
As of this month, 303 people had been arrested for cases under the Beijing-imposed law and Article 23, according to the Security Bureau.
A total of 176 people and five companies have been charged and 160 of them and one company have been convicted.
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