Hongkonger charged under new security law over ‘seditious’ T-shirt, mask says he intends to plead guilty
Hong Kong Free Press
A Hongkonger charged with sedition under a new security law over wearing a T-shirt that bore a protest slogan has said he intends to plead guilty.
Chu Kai-pong, 27, appeared in front of Chief Magistrate Victor So at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Wednesday. He faces one count of “doing with a seditious intention an act or acts that had a seditious intention,” under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, known locally as Article 23.
Chu’s barrister Steven Kwan said Chu intended to plead guilty to the sedition offence, and asked the court to adjourn the case to September 16, when Chu was expected to enter his guilty plea.
Chu was arrested on June 12 after being intercepted by police near Shek Mun MTR station, and was the first person charged with allegedly violating Article 23, according to HKFP’s records. He was wearing a top and a mask printed with statements that were allegedly intended to incite hatred, contempt or disaffection against the “fundamental system of the state established by the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China,” according to a police statement.
Local media at the time reported that Chu’s T-shirt contained the 2019 protest slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times,” which was ruled as being capable of carrying secessionist connotations, an offence under a Beijing-imposed national security law, in 2021.
Chu was also said to have been wearing a yellow mask printed with the words “FDNOL.” The phrase is considered an acronym of “Five Demands, Not One Less,” also a slogan from the 2019 extradition bill protests that referred to the movement’s demands.
The date of Chu’s arrest marked the fifth anniversary of clashes between police and demonstrators outside the city’s legislature in the early days of the protests and unrest in 2019.
Demonstrations erupted in June that year over a since-axed amendment to the city’s extradition bill. They escalated into sometimes violent displays of dissent against police behaviour, amid calls for democracy and anger over Beijing’s encroachment.
Separate to the 2020 Beijing-enacted security law, the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance targets treason, insurrection, sabotage, external interference, sedition, theft of state secrets and espionage. It was fast-tracked through the city’s opposition-free legislature earlier this year and enacted on March 23, after an attempt to pass similar legislation in 2003 failed following mass protests.
Under Article 23, sedition carries a maximum penalty of seven years in jail, and 10 years if the offender is found to have colluded with an “external force.”
Previously, sedition was punishable by up to two years in prison for a first offence, and up to three years for re-offenders.
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.
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