The first 6 months of Hong Kong’s new security law: 3 jailed over a seditious T-shirt, bus graffiti, social media posts
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong on Thursday saw the first people imprisoned under a new security law, which will have been in effect for six months on Monday.
Chu Kai-pong was jailed for one year and two months after earlier pleading guilty to one count of “doing with a seditious intention an act or acts that had a seditious intention,” under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, known colloquially as Article 23. Less than two hours later, Chung Man-kit was sentenced to 10 months in prison after entering a guilty plea for three counts of the same charge.
On Friday, Au Kin-wai was handed a one-year, two-month sentence after pleading guilty to “knowingly publishing publications that had a seditious intention.”
See also: Article 23 – A timeline of Hong Kong’s new security law
With their sentences, Chu, Chung and Au became the first people jailed under Article 23. They were not, however, the only ones arrested on suspicion of violating the new legislation. HKFP looks back over the six months since it was enacted and examines who has been accused of offences under the security law, and why.
What is Article 23?
The Safeguarding National Security Ordinance targets treason, insurrection, sabotage, external interference, sedition, theft of state secrets and espionage. It allows for pre-charge detention of to up to 16 days, and can restrict suspects’ access to lawyers, with penalties for certain offences involving up to life in prison.
Article 23 was shelved in 2003 amid mass protests, remaining taboo for years. But, on March 23, it was enacted having been fast-tracked and unanimously approved in the city’s opposition-free legislature.
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.
How many people have been arrested under Article 23 and for what?
To date, at least 14 people have been arrested on suspicion of violating Article 23, according to HKFP’s records – all of them apprehended over alleged violations of the sedition offence.
The first arrests came on May 28, when six people – including detained rights activist Chow Hang-tung – were apprehended on suspicion of committing “offences in connection with seditious intention.”
Secretary for Security Chris Tang said the arrests were made in connection with posts on a Facebook group that called for support for Chow, who has been detained under a Beijing-imposed national security law since September 2021.
The posts were said to have made use of an “upcoming sensitive date” to incite hatred against the central and Hong Kong governments, as well as the Judiciary. In the days that followed, two more people were arrested over the Facebook group on suspicion of committing the same offence.
Apart from Chow, who remains in custody, the other seven were released on police bail without charge.
The arrests came a week before the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown, when hundreds, if not thousands, were killed as China’s People’s Liberation Army dispersed student protesters in Beijing on June 4, 1989.
The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which Chow was vice-chair of, organised annual vigils to remember the victims of the crackdown in Victoria Park until 2020, when the gathering was banned on anti-epidemic grounds amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The vigil was banned in 2021, with police again citing Covid-19, and the Alliance disbanded in September 2021 after its leaders – Chow, Albert Ho and Lee Cheuk-yan – were arrested on suspicion of inciting subversion. There have been no official commemorations held since.
The ninth arrest came on the evening of June 4, when a 68-year-old woman – widely reported by local media to be veteran activist Alexandra “Grandma” Wong – was apprehended on suspicion of sedition over chanting slogans in Causeway Bay, near where the vigils took place. The woman was released on police bail without charge the following day.
On June 12, the fifth anniversary of intense clashes between protesters and police at the outset of months-long demonstrations and unrest in 2019, Chu Kai-pong was arrested on suspicion of “doing with a seditious intention an act or acts that had a seditious intention.” He was wearing a T-shirt that bore the 2019 protest slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times.”
During Hong Kong’s first trial under the separate national security law imposed in 2020 by Beijing, the court ruled that the phrase carried secessionist connotations.
Hongkongers learned of the 11th arrest under Article 23 on June 21, though police have not revealed when Au Kin-wai was arrested. Au was charged with one count of “knowingly publishing publications that had a seditious intention” related to social media posts involving the words “Revolution is no crime, to rebel is justified,” a slogan dating back to China’s Cultural Revolution.
Chung Man-kit was apprehended on June 23 on suspicion of “doing with a seditious intention an act or acts that had a seditious intention.” The charges were linked to graffiti written on the back of bus seats that included the 2019 protest slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times,” and others advocating independence, including “Hong Kong independence, the only way out.”
The 13th and 14th arrests came on August 30, when a 41-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman were apprehended over alleged “seditious intentions.” The case was related to the apparent suicide of a City University of Hong Kong professor, according to local media, and a widely shared screenshot of a purported suicide note linking the death to political developments in the city since 2019.
Local media reported that the woman was accused of forging the suicide note, while the man was suspected of placing mourning lamps around the city. Both were released on police bail without charge and asked to report back to police in late October.
HKFP reached out to the Security Bureau to request updated arrest and prosecution figures under Article 23. Instead the bureau on Friday provided a grand total of arrests and convictions in “cases involving suspected acts or activities that endanger national security since the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law,” with those made under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance included in that number.
As of September 1, a total of 303 people had been arrested in such cases.
In recent months, the Security Bureau has also said the following when providing these figures: “As revealing specific arrest figures and information related to these activities could have an impact on operational deployment, no breakdown of the arrest statistics would be disclosed to the public.”
How many people have been charged under Article 23?
According to HKFP’s records, three people have been charged under Hong Kong’s new security law: Chu Kai-pong, Chung Man-kit, and Au Kin-wai. All three pleaded guilty to their charges and were sentenced to between 10 and 14 months in prison.
Under Article 23, the threshold for the early release of those imprisoned for offences endangering national security has been raised. Typically, prisoners can trim a third off their sentence for good behaviour.
After Chief Magistrate Victor So on Thursday jailed Chu and Chung, the government issued a statement saying that Chu’s conviction and sentencing “demonstrates that any person intending to endanger national security or incite social hatred can never escape sanctions of the law.”
“Hong Kong is a society underpinned by the rule of law, where laws must be obeyed and lawbreakers be held accountable. People who break the law must face legal sanctions for their malicious acts,” the statement continued. So, it added, pointed out in his reasons for sentencing that Chu had intended to cause hatred of the government and law enforcement agencies, thus causing “social rift and division.”
“If the law does not intervene in time, it will make society once again fall into chaos,” the statement read.
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.”
A government spokesperson was also quoted in the statement as saying that freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, procession and demonstration were protected under the city’s mini-constitution and the Hong Kong Bill of Rights.
“Clear lines have been drawn between unlawful seditious acts and expressions, and lawful constructive criticisms under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance,” the spokesperson said, adding, “the relevant provisions are also unambiguous.”
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