Hong Kong resident found guilty of violating new law by wearing protest slogan T-shirt

September 16, 2024 TruthUSA

Admitting to sedition, he informed the police that the slogan was meant to recall the 2019 mass demonstrations.

A Hong Kong man pleaded guilty to sedition on September 16 for wearing a T-shirt with a protest slogan, marking the first conviction under the city’s national security law enacted in March.

Chu Kai-pong, 27, admitted to one count of committing an act with seditious intent under the city’s new security law, known as Article 23, as reported by the Hong Kong Free Press.

Chu was apprehended at a train station on June 12 for donning a T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times,” considered by Hong Kong authorities as an incitement to secession.

He also wore a mask featuring the letters “FDNOL,” representing “five demands, not one less,” which were popular slogans during the 2019 mass protests.

To the police, Chu explained that he wore the T-shirt that day to evoke memories of the 2019 protests, sparked by concerns over the Chinese Communist Party’s extradition law seen as a threat to the city’s human rights and judicial autonomy.

Chief Magistrate Victor So has scheduled the sentencing for Thursday.

Chu had been arrested at a Hong Kong airport in November last year for wearing the same T-shirt and carrying a flag with the same protest slogan. He was sentenced to three months in jail earlier this year.

Passed by Hong Kong’s Legislative Council in March, Article 23 covers five offenses: treason, insurrection, theft of state secrets and espionage, destructive activities endangering national security, and external interference.

The new security law increased the maximum sentence for sedition from two years to seven years in prison and could even go to 10 years if collusion with external forces was found, according to Amnesty International.

The U.S. government has highlighted concerns over the vague and expansive definitions outlined by the Hong Kong government, particularly regarding terms such as “state secrets” and “external interference.”

Such ambiguity “could be used to eliminate dissent through the fear of arrest and detention,” Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the State Department, said in a February statement.

Article 23 is the second security law introduced since 2020, when Beijing implemented a national security law in the city that punishes secession, subversion, terrorism, or collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.

Since the enactment of the sweeping legislation, Hong Kong has taken a swift authoritarian turn, with most democratic politicians now either in jail or self-exile, dozens of civil society organizations folding, and international businesses leaving the city.

Dorothy Li and Reuters contributed to this report.

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