The Hong Kong court has convicted main pro-democracy leaders to years in jail for subversion in a contentious national security trial. Benny Tai and Joshua Wong were among the 47 activists and lawmakers charged with plotting to pick opposition candidates for Hong Kong’s elections.
Tai got 10 years and Wong got more than 4 years and 6 months. In all, 45 individuals were convicted for conspiring to attempt subversion after two were acquitted.
It was the biggest test of the strict national security law (NSL) that China introduced in Hong Kong after the city’s massive pro-democracy demonstrations in 2019.
Those protests witnessed many tens of thousands of people marching on the streets of Hong Kong for months. The protests began in response to a government treaty that was to be signed that would permit extradition from Hong Kong to mainland China but evolved to encompass other concerns regarding democracy.
The critics argued that the NSL and the result of the trial have seriously damaged the pro-democracy movement and rule of law in the city as well as let China firmly establish its authority in the city.
The US has referred to the trial as politically motivated. Australia declared it had “strong objections” to the use of the NSL and it was “gravely concerned” by the sentencing of one of its citizens, Gordon Ng.
The governments of Beijing and Hong Kong assert the law is needed to restore order and deny it has eroded the territory’s autonomy. They also say the convictions are a message to those seeking to destabilize China’s security.
“No one can perform criminal acts in the disguise of democracy and try to evade punishment,” China’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
The case has attracted huge interest from Hongkongers, dozens of whom queued up outside of the court days before the sentencing to secure a spot in the public gallery.
The first person in the line on Tuesday was Lee Yue-shun, one of the two defendants who were acquitted. He said to reporters that he wanted to encourage Hongkongers to “raise questions” about the case because “everyone has a chance to be affected.”
From the gallery, the family members and friends greeted the defendants with a smile while the defendants looked relaxed seated in the dock. Some of the people in the gallery were caught crying as the sentences that were handed down were between four and ten years.
Tai, a former law professor who came up with the plan for the unofficial primary, received the longest sentence with judges saying he had “advocated for a revolution”.
Wong was given a third off his sentence after he pleaded guilty. However, contrary to other defendants, he was not granted additional decreases as judges “did not deem him a person of good character.”
At the time of the arrests, Wong was already in jail for taking part in protests. In court, Wong shouted, “I love Hong Kong” before he left the dock.
Other notable pro-democracy leaders who were given their sentences include former journalist turned politician Gwyneth Ho, and former lawmakers Claudia Mo and Leung Kwok-hung.
They got prison terms of between four and seven years. Leung’s wife, activist Chan Po-ying, was chanting a protest against his jail term when she walked out of the court at the end of the hearing.
When the protests in 2019 faded due to the Covid pandemic, the activists held an unofficial primary for the Legislative Council election to keep the pro-democracy cause going.
Their goal was to enhance the possibility of the opposition to frustrate the bills of the pro-Beijing government. Over 500,000 people in Hong Kong participated in the primary that took place in July 2020.
At the time, organisers claimed that their actions were permitted under the Basic Law – a mini-constitution that grants some liberties. They had “never thought that they would be in jail for just expressing their opinions against the government”, said the former opposition legislator, Ted Hui, who participated in the primary and escaped to Australia.
But it raised concern among Beijing and Hong Kong authorities where they said the move could violate the NSL that took effect just days to the primary. They alleged that the activists were planning to ‘overthrow’ the government, and arrested them early this year.
The judges at the end of the trial accepted the argument of the prosecution that the plan would have led to a constitutional crisis. A Human Rights Watch spokesperson said that the verdicts on Tuesday demonstrated how quickly ‘Hong Kong’s civil liberties and judicial independence have plunged’ since the passing of the ‘repressive’ NSL.
They also said that both the Chinese and Hong Kong governments “have now substantially increased the price for pro-democracy activism in Hong Kong”.
The pro-Beijing government may have used the trial to “settle scores” with the pro-democracy camp, said John P Burns, an emeritus professor at the University of Hong Kong.
“Central authorities are also using the trial to re-educate the Hong Kong people,” Dr Burns said, the message being “national security is the country’s top priority; do not challenge us on national security.”
‘The case is important because it offers some indications as to the state of health of the legal system in Hong Kong,’ he said to the USATodayWorld.
Shen Yufei argued: “How can it be illegal to follow processes laid down in the Basic Law?” Hong Kong Metropolitan University’s Assistant Professor of Politics, Stephan Ortmann said that the sentencing “established a benchmark of how harsh the punishment for political opposition under the NSL will be”.
The pro-democracy movement has now been “greatly weakened” where “self-censorship has become the norm”, he added.
Hong Kong activists say they have personally experienced the chilling effect.
Emily Lau, former chair of the Democratic Party of Hong Kong, said the fear of being arrested under the NSL is so great that “recently, we could not even organise a dinner party for members and friends. And that’s how stressful things are.”
“The fight will go on but in a peaceful and legal way,” Ms Lau told USATodayWorld.
“It doesn’t mean the Beijing government wins the hearts of the people,” said Sunny Cheung, an activist who ran in the 2020 primary but has since fled to the US.
“They might be happy in a way because the entire opposition is being wiped out… but at the same time, they lost the whole generation. They don’t have the trust of the people.”
