Hong Kong: Continued arrest and prosecution of activists and critics as leaders start push for new security law

Hong Kong’s civic space remains rated as ‘closed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor. Ongoing concerns include the draconian 2020 National Security Law (NSL) that has been used to prosecute activists, journalists and critics with heavy penalties, while sedition charges have been brought against activists and critics to silence dissent. Warrants have also been issued against exiled pro-democracy activists. Peaceful protesters have also been convicted and some remain behind bars. The right to freedom of association has also been undermined by the introduction of the NSL, with civil society groups and unions ceasing to operate.

In October 2023, UN experts expressed serious concern about the mass trial of 47 people under the National Security Legislation (NSL) and the issuance of arrest warrants and bounties against pro-democracy figures currently in exile overseas.

In January 2024, at least 18 UN member states made recommendations to China on Hong Kong’s human rights violations at its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN Human Rights Council. Among the recommendations were to repeal the NSL and sedition law, restore full respect for the rule of law and civil society and ensure freedom of expression online.

A report by the Hong Kong Centre for Human Rights in January 2024, raised concerns that 'systematic human rights violations and the failure of mechanisms to protect human rights, including the judiciary and the legislature, had resulted in a further decline in the human rights situation in Hong Kong' . The group noted that in 2023, 48 individuals were arrested for national security offences in 2023, and 4 civil society organisations disbanded allegedly due to the NSL.

Since Beijing imposed the NSL in 2020, the Chinese and Hong Kong governments have publicly raised the issue of Hong Kong legislating its own national security law under Article 23 of the Basic Law of Hong Kong’s mini constitution. Hong Kong announced a public consultation on the local national security law on 30th January 2024. The new law could expand the government’s ability to prosecute residents for offences like collaborating with foreign forces to influence legislation or “publishing misleading statements”, and to close down civil society organisations. Some of its provisions threaten criminal prosecutions for acts committed anywhere in the world.

In recent months, police offered bounties for additional activists overseas and also targeted their families. Activists were arrested for expressing concerns about elections while a landmark national security trial comes to a close. A human rights lawyer faced repeated use of solitary confinement while the authorities continued to arrest and prosecute individuals for sedition. UN experts raised concerns about the trial of publisher Jimmy Lai, a series partly filmed in Hong Kong was blocked online and a court convicted four people of rioting over the 2019 protests.

Association

Police offer bounties for another five activists living overseas

On 14th December 2023, police in Hong Kong offered bounties for information leading to the arrest of five activists living overseas. Law enforcement authorities offered rewards of one million Hong Kong dollars (USD128,000) for each of the five activists, who live in countries including the United States and the United Kingdom. The five activists are named as Simon Cheng, Frances Hui, Joey Siu, Johnny Fok and Tony Choi. They are accused of “inciting secession” and “collusion with foreign forces” under the National Security Law, a crime that can carry a sentence of life in prison.

Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for China, Sarah Brooks, said: “This is further confirmation that the Hong Kong authorities’ systematic dismantling of human rights has officially gone global. These bounties not only threaten the liberty and safety of the activists targeted; they also have far-reaching consequences on other activists who are now left feeling increasingly uncertain about their security, whether in Hong Kong or overseas. The bounties only compound the already existing climate of fear.”

It means there are now bounties on a total of 13 individuals wanted in Hong Kong national security cases. As previously documented, in July 2023, the authorities announced that eight exiled pro-democracy activists who now live in the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia will be pursued for life for alleged national security offences. The authorities issued arrest warrants and HK$1 million (US$128,000) bounties for them.

Police also said they had arrested two men and two women aged between 29 and 68 for allegedly providing financial assistance to two wanted activists, Nathan Law and Ted Hui, via an online crowdfunding platform. These were the first such arrests on financial assistance grounds under the security legislation. The offence carries a maximum jail term of 10 years.

National security police target families of overseas activists

In December 2023, police questioned the parents of pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow after she announced she had fled to Canada. Chow failed to report to authorities, as per the bail conditions surrounding her national security case. Chow’s mother was invited to assist the police investigation as the guarantor of her daughter’s bail and both of Chow’s parents were questioned at the Tai Po police station.

As previously documented, on 2nd December 2020, a court in Hong Kong sentenced pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow to 10 months in jail for organising and inciting an unauthorised assembly outside a police station during mass protests against the government in June 2019. She is still under investigation for "collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security" and was out on bail.

On 11th January 2024, national security police took in the parents and sisters of wanted activist Simon Cheng for questioning. Cheng is one of 13 overseas pro-democracy activists wanted for alleged national security offences, with a bounty on his head. He was accused of foreign collusion and inciting secession.

Activists arrested for expressing concerns about elections

Several people were arrested in December 2023 in connection with Hong Kong’s District Council elections. According to Amnesty International, between 5th and10th December 2023 the authorities arrested seven individuals – and issued arrest warrants for a further two who are overseas – under Section 27a of the Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct) Ordinance (ECICO). They are accused of “inciting another person not to vote, or to cast invalid vote”.

Six of the seven were detained on election day, 10th December. Three are members of the opposition League of Social Democrats, who were on their way to protest outside Chief Executive John Lee’s polling site. The others were targeted for their online expression on social media, including reposting comments from the two people abroad. They all face up to three years in prison and a fine of HK$200,000 (USD 25,000).

Another individual was charged on 9th December on suspicion of “attempting or preparing to do an act with a seditious intention,” reportedly ahead of a planned protest against the elections outside the Registration and Electoral Office.

National security trial comes to a close

A landmark national security trial came to a close on 4th December 2023. Closing submissions came to an end 10 months after proceedings in the trial against 16 of the defendants who pleaded not guilty to conspiring to commit subversion under the NSL. The 118-day trial was conducted without a jury - a major departure from Hong Kong's 178-year-old common law tradition - as ordered by the secretary for justice to prevent the "involvement of foreign elements".

As previously documented, in January 2021, pro-democracy activists, opposition candidates, former lawmakers and lawyers were arrested and detained under the NSL. They were accused of ‘subverting state power’ for organising, joining and supporting an unofficial primary election in July 2020 to shortlist pro-democracy candidates for the legislature election. On 28th February 2021, police in Hong Kong charged 47 of the activists. The majority of the defendants have been in detention for around three years, as only 13 have been granted bail. 31 of the defendants have pleaded guilty.

Repeated use of solitary confinement of human rights lawyer

In October 2023, CIVICUS called on the authorities to immediately end the repeated use of solitary confinement and to free lawyer and activist Chow Hang-Tung. Chow had faced solitary confinement six times between June and October 2023.

Chow Hang-Tung is a human rights lawyer and pro-democracy activist. She was one of the four vice-chairs of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of the Patriotic Democratic Movement of China (HKA). The HKA was the main organiser of the annual Tiananmen vigils marking the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989.

She served a 12-month prison sentence for her involvement in the June 2020 Tiananmen vigil but won her appeal against a 15-month jail sentence for inciting others to participate in the 2021 vigil through her writing. Chow was also convicted and sentenced to 4.5 months in prison for "not complying with the requirement to provide information" under the draconian National Security Law. She is facing another trial for "inciting subversion of state power” under the same law.

On 21st December, the courts rejected a fresh bail application. High Court judge Andrew Chan said he couldn't grant bail because Chow might carry out acts that endanger national security. On 25th January, the Court of Final Appeal overturned her acquittal over the 2021 vigil.

Expression

Authorities continue to arrest and prosecute individuals for sedition

Since 2020, the Hong Kong government has been using colonial-era sedition charges – alongside the repressive National Security Law which was enacted in June of that year – to stamp out dissent. In July 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Committee expressed concern about the Hong Kong government’s use of colonial-era sedition charges to target people for exercising their right to freedom of expression. Those convicted under the sedition law face up to two years in prison.

Kurt Leung was jailed for four months under the sedition law after pleading guilty to importing 18 children’s books about sheep and wolves. The publications were said to be filled with “distorted ideas” and to have intended to incite hatred against the local and Chinese governments among young readers.

A 23-year-old Hong Kong student was sentenced to two months in prison on 3rd November 2023 for "seditious" social media posts made while in Japan. Yuen Ching-ting was handed her sentence at West Kowloon Court for “doing acts with seditious intent.”

Yuen pleaded guilty to sedition on 26th October for 13 social media posts, the majority of which she made while studying at a Japanese university, while two were made when she was in Hong Kong.

On 29th November 2023, it was reported that a man had been arrested at the airport for wearing a ‘seditious’ shirt. He was charged with “doing an act or acts with seditious intention” and “possessing seditious publications” under the colonial-era sedition law.

Chu Kai-poon, unemployed, appeared at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts following his arrest. He was denied bail and remanded into custody. Local media, citing sources, reported that the man was wearing a T-shirt with the phrases “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” and “Hong Kong independence is the only way out”.

On 19th January 2024, national security police arrested a man on suspicion of committing sedition. Tsang Kwok-hei, 35, was apprehended by officers in Sha Tin. Police alleged that Tsang had repeatedly published posts with “seditious intention” on social media platforms, with their content promoting hatred towards Beijing and the Hong Kong government. According to the charge sheet, the online posts were published on discussion forum LIHKG.

UN experts raise concerns about trial of publisher Jimmy Lai

The national security trial for the former media owner and publisher Jimmy Lai began on 18th December 2023, more than three years after he was charged.

As previously documented, Jimmy Lai is the 75-year-old founder of the now-defunct newspaper Apple Daily. He was arrested in 2019 as part of a crackdown against Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement under the National Security Law imposed by Beijing. Apple Daily was forced to close down in 2021 after the arrests of its top executives and journalists.

On 22nd January 2024, UN experts called on the authorities to drop all charges against Lai and release him immediately. They said: “We are alarmed by the multiple and serious violations of Jimmy Lai’s freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association, and his right to a fair trial, including the denial of access to a lawyer of his own choosing and the handpicking of judges by the authorities.”

The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards, said on 31st January 2024 that she had written to authorities in China to address claims that the evidence of a listed key prosecution witness in the trial of Jimmy Lai had been obtained through torture.

On 11th December 2020, Lai was charged with two counts of “conspiracy to commit collusion with foreign countries or external elements,” and one count of “collusion with foreign countries or external elements” under the NSL.

Hong Kong authorities said the charges related to the publication of articles in Apple Daily that called on foreign countries to impose sanctions, along with his meetings with US politicians and interviews with overseas media. Authorities also cited Lai’s Twitter (now X) posts and his list of followers on the platform which included prominent foreign politicians and NGOs supportive of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

He has been detained since 31st December 2020, having been denied bail in February 2021 when Hong Kong’s highest court ruled that National Security Law cases were an exception to the presumption in favour of bail. The Hong Kong government also prohibited Lai’s British lawyer Timothy Owen from representing him after legislators passed an amendment giving the city’s Chief Executive the power to veto foreign lawyers from working on national security cases.

Hong Kong courts have already convicted Lai in four separate cases involving “unauthorised assemblies” and fraud and handed down prison sentences totalling over seven years.

Series partly filmed in Hong Kong blocked online

“Expats,” a new Amazon Prime series set and partly filmed in Hong Kong, has been blocked in Hong Kong amid growing concerns about censorship under Beijing’s tightening control.

The first two episodes of the six-part series, which stars Nicole Kidman, were released in January 2024. But in Hong Kong, they are listed as “currently unavailable to watch in your location” and can be accessed only using a virtual private network.

It is set in 2014, and at least one later episode is said to include scenes depicting pro-democracy protests that year that lasted for months.

In 2021, the Hong Kong legislature passed a censorship law aimed at films that might “endanger national security,” and since then a number of movies or short films have been required to cut scenes or were blocked from release. Though the censorship law does not apply to streaming services, they are still subject to the national security law overall.

Peaceful Assembly

Court convicts four people of rioting over 2019 protests

On 1st February 2024, a court convicted four people for rioting over the storming of the city’s legislative council building at the height of the anti-government protests in 2019.

The protest on 1st July 2019 — the 22nd anniversary of the former British colony’s return to China — was sparked by a now-withdrawn extradition bill. Hundreds of protesters swarmed into the legislature that night, defacing pictures and smashing furniture. Some spray-painted slogans in the chamber and painted over the territory’s emblem on a wall before vacating the site as riot police cleared surrounding streets with tear gas and then moved inside.

Six defendants, including actor Gregory Wong and two reporters, Wong Ka-ho and Ma Kai-chung, pleaded not guilty in 2023 to rioting.