A Hong Kong man was jailed yesterday for “seditious” posts on social media, becoming the third person to be imprisoned under a new National Security Law in the span of two days.
Au Kin-wai (區健威), 58, was sentenced to 14 months behind bars after he pleaded guilty to publishing 239 seditious posts on Facebook, YouTube and X, a court document said.
Chief Magistrate Victor So (蘇惠德) said that Au’s posts were a “clear challenge to national sovereignty” and that his calls to revolution threatened national security.
Photo: Reuters
The defense had argued that some of Au’s social media accounts had fewer than 20 followers and that the unemployed man was seeking validation instead of trying to incite anyone.
While sedition has been an offense in Hong Kong since the British colonial period, it was rarely used until authorities revived it in the wake of massive protests in 2019 advocating democracy.
After Beijing imposed a National Security Law on the territory in 2020 to quell the protests, Hong Kong in March passed a second, tougher security law colloquially known as “Article 23,” which expanded the sedition offense.
Under Article 23, the maximum jail term for sedition was increased from two years to seven.
In his posts, Au had called for Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee (李家超) to resign, and derided the Chinese Communist Party as being “synonymous with lies,” media reported.
Au “intended to bring others into hatred and contempt against the Hong Kong government and law enforcement agencies, resulting in social rift and division,” So wrote in his ruling.
So — who is among the judges handpicked by Hong Kong’s leader to try national security cases — was also responsible for the two sedition jailings on Thursday, in which one man was handed a 14-month sentence for wearing a T-shirt with protest slogans.
Chu Kai-pong (諸啟邦) earlier pleaded guilty to having seditiously worn a T-shirt with the protest slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times.”
So later sentenced another Hong Kong man, Chung Man-kit (鍾文傑), 29, to 10 months in prison in a separate case for writing slogans advocating Hong Kong independence and “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” on the back of bus seats in March and April.
Additional reporting by Reuters
AIR DEFENSE: The Norwegian missile system has proved highly effective in Ukraine in its war against Russia, and the US has recommended it for Taiwan, an expert said The Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) Taiwan ordered from the US would be installed in strategically important positions in Taipei and New Taipei City to guard the region, the Ministry of National Defense said in statement yesterday. The air defense system would be deployed in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), the ministry said, adding that the systems could be delivered as soon as the end of this year. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has previously said that three NASAMS would be sold to Taiwan. The weapons are part of the 17th US arms sale to
SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS: The suspects formed spy networks and paramilitary groups to kill government officials during a possible Chinese invasion, prosecutors said Prosecutors have indicted seven retired military officers, members of the Rehabilitation Alliance Party, for allegedly obtaining funds from China, and forming paramilitary groups and assassination squads in Taiwan to collaborate with Chinese troops in a possible war. The suspects contravened the National Security Act (國家安全法) by taking photos and drawing maps of key radar stations, missile installations and the American Institute in Taiwan’s headquarters in Taipei, prosecutors said. They allegedly prepared to collaborate with China during a possible invasion of Taiwan, prosecutors said. Retired military officer Chu Hung-i (屈宏義), 62, a Republic of China Army Academy graduate, went to China
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
BREAKTHROUGH: The US is making chips on par in yield and quality with Taiwan, despite people saying that it could not happen, the official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips for US customers in Arizona, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said, a milestone in the semiconductor efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden. In November last year, the commerce department finalized a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. “For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo said, adding that production had begun in recent
RSS