Fourteen Hong Kong pro-democracy activists were convicted on national security charges on Thursday, joining dozens of people who were once at the vanguard of the city's opposition and now face possible political prisoners for a generation.
Authorities accuse 47 democratsSeveral protesters, including former law professor Benny Tai and protest leader and student group founder Joshua Wong, were charged with conspiracy to subvert state power. Thirty-one of them had previously pleaded guilty. On Thursday, a judge selected by Hong Kong's Beijing-backed leaders convicted the remaining 14 activists and acquitted two others. The charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The convictions show how authorities are using broad powers under a Beijing-imposed national security law to suppress dissent across society. Most of the defendants had spent at least three years in detention by the end of the 118-day trial.
Some of the defendants are former lawmakers who entered politics after Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule in 1997. Others are activists and lawmakers who have advocated for self-determination for Hong Kong and adopted more confrontational tactics. Several, like Mr. Wong, rose to prominence as an activist as a teenager, leading a massive street occupation in 2014 for voting rights.
Their method of attack: holding a primary to improve their chances of winning a citywide election.
“The message from the authorities is clear: any opposition activities, even moderate ones, will no longer be tolerated,” said Kong Yifeng, an expert on Hong Kong politics at Johns Hopkins University.
Pro-democracy activists say they are simply defending the rights of Hong Kong residents in the face of Beijing’s tight control over the city. Public concern about declining freedoms in Hong Kong sparked massive and sometimes violent protests in 2019 and early 2020 in the biggest challenge to Chinese authorities since 1989.
In response, China imposed a national security law in Hong Kong in 2020, giving authorities powerful tools to round up critics like the 47 on trial, including Benny Tai, a law professor who once served as a leading pro-democracy strategist, and Margaret Ng, a former legislator and veteran activist.
Authorities charged them with “conspiring to subvert state power” for organizing or participating in informal primaries ahead of the 2020 legislative elections.
Professor Hung said that in the past, pro-democracy activists had held primaries to select candidates for Hong Kong's chief executive, but no questions were raised.
“The fact that they were arrested, convicted and even detained for such a long time before the verdict was announced reflects a fundamental change in the political environment in Hong Kong: free elections, or even the illusion of free elections, have disappeared,” Professor Kong said.
The charges brought by Hong Kong authorities against the activists are complex and based largely on a scenario that has not yet occurred. Prosecutors say the informal primary is problematic because the pro-democracy camp is using it to win a majority in the Legislative Council and then try to overthrow the government. They accuse the activists of conspiring to use that majority to “indiscriminately” veto the government budget and ultimately force the resignation of Hong Kong's chief executive.
The judges ruled that the plan, if implemented, would lead to a “constitutional crisis” and amount to subversion of state power under the national security law.
The authorities postponed the election, citing the pandemic, and by the time voting took place in late 2021, activists had been arrested and election rules had been rewritten to effectively disqualify pro-democracy candidates.
The trial of the 47 began in February last year after long procedural delays.
Thirty-one of the defendants pleaded guilty, including Joshua Wong, who has been serving jail time for other cases related to his activities since 2020. Four of them — former legislator Au Nok-hin, former district officials Vincent Zhao and David Chung, and grocery store chain owner Lam Ho-man, who has political ambitions — testified for prosecutors in exchange for reduced sentences.
The 14 defendants convicted on Thursday included Leung Kwok-hung, a veteran activist known as “Long Hair” who has pushed for welfare policies for the elderly and poor; Lam Cheuk-ting, an anti-corruption investigator and current Legislative Council member; and former journalist Junius Ho. Two of the defendants were acquitted: lawyer Lawrence Lau and social worker Lee Yu-shun. (Prosecutors said they intend to appeal the acquittals.)
After the verdict was announced, some of the defendants' families hugged and cried outside the court. Human rights activist Yang Junren, who was attending the trial, said that although the verdict was expected by them and many others, he was still saddened by the verdict.
“I think about the faces of every defendant and my friends who remain in jail. It makes me sad. It makes me want to hug them,” he said.
Since the mass arrests of these activists, opposition voices have been all but eliminated from Hong Kong’s political institutions. Approval of “Patriot” was allowed to run in the 2021 municipal election. In March of this year, Hong Kong passes its own national security law At Beijing's request, and at breakneck speed.
On Tuesday, Hong Kong used its new national security law for the first time, detaining six people, including activist Chow Heng-tung, on suspicion of posting “seditious material” online. (Chow has been jailed on other charges.)
Observers say the political cases are testing Hong Kong's much-vaunted judicial independence. Jimmy Lai on triala media tycoon and outspoken critic of Beijing, is underway. A few weeks ago, Court approves government's request to ban popular protest songraising concerns about speech.
The lengthy legal process and excessive detention of the 47 pro-democracy activists in the trial have exacted a heavy personal toll on the defendants. Former legislator Wu Chi-wai lost both his parents in prison. Many of the defendants are parents of young children.
“Almost all of them found their lives on hold — they were some of Hong Kong’s best and brightest, and they all endured months in prison and had their careers cut short,” Thomas Kellogg said., “It's a really sad story,” said the executive director of Georgetown University's Asian Legal Studies Center.
Some activists sought to highlight what they saw as the defendants’ resilience over the years. One of the convicted defendants, 27-year-old activist Owen Chow, studied Buddhist texts and the writings of Vietnamese monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh in prison, according to his friends, who posted updates on him on social media. Wrote on Facebook He earned a law degree while on bail.
“It shows that no matter whether you are in prison or outside of prison, no matter what your situation is, even if there are a lot of restrictions, you can find meaningful things to do,” said Mr. Yang, an activist who attended the hearing.
Legal scholars say the defendants will be divided into different tiers at sentencing, which is expected to take place later. Those deemed “principals” could receive between 10 years and life in prison. “Active participants” would receive between three and 10 years in prison. Others found guilty could receive prison sentences or unspecified “restrictions” of up to three years.
