Hong Kong’s freedoms are hanging by a thread

Fighting for democracy in Hong Kong can earn you up to 10 years in prison, the High Court ruled this week. On Tuesday, some of Hong Kong’s fiercest advocates for human rights and civil liberties – 45 of the so-called Hong Kong 47 – were sentenced to anywhere between four years and a decade of jail time.

This is the new Hong Kong. Unjust and disproportionate punishment for dissidents has become commonplace. Meanwhile, a former police officer can sexually assault six children and be sentenced to just 46 months. The message is clear: if you support Hong Kong’s totalitarian regime, no matter how hideous your crimes, you will receive some leniency. But dare to challenge the Chinese Communist Party-controlled government, and you will become a political prisoner.

Acclaimed law professor Benny Tai was one of those sentenced this week. Along with the other Hong Kong 47, he was arrested in 2021 and charged with ‘subversion’ for organising an unofficial primary election in 2020 to choose candidates to run for Hong Kong’s Legislative Council. Tai was sentenced to 10 years behind bars. Had he pleaded not guilty, the judge said, he would have received a 15-year sentence.

Prominent student leader Joshua Wong was given one of the shortest sentences, with four years and eight months in prison. He is already serving time for other protest-related offences. Others sentenced were former journalist Gwyneth Ho (seven years), former lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung (six years and nine months) and former journalist-turned-legislator Claudia Mo (four years and two months).

The ordeal of the Hong Kong 47 has been dragging on for over three years now. Each stage has garnered new waves of controversy and protest. I covered the four-day marathon bail hearings in March 2021, when hundreds of supporters – risking arrest themselves – turned up outside the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts to chant slogans and show their solidarity. During the hearings, the court handed down a gag order, stopping the media from publishing any details of the bail terms offered by the defendants. The terms ranged from terminating all social-media posts, ceasing communication with media, rejecting interviews and even house arrest. At the end of the marathon hearing, just 13 were granted bail.

It’s not only the 45 who will spend years behind bars for attempting to hold the government to account. Yesterday, Jimmy Lai, a businessman and politician, also stood trial. The 76-year-old, who is also a British citizen, was arrested in December 2020 and was accused of colluding with foreign forces, including by donating money to American politicians. Lai denied all these accusations, telling the court that he never knew of, let alone worked with, any foreign ‘co-conspirators’. Lai has been in solitary confinement for over 1,400 days, and his family and legal team have raised concerns about his worsening health. Despite the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention urging his ‘immediate release’, Lai continues to be ‘unlawfully and arbitrarily detained’ in Hong Kong.

Clearly, Hong Kong’s legal system has badly failed and its judiciary is no longer independent. As the UK Foreign Office rightly pointed out, ‘China’s imposition of the National Security Law (NSL) in Hong Kong has eroded the rights and freedoms of Hong Kongers’. The 2020 NSL – which allows Chinese courts and police to act inside Hong Kong – has been used to ‘criminalise political dissent’. Yet Hong Kong’s so-called Economic and Trade Offices are allowed to continue to operate and retain special diplomatic privileges in the UK and across the West, spying on the Hong Kong diaspora on behalf of the CCP.

How many more freedoms must be sacrificed by courageous activists before Western nations stop kowtowing to this barbaric regime? The Hong Kong 47, and every other pro-democracy dissident suffering at the hands of the CCP, deserve to be spoken up for.

Chloe Lo is a Hong Konger and former Bloomberg reporter who covered prominent court proceedings tied to the Hong Kong unrest and the National Security Law. Follow her on X: @ChloecLoNews