National Security Law at Work in the Courts

Chow and two others were sentenced to 4.5 months in prison

What happened today?

Three members of the group that organised the Tiananmen Square candlelight vigil for 30 consecutive years, were jailed for 4.5 months for refusing to assist police in an investigation into the group's alleged breaches of the national security law.

The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China former vice-chairwoman Chow Hang-tung, and ex-standing committee members Tsui Hon-kwong and Tang Ngok-kwan were convicted earlier this month.

During the trial the trio maintained the alliance was not a foreign agent, and thus had no obligation to cooperate with the authorities, but the court found "reasonable grounds" to believe otherwise, saying the group had "close" interactions with local and overseas organisations that shared "common objectives".

Tsui and Tang were also alliance members

In sentencing today, Chow, who is also a lawyer, gave a speech in court that was interrupted several times by Magistrate Peter Law for only wanting to hear points in "pure legal sense".

She said in part: "With the notice and the degrading designation as foreign agent, the government was effectively saying to us -- bend your knees, betray your friends, betray your cause, accept an absolute authority to know all and decide all and you shall have peace.

"What we are saying with our actions is simply one word -- never. Never will we surrender our independence from the state. Never will we illegitimise our movement by endorsing the government's false narrative. Never will we treat ourselves and our fellow friends as criminals just because the government says we are.

"We will fight this injustice wherever we must, be it in the streets, or in the courtroom, or in the prison cell. This is a battle we will fight on and here in this city we call home for our freedom to be ourselves is at stake here."

Chow is now waiting to face another trial for allegedly inciting subversion of state power under the national security law with the alliance's former chairman Lee Cheuk-yan and vice-chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan.

Tang was arrested outside Stanley Prison

Speaking of Lee, his wife Elizabeth Tang Yin-ngor had just visited him in Stanley Prison when the police arrested her on suspected collusion with foreign forces under the national security law.

Two days later she was granted bail of HK$200,000 two days later and surrendered her travel documents. She had recently returned to Hong Kong after being in the United Kingdom since 2021.

When Tang was released she spoke to reporters about not understanding why she was arrested in the first place.

"I don't understand. My work has always been for labour rights and workers organising unions. I don't know why that would be considered unlawful, not to mention endangering national security," Tang said.

Another person on trial for sedition is Chung Pui-kuen, a former editor of the now defunct Stand News. 

Chung was questioned over an op-ed that compared Hong Kong to the fictional totalitarian regime in George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Chung had to explain novel Nineteen Eighty-Four

The judge presiding over the trial asked whether Nineteen Eighty-Four was a book and what it was about.

Towards the end of questioning about the op-ed, Judge Kwok Wai-kin interrupted the lead prosecutor and asked Chung if Nineteen Eighty-Four was a book, adding: "I have never read it, can you tell me a bit more about the book?"

After Chung gave a brief overview of Orwell's novel, the lead prosecutor said: "Wait -- so this is a rewrite? What are the original lines?"

Chung told her he could give her the original lines later. The judge has never read the book, and to prepare for the case the lead prosecutor didn't read the novel either?

This is what is happening in Hong Kong's law courts these days.