Liberty, Caged

Listen to Today's Edition:

China escalated its attempt to suppress political dissent in Hong Kong this week, jailing dozens of pro-democracy activists for as long as a decade, sparking outrage on the island and internationally, the Guardian reported.

On Tuesday, a court sentenced 45 pro-democracy activists, which included former legislators and academics, who were part of the group known as Hong Kong 47, to jail terms ranging from two months to 10 years.

The Hong Kong 47 had been arrested in 2021 for their participation in an unofficial primary election that was held in July 2020, under the city’s national security law (NSL) that was imposed by Beijing in response to pro-democracy protests the year before. More than 600,000 people voted in the unofficial election.

Joshua Wong, a student leader from the 2014 Umbrella movement who was once the most recognizable face of the pro-democracy movement, was sentenced to four years and eight months after pleading guilty. Benny Tai, an academic, was sentenced to 10 years because of his role as organizer of the primaries, the longest sentence given so for violating the NSL.

The trial was overseen by three government-picked judges and no jury due to the provisions of the NSL, which critics have deemed punitive, noted the Guardian.

Simultaneously, Jimmy Lai, the media tycoon behind the tabloid “Apple Daily,” which is a regular target of China’s ire, is also battling charges of foreign collusion under the NSL and an additional charge of sedition. He is facing life in prison, according to CNN.

Lai,77, was arrested in 2020 and pleaded not guilty to the charges in January. On Wednesday, taking a stand at his trial, Lai said he never tried to influence foreign policy, never advocated for independence or asked foreign officials to take concrete action on Hong Kong.

Western countries and rights groups have demanded Lai’s release from solitary confinement, due to concerns for his health.

For human rights groups and Western nations, these two cases under the NSL highlight the steep decline in civil liberties such as freedom of speech, assembly and political participation in Hong Kong over the past five years.

Officials in Hong Kong and Beijing have rejected the criticism, saying that Lai is a “political tool of foreign forces trying to curb China through Hong Kong” and that “no one should be allowed to use democracy as a pretext to escape (the) law.”