Laying flowers, speaking out, reporting the news – once ordinary acts in Hong Kong— can now lead to prison under the city’s sweeping national security laws.
National Security Police said on October 1 that they had arrested eight people in September for alleged “sedition.” Police accused them of “spreading false information” and “inciting hatred” against the government by “holding bouquets and shouting seditious slogans” outside Prince Edward metro station on August 31, the anniversary of police brutality there in 2019.
Those arrested included citizen journalist Tang Ho-wing, who covered the gathering for his online news platform, Boom News, and activist Lee Ying-chi, whom police had stopped and warned before she even reached the station.
Hong Kong’s sedition prosecutions have a 100 percent conviction rate. The broadly defined offense covers speech deemed to “incite hatred, contempt, or disaffection” against the Chinese or Hong Kong authorities, without any need to establish intent to cause violence. Authorities have prosecuted people for writing news articles, publishing children’s books, posting online criticism of the government, and wearing T-shirts bearing banned protest slogans.
The arrests underscore authorities’ refusal to account for what happened at Prince Edward station on August 31, 2019. Footage showed riot police storming the station after clashes between protesters and counterprotesters, then using batons and pepper spray indiscriminately against people in train cars, including passengers. Some were seen bleeding from the head. Police also barred journalists and volunteer paramedics from entering the station.
No independent investigation has examined police use of force during the months-long 2019 protests, including what has become known as the infamous “831 incident”, and no officer has been held accountable. The government continues to portray the largely peaceful protests as “black-clad violence” to justify its intensifying crackdown, while ignoring ongoing demands for democracy and accountability.
Beijing may believe it has the upper hand, but repression without accountability fuels further resistance. History suggests Hong Kongers—those in the city and those abroad—will not easily forget.
