Joshua Wong, Ivan Lam and Agnes Chow. A well-known trio of pro-democracy protesters stood trial on Monday. He will wait until December for a verdict in a case of charges of organizing an illegal protest in front of the police headquarters in Hong Kong’s Wan Chai district last June, of participating in a demonstration and inciting other people. Before the trial, Wong said he and Lam intended to plead guilty. Both activists decided to do so after consulting with their lawyers. Chow had pleaded guilty before.
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Wong knew before the start that the confession would not go unpunished. “It simply came to our notice then. I will not be surprised if he detains me immediately on the spot, “he told reporters gathered in court. “But I believe that prison bars and election bans will not stop our activism. Now is not the time to kneel before Beijing and give up. ”Concerns about his imprisonment were also expressed by 24-year-old Chow. “Although I’m mentally prepared for that, I’m still a little scared,” she said, adding that this would be the first time it would end up behind bars.
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Demonstrations could take up to five years behind bars, but it could have been worse. With the alleged crimes taking place before China passed a strict national security law in June, the trio’s life sentence is likely to escape. The court will deliver the final verdict on Wednesday, December 2. Until then, the trio will be detained.
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Why are they charged?
All three were accused of organizing and attending an unauthorized assembly. During the protests in 2019, the Hong Kong Police Headquarters became a target of protesters throwing eggs and spraying graffiti several times. Wong, Lam and Chow were accused of leading, inciting and engaging in one of these protests. Wong had previously said that the threat of imprisonment would not deter him. “Our current actions are to show the world the value of freedom through feelings about what we love so much that we are willing to sacrifice our own freedom.”
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Who are these activists?
Today, 24-year-old Joshua Wong has been involved in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests for years, making his experience of arrests richer. The young man first became famous as a student leader during the “umbrella movement” in 2014 and a supporter of a new wave of protests that swept through Hong Kong in 2019. It did not go without violence between protesters and police.
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For Beijing, it was the impetus for the introduction of a strict security law. Improper manifestations of freedom, disruption and association with foreign forces face punishment, for example, for people such as the three current defendants. To enforce the law, Wong had to dissolve his pro-democracy group Demosisto.
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Chow was arrested in August this year for violating the new security law, but was saved by bail from her imprisonment. Before Monday’s court hearing on Facebook, she wrote that even though she is “mentally prepared”, she feels frightened before a possible prison sentence, but “she will try to face it bravely”. “Compared to many of my friends, I have suffered little,” she wrote.
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Five-eyed revenge
The former British colony of Hong Kong fell under Chinese rule in 1997 on the condition that the “one country, two systems” principle be maintained. It was to ensure a degree of freedom in the territory, including free speech, an independent judiciary, and some democratic rights that mainland China did not recognize. Activists are now afraid of Beijing’s growing influence, which has the potential to bury these freedoms deeply. A big nail in the coffin was the adoption of this year’s National Security Act, which, among other things, makes it easier to punish protesters.
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A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry threatens that China will “blind the eye” to Britain, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. https://t.co/e596rUeQUP
– Tomas Etzler (@tvtomas) November 19, 2020
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Nor does pressure from Western countries help. On the contrary – the United Kingdom, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada earned reprimands last week. The so-called “Five Eyes” Alliance did not agree with Beijing’s attempt to silence calls for the preservation of freedom in Hong Kong and the exclusion of elected democratic lawmakers, to which they received a response.
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Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters that if a country “dares to damage Chinese sovereignty, they should be careful not to pluck their eyes out.” “The Chinese never get involved in problems, but they are not afraid of them either,” he told reporters on Thursday. “It doesn’t matter if they have five or ten eyes.”
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