In HKFP – Chow Hang-tung’s mitigation…
Believing that dictatorship is wrong and democracy is right – if that isn’t a belief, then what is? Even if the courts and the government attempt to claim, like a chanted mantra, that they are not judging beliefs, they cannot change the reality: under this judgment, anyone who believes in the principle of ‘ending one-party dictatorship’ has nowhere left to stand. In the eyes of this brand of ‘law’, holding such a thought inherently contravenes the Constitution – rendering it unlawful, an original sin. Even when we engage in entirely legitimate acts, such as commemorating June 4th, it becomes a crime simply because of the perceived ‘impropriety’ of our thoughts.
Yet the law cannot govern what a person thinks. Not only is it incapable of doing so, but when it openly defies the human conscience, it is the law itself that ultimately suffers – forfeiting its very legitimacy.
Via Brian Kerner, a description of what happened in court…
When she actually gave her mitigation statement in court, she was repeatedly interrupted by the judges who clearly felt uncomfortable with someone speaking like this in their courtroom. At first, one judge said that her words might be more appropriate for another setting. Apparently the judges thought she was attempting to relitigate the case. It got to the point where one judge asked directly, “So, you don’t think you’ve done anything wrong, right?” Hang-tung replied, “I don’t think so.”…
…Hang-tung: “The trial has spread the message of ‘ending one-party rule’ in Hong Kong to the whole world. Originally, our voices weren’t so loud.’“
Judge, with a smile: “Then you should thank us, right?”
Hang-tung, also with a smile: “Yes, that’s right, thank you very much to the court.”
Judge: “Just kidding. We have handled the matter seriously.”
Hang-tung: “I said I shouldn’t sit in jail for even a day.”
It was then noted that Chow Hang-tung has already been remanded in custody for 1,404 days.
SBS on the fate of one activist after 2019…
At 21, Sam Chan Chi-sum was preparing to leave Hong Kong to continue his studies overseas.
Instead, he went to prison for nearly two years.
He’d been involved with a student activist group that collected sweets and toiletries to send to people jailed after Hong Kong’s 2019 anti-government protests.
Authorities accused the group of using the supplies to build support among prisoners and incite opposition to the government.
In September 2021, Sam was arrested under Hong Kong’s sweeping National Security Law, which had been passed a year earlier, and was convicted of “subversion with the intent of overthrowing the government”.
“Prison was awful. I shared a cell with around twenty people. At its most crowded, there could be forty of us,” he said.
“The pillows stank and the blankets were infested with cockroaches.”
Quoting ex-CFA judge Jonathan Sumption…
“I resigned early in June 2024 … because I felt that the outcome of that [HK 47] case showed that the judiciary in Hong Kong was not prepared to stand up to China,” he said.
“Hong Kong is becoming a totalitarian state because political dissent is no longer tolerated.”
The Too Simple, Sometimes Naive blog on how Nury Vittachi is funded…
Launched in 2021, [Friday Everyday] describes itself as an “independent” outlet and “not financed by Beijing”. It says it eschews “politically divisive issues” and instead wants: “zen journalism”.
Yet, if you’ve stumbled on them, it was probably through social media of … Nury Vittachi. Popular posts include: Tiananmen Square (“hoax”), the ‘Xinjiang genocide’ (“hoax”), and Iranian supreme leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei (“cool”).
Most of the article is paywalled, so I’m not sure exactly who the ‘United Front cadres’ are – but hardly a shock to find out that such sources back Hong Kong’s contribution to the Anglosphere’s pro-Beijing/tanky grift ecosystem. Could they spare a few bucks to teach the guy how to pronounce Pinyin?
Reuters on Hong Kong’s latest book closure…
People queued on Sunday to chat, browse and bid farewell to an independent Hong Kong bookstore before it shut, following a July police raid over alleged seditious books and what the store owners said was a “poor business performance”.
Snaking lines formed outside the bookstore, Have a Nice Stay, stretching down the staircase in Hong Kong’s Kowloon district. Only 20 people at a time were allowed to enter the roughly 600 square-foot space.
The city’s once-flourishing independent bookstore industry has rapidly dwindled since Beijing imposed sweeping national security legislation on the city in 2020.
Many offered a broader range of political and social titles than mainstream retailers and became important spaces for civil society through book talks and workshops.