Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts have recently sentenced activist Chu Kai-poon to a three-month prison term. The sentence was announced on Wednesday, following Chu’s guilty plea on January 2 to two counts of sedition. The charges stemmed from Chu’s arrest by national security police on November 27 for sporting a shirt with the slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” at the Hong Kong International Airport.
This phrase was previously deemed by Hong Kong’s High Court in July 2021 as a potentially secession-inciting statement. Chief Magistrate So, in pronouncing the prison sentence, argued that Chu had knowingly flouted Hong Kong laws by purchasing and publicly wearing the slogan-bearing shirt sourced from Taiwan. So further expressed concern that Chu’s actions could reignite the 2019 Hong Kong protests.
However, the Chief Magistrate also recognized Chu’s offense as being less severe than other seditious incidents, citing his neutral political stance and the relatively short public display of the contentious slogan. Chu’s acquiescence to his charges led to his sentence being reduced from four and a half months to three.
The 2019 protests were triggered by a controversial extradition bill proposing the transfer of Hong Kong-based fugitives to regions lacking an extradition agreement with Hong Kong, including Mainland China. This proposal was subsequently withdrawn in September 2019 by then-Chief Executive Carrie Lam following multiple large-scale protests.
Looking back, on December 8, the Hong Kong Court of Appeal granted seven activists, including Jimmy Lai, the opportunity to contest their convictions for participating in an unauthorized assembly tied to the 2019 protests. In November, a Hong Kong woman was sentenced to over five years in prison in relation to a “vigilante” incident involving pro-democracy supporters protesting police inefficiency during the disruptive Yuen Long mob attack of 2019, which also stemmed from the aforementioned protests.