A Hong Kong teenager was sentenced to four months in prison on Tuesday for insulting China’s national flag and illegal assembly, as Beijing is targeting increasingly prominent financial center activists. Tony Chung, a 19-year-old who led a now defunct pro-democracy group, was convicted earlier this month for throwing the Chinese flag to the ground during fights outside the Hong Kong legislature in May 2019.
While serving his sentence, Chung will be awaiting trial on a “secession” charge, which could result in life imprisonment according to the draconian national security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong on June 30.
Chung was the first public political figure sued under the new security law, which Beijing described as a “sword” to return “order and stability” to the financial center after seven months of massive, often violent, pro-democracy protests last year. .
He was sentenced to three months each for insulting the national flag and the illegal assembly, and sentenced to four months behind bars.
Kin Cheung / AP
The teenager also faces separate charges of money laundering and conspiracy to publish seditious content.
Chung was arrested by plainclothes police outside the US consulate in late October and has been in custody ever since.
There are speculations that the authorities moved Chung because he hoped to apply for asylum at the US consulate in Hong Kong.
A growing number of pro-democracy activists across the political spectrum have fled Hong Kong since Beijing stepped up its crackdown on the city’s protests against China’s authoritarian regime.
Under the security law, dissenting speeches instead of acts can be accused of vague but serious offenses, such as “subversion” and “collusion with foreign forces”.
The law also broke down the legal firewall between Hong Kong’s internationally recognized common law judiciary and the opaque Party-controlled justice system in mainland China, allowing the extradition of suspects across the border for trial.
Last Sunday, Chinese state TV CGTN reported that Hong Kong police have placed 30 people who are not currently in Hong Kong on their wanted list for suspected violations of national security law, including self-exiled activists Ted Hui and Baggio Leung .
Prominent activists who remain in Hong Kong have been arrested, such as Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow, or face frequent arrests and various charges.
Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy media mogul who is also charged with national security law, was placed under house arrest and deprived of his public speaking – including his Twitter account – when the Hong Kong Supreme Court gave him bail last week last.
The decision, however, drew serious criticism from China, which threatened to extradite Lai for trial on the continent.