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Hong Kong – Three young Hong Kong dissidents were taken into custody on Monday after pleading guilty to inciting a demonstration during last year’s pro-democracy protests, deepening the crackdown on critics of Beijing. Hong Kong was in turmoil for seven consecutive months of huge and often violent pro-democracy demonstrations last year in which millions took to the streets.
China has rejected demands for free elections in Hong Kong and the authorities have persecuted supporters of democracy with criminal cases and a comprehensive new national security law.
Prominent activist Joshua Wong, 24, was indicted Monday along with fellow activists Ivan Lam and Agnes Chow for a protest that took place last summer in front of the city’s police headquarters.
TYRONE SIU / REUTERS
“We will continue to fight for freedom, and now is not the time to bow to Beijing and surrender,” Wong told reporters on the way to court.
Once inside, Wong pleaded guilty to inciting and organizing an illegal gathering. Lam pleaded guilty to incitement, while Chow, 23, admitted to inciting and joining the protest.
All three were placed in pre-trial detention pending sentencing on December 2, which means that jail time is practically guaranteed. The maximum sentence that a magistrate court can impose is three years.
“Everyone hold on. I know it’s harder for you guys to stay there,” Wong yelled from the court.
Small groups of supporters surrounded the prison van as they drove away shouting “Add oil!” and “No troublemakers, just tyranny!”
Adding oil is a popular phrase of encouragement in Cantonese, and authorities last year dismissed peaceful and violent protesters as rioters.
Young pro-democracy veterans
Despite his youth, Wong has already spent time in prison for leading democracy protests and told reporters that he was ready to return.
“Emotionally I am reluctant in every way to be jailed, but rationally I have absolutely no room to complain compared to many others,” he said outside the court, referring to the hundreds of protest-linked prosecutions already concluded.
Chow seemed less sure of himself.
“If she is sentenced, this will be my first time in prison,” she wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday. “Even though I say I have mentally prepared myself for this, I am still a little scared.”
TYRONE SIU / REUTERS
Wong became an activist as a teenager and successfully organized demonstrations in 2012 against plans to make Hong Kong’s education system more “patriotic” and similar to that of the mainland.
In 2014, he and Chow helped inspire and lead the “Umbrella Movement,” a 79-day peaceful occupation of three busy intersections by a primarily student-led campaign calling for universal suffrage.
Wong was jailed for his participation in those protests, along with most of the top leaders of that movement.
He was still in jail when last year’s much larger democratic protests began, although he made appearances at numerous rallies after his release.
However, the protests were deliberately leaderless, mostly organized through social media and encrypted chat forums.
They were also much more violent. The riot police fired thousands of rounds of tear gas and rubber bullets and was frequently filmed with batons to beat up arrested protesters.
Its headquarters was besieged multiple times by crowds throwing eggs and staining its walls with graffiti. Small groups of hard-line activists resorted to stones, gasoline bombs, and even bows and arrows.
More than 10,000 people were arrested and most of Hong Kong’s leading activists and opposition figures now face prosecution.
Protests canceled
Demonstrations slowed at the beginning of the year thanks to exhaustion, mass arrests and the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic.
The antivirus ban for more than four people gathering in public has been in place for most of this year.
Beijing has also imposed a new comprehensive security law that increases its direct control over the semi-autonomous city and outlaws certain political views.
Demosisto, the pro-democracy party that Wong, Lam and Chow were in, dissolved when the security law came in because their desire for greater self-determination was now illegal.
Pro-democracy lawmakers too been disqualified and local legislative elections were delayed for a year.
Authorities say they have restored much-needed stability to the global trading center, but the United States and other countries have imposed new sanctions on Chinese officials by the law, who argue that it effectively removes Hong Kong’s semi-autonomy.
Critics insist that opposition to the Beijing government remains widespread, despite the lack of street protests.
