Hong Kong’s Puppet Government Convicts Two More Journalists On Sedition Charges

The Chinese government wants the money that flows through Hong Kong. It has no desire to put up with the freedom and democracy Hong Kong has enjoyed since being freed of its colonialist overlords.

The UK government exited Hong Kong only to see the Chinese government replace it as the new colonialists. The Chinese government agreed to take a hands-off approach for 50 years after the UK’s exit, but almost immediately violated this agreement to shut down dissent while it siphons off the wealth.

Pro-democracy protests that received worldwide coverage resulted in hastily-written, extremely draconian national security laws that expanded the Chinese government’s direct control of Hong Kong. Since then, the Chinese government has ousted pro-democracy politicians and replaced them with hand-picked hardliners willing to exchange their humanity for just a little bit more power.

Controlling the government is one thing. Controlling the population is a bit more difficult. But it’s been made much easier with new laws that treat dissent as a threat to national security. This has resulted in censorship — something usually enforced by arrests and jail sentences for critics, dissenters, and even pop artists who chose to speak up against the Chinese government.

Hong Kong’s new national security law was used to arrest Jimmy Lai, a prominent pro-democracy media tycoon, making it clear to everyone that while the Chinese government’s version of capitalism might allow people to become rich, it will never allow citizens to become powerful — not if they’re unwilling to fully bend the knee.

Two more journalists are now facing criminal charges for publishing articles critical of the Chinese government. And while the Chinese government has conveniently forgotten its promise to exiting UK colonialists to take a hands-off approach to governing Hong Kong, it’s more than happy to use laws written by UK colonialists to punish its critics.

A Hong Kong court on Thursday convicted two former editors of a shuttered news outlet in a sedition case widely seen as a barometer for the future of media freedoms in a city once hailed as a bastion of free press in Asia.

The trial of Stand News former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen and former acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam was Hong Kong’s first involving the media since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

[…]

Chung and Lam had pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious publications — charges that were brought under a colonial-era sedition law used increasingly to crush dissidents. They face up to two years in prison and a fine of 5,000 Hong Kong dollars (about $640) for a first offense.

The judicial system is just as compromised by Chinese government sympathizers as the rest of the Hong Kong government. Judge Kwok Wai-kin stated in his order that the two journalists — along with the paper’s holding company (Best Pencil LTD) — “smeared” the Hong Kong and Chinese governments during the 2019 pro-democracy protests. The offices of the paper were raided in 2021 by the Hong Kong government, setting up this inevitable prosecution of the publication’s top editors.

As the AP report notes, press freedom is in a free fall in Hong Kong, dropping from 80 (of 180 territories) in 2021 to 135th place in 2024. That’s exactly what the Chinese government wants. And it will continue this deterioration of freedom in Hong Kong until another powerful world government is willing to do something more than issue a statement condemning its ritualistic violation of human and civil rights.

That being said, at the statement issued by the US State Department reminds the Chinese government of the agreement it began ignoring almost immediately after the Hong Kong handover.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller wrote on X that the convictions were a “direct attack on media freedom” and undermined the city’s international reputation for openness.

“We urge Beijing and Hong Kong authorities to restore and uphold rights guaranteed in the Basic Law,” he said, referring to the mini-constitution which adopted by China to govern Hong Kong after its handover from Britain in 1997 and which was aimed at preserving the territory’s capitalist system and way of life until 2047.

All well and good, but the Chinese government is engaged in actions. The rest of the world seems to think words are sufficient. Try telling that to the journalists who are well on their way to seeing their words converted into actions that will see them robbed of their livelihood and their freedom.