From a 68-year-old former opposition lawmaker to a 27-year-old student activist, fourteen pro-democracy campaigners have been convicted for subversion by a Hong Kong court in the city’s largest national security case.
They are among 47 protesters and activists – better known as the Hong Kong 47 – who were charged three years ago in what was seen as the biggest crackdown under the National Security Law (NSL) imposed by China.
Officials had accused the 47 – eight women and 39 men – of trying to “overthrow” the government by running unofficial primaries to pick opposition candidates for local elections.
The judges in their ruling agreed with the prosecutions’ argument that this “scheme” by the activists would have created a “constitutional crisis” if the winners of the primary had indeed been elected as lawmakers.
Sixteen of them appeared in court on Thursday and pleaded not guilty in front of three High Court judges. Fourteen of them were found guilty, and two others were acquitted – Lawrence Lau, a barrister and former district councillor, and Lee Yue-shun, also a former district councillor. Sentencing is expected at a later date.
The remaining 31 had pleaded guilty. Four of them testifed for the prosecution, including former lawmakers Au Nok-hin and Andrew Chiu. While this typically leads to a reduced sentence, it is unclear if it applies to the NSL.
The primaries were held in July 2020 in defiance of Hong Kong officials and amid warnings that they could breach the NSL, which had come into effect days before.
Beijing defends the law, which followed mass pro-democracy protests, as necessary to maintain stability, but critics say it has stripped the city of its prized autonomy and freedoms.
Who are the Hong Kong 47?
Some are famous, such as opposition lawmakers – Claudia Mo, Helena Wong, Kwok ka-ki – and icons of the 2014 pro-democracy protests that rocked Hong Kong – Joshua Wong and Benny Tai.
But many like Owen Chow, Ventus Lau and Tiffany Yuen represented a new generation of vocal activists. Mr Lau and Mr Chow were among hundreds who stormed the city’s Legislative Council (LegCo) and spray-painted Hong Kong’s emblem in what became a pivotal moment in the 2019 protests.
Then there are those who were not involved in politics but were galvanised by the 2019 protests – social workers like Hendrick Lui, entrepreneurs like Mike Lam and a former nurse, Winnie Yu.
Other prominent figures such as Nathan Law and ex-legislator Ted Hui also ran in the primaries, but fled Hong Kong.
So by the time the 47 were arrested in early 2021, most of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy campaigners were behind bars or in exile. Most of the accused have been in jail since then as pre-trial detentions have become the norm under NSL.
The professor – Benny Tai
China called him a “hardcore troublemaker” for advocating Hong Kong independence and describing the Communist Party’s rule as a “dictatorship”.
A scholar and law professor, Benny Tai first drew attention when he wrote a newspaper column proposing an occupy sit-in to demand greater democracy.
This eventually became the pro-democracy Occupy Central movement that he founded along with two others. It was a historic civil disobedience campaign that called for fair and free elections in Hong Kong.
The movement died down but five years later, in 2019, Mr Tai was sentenced to prison for his role in the protests.
A year later, after the NSL was imposed, he was fired from his tenured job at the prestigious University of Hong Kong (HKU) over his criminal conviction.
Mr Tai accused the university of bowing to Chinese pressure and called it the “end of academic freedom” in the city.
“I am heartbroken to witness the demise of my beloved university,” the 60-year-old later said in a Facebook post.
By then, he was already facing accusations of subversion under NSL for organising what Hong Kong and Beijing officals called an “illegal” primary.
The student – Joshua Wong
Arguably Hong Kong’s most famous pro-democracy activist, Joshua Wong’s journey into activism started when he was just 14.
By 2014, he had become the face of the Umbrella Movement, a mass student protests with the umbrella as a symbol, which sprang up alongside the Occupy Central sit-in.
He was just 20 when his activism first landed him in jail. He had more spells in jail, including one in 2019, when he walked out a day after hundreds of thousands marched against a hugely controversial extradition bill – it would allow Hong Kongers to be sent to mainland China to face trial.
The protests against the bill engulfed Hong Kong for months. Mr Wong was among thousands who held a 15-hour siege of police headquarters in Wan Chai district – they pelted the building with eggs and sprayed graffiti on its walls – in June of that year.
Prosecutors said he led the protest, pointing to a video of him calling for the crowd to “completely besiege police headquarters”. Although Mr Wong was a well-known campaigner, the 2019 protests were widely seen as a spontaneous, “leaderless” movement.
He was jailed for his role in them – and placed in solitary confinement.
But he remained defiant after pleading guilty: “Perhaps the authorities wish me to stay in prison one term after another. But I am persuaded that neither prison bars, nor election ban, nor any other arbitrary powers would stop us from activism.”
He was still serving his sentence when he was charged with subversion under NSL.
The ‘revolutionary’ – Long hair
Former opposition lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung, better known as Long Hair for his coiffure, once described himself as a “Marxist revolutionary”.
He was found guilty of subversion by the court.
The 68-year-old was known for his political theatrics – one of his signature moves involved hurling bananas as a sign of protest. When he was sworn in again as a lawmaker in 2016, he released a balloon with a political banner and held a yellow umbrella, declaring that the “Umbrella movement would never end”.
This got him disqualified from the council. He was arrested and had repeated stints in jail for taking part in the 2019 protests.
After the NSL was imposed in 2020, he married his long-time partner, Vanessa Chan, also known as Chan Po-ying, who is a prominent activist. They were among the founding members of a political party, the League of Social Democrats.
They said they decided to marry because should one of them be jailed, they would have greater legal rights such as prison visitation.
Forty days after the wedding, Mr Leung was charged.
The longtime activist – Claudia Mo
Claudia Mo, known affectionately in Cantonese as Auntie Mo, was a prominent opposition lawmaker.
She had been a journalist at the AFP news agency, where she covered the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
The 67-year-old helped set up the opposition Civic Party in 2006 and by 2012, she won a seat in LegCo – she gave up British citizenship to hold office.
She was among 15 lawmakers who resigned en masse from LegCo after four pro-democracy lawmakers were ousted in November 2020. The move left LegCo with no opposition presence.
“We had to,” she said at the time. “We need to protest against what could be the ultimate Beijing crackdown on Hong Kong – to silence the last bit of dissent in the city.”
Police “smashed through into the living room” to arrest her in the early hours of 6 January 2021, the FT reported, citing an unnamed source who described the raid as “sheer thuggery”.
She has been in jail throughout. When her husband, British journalist Philip Bowring, was critically ill, Ms Mo was not allowed to visit him from prison.
The LGBT campaigner – Jimmy Sham
She had been a journalist at the AFP news agency, where she covered the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
The 67-year-old helped set up the opposition Civic Party in 2006 and by 2012, she won a seat in LegCo – she gave up British citizenship to hold office.
She was among 15 lawmakers who resigned en masse from LegCo after four pro-democracy lawmakers were ousted in November 2020. The move left LegCo with no opposition presence.
“We had to,” she said at the time. “We need to protest against what could be the ultimate Beijing crackdown on Hong Kong – to silence the last bit of dissent in the city.”
Police “smashed through into the living room” to arrest her in the early hours of 6 January 2021, the FT reported, citing an unnamed source who described the raid as “sheer thuggery”.
She has been in jail throughout. When her husband, British journalist Philip Bowring, was critically ill, Ms Mo was not allowed to visit him from prison.
