Hong Kong Protests

Hong Kong media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to one year in prison. The sentence was handed down on Friday. The reason is the media entrepreneur's role in the mass protests in the Chinese special administrative region, in which an estimated 1.7 million people took part in the summer of 2019. It is the first time Lai has been sentenced to prison.

Hong Kong media reported that 53 pro-democracy activists have been arrested in connection with the unofficial primaries held last year by opposition forces ahead of the election to the Legislative Council, Hong Kong's parliament, which was later canceled due to the Corona pandemic. According to the report, those arrested were accused of endangering the state by participating in the primaries and the goals pursued there, and thus of violating the security law introduced at the end of June.

Shortly after the verdict against Joshua Wong and two of his comrades-in-arms the media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai, another prominent supporter of the Hong Kong democracy movement has been sent to prison. He is accused of fraud and is now expected to remain in detention pending a planned court hearing in April.

Joshua Wong has been sentenced to thirteen and a half months in prison, and the co-defendants Agnes Chow and Ivan Lam have been sentenced to ten and seven months in prison, respectively. This was decided by a court in Hong Kong's Kowloon district. The prosecution had accused the three of having participated in an unauthorized demonstration last year against the growing influence of the Chinese leadership in Hong Kong.

During a trial facing charges relating to pro-democracy protests outside Hong Kong police stations the three activists Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow, and Ivan Lam have pleaded guilty to the charges.

According to local media reports, Joshua Wong pleaded guilty to organizing and inciting the unauthorized assemble but not participation due to missing evidence by the prosecution. He could face up to five years in prison if convicted under the charges he pleaded guilty for.

Sentencing is expected for next week.

China has told Britain to "immediately correct its mistakes" after the UK reaffirmed its plan to offer a route to British citizenship to almost three million people living there.

After reporting to a police station in Hong Kong, pro-democracy activist and politician Joshua Wong (Huang Zhifeng) has been arrested for participating in an illegal assembly on October 5 in 2019. In addition he has been charged with violating the anti-mask law in 2019.

Around 100 people were arrested in Hong Kong on Sunday while protesting against delayed legislative elections. Elections were supposed to happen on September 6th but were allegedly postponed due to the Coronavirus.

The Hong Kong Police Force has announced via their Twitter account that nine people have been arrested for alleged breaches of the national security law.

One of the arrested people is the freelance journalist Wilson Li who works for the UK-based television channel ITV. A spokesperson from ITV News has stated that: "We can confirm that Wilson Li works for ITV News in a freelance capacity. We are concerned to hear of his arrest and are urgently seeking clarification of the circumstances."

In addition to the arrests, the Hong Kong Police Force has raided and searched the office the media outlet Apple Daily.

The Hong Kong police have arrested Jimmy Lai on grounds of the new national security law in Hong Kong. According to a close aid of his, he has been arrested at 7am and lawyers have been sent to the police station.

The news agency AFP has stated that a police source has stated that Lai had been arrested for the alleged collusion with foreign forces and fraud. His house has been searched by the police, as well as the house of his son. Multiple other members of his group have reportedly been arrested.

Under the new national security law Hong Kong has issued multiple warrants for pro-democracy activists. Included in these warrants is one for managing director of the Hong Kong Democracy Council based in D.C., Samuel Chu.

Chu stated on his Twitter account that he heard about the arrest warrant from the media and that Hong Kong is searching for him for the alleged crimes of "inciting secession" and "colluding with foreign powers". He added that he is and has been for 25 years an American citizen.

Six other pro-democracy activists have gotten outstanding arrest warrants according to Chinese state media including the activist Nathan Law.

The German foreign minister Heiko Maas has announced that Germany will suspend the extradition treaty between Hong Kong and Germany as a consequence of the postponed Legislative Council General Election in Hong Kong.

Maas has stated that "the Hong Kong government’s decision to disqualify a dozen opposition candidates for the election and postpone the elections to the legislature is another infringement on the rights of the citizens of Hong Kong" adding that China needs to ensure international law and to provide free and fair elections.

The pro-democracy activist and politician Joshua Wong has announced via his Twitter account that he has been disqualified from running in the upcoming 2020 Legislative Council General Election in Hong Kong. The elections are set to happen on the 6 September.

In a second tweet, Wong states that his criticism of the national security law is the reason why he has been disqualified despite getting over 30,000 votes in the democratic primary.

The United Kingdoms foreign secretary Dominic Raab has stated in an address to the parliament that the newly passed and enacted national security law is "a clear and serious violation of the UK-China joint declaration" and adding that the United Kingdom "will hold China to its international obligations".

The suspension of the extradition deal with Hong Kong is indefinitely and the arms embargo against China has been extended to include Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam has stated that "If this so-called primary election’s purpose is to achieve the ultimate goal of rejecting to, resisting every policy initiative of the Hong Kong SAR government, then it may fall into the category of subverting the state power" in regards to the pro-democracy camp’s primary election that happened over the past weekend. She added that coordinated efforts to subvert the state power is "is now one of the four types offences under the new national security law".

Despite a rising number of Covid-19 cases in Hong Kong over 600,000 citizens hat turned up to vote in the primaries. The result will be used as a reference for the selection of candidates of the democratic camp in five geographical constituencies of Hong Kong.

After being arrested for knocking over multiple police officers at the pro-democracy demonstration in Hong Kong last Wednesday, Tong Ying-kit has been denied to get out of jail on bail. The Hong Kong court referenced Article 42 of the new national security law in denying bail, claiming that the protester could continue to endanger national security. Tong Ying-kit had previously protested with a "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times" banner and then drove a motorbike into police officers.

Following the enactment of a new security law in Hong Kong, Facebook and its messaging service WhatsApp are suspending government requests for user data in Hong Kong.

A spokesperson from WhatsApp said that they are pausing such requests pending further assessment of the impact of the national security law, including formal human rights due diligence and consultations with human rights experts.

According to Hong Kong Free Press the messenger app Telegram has decided to temporarily not fulfill data requests of its users made by Hong Kong courts. The head of marketing for telegram, Mike Ravdonikas, has stated that "Telegram does not intend to process any data requests related to its Hong Kong users until an international consensus is reached in relation to the ongoing political changes in the city". The decision follows the enactment of the new national security law in Hong Kong.

One of the leading pro-democracy activists and former member of the Hong Kong parliament Nathan Law has left Hong Kong. He stated on his Facebook pages that is currently at an undisclosed location and intends to continue his activism from there, as the new security law in Hong Kong brought up new concerns for his freedom and safety. In 2014 Law had been one of the main organizers of the umbrella protests and since then been in the focus of the authorities.

In a unanimous vote the United States House of Representatives has passed a bill sanctioning banks that are in business with Chinese officials responsible for the national security law and action against the pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has stated that "The law is a brutal, sweeping crackdown against the people of Hong Kong, intended to destroy the freedoms they were promised".

The bill is pending Senate approval and the signature of President Donald Trump.