Though the verdict was not unexpected, people were still crying outside Room 2 of the West Kowloon Court. The Hong Kong National Security Judges had spent two days deliberating but finished their core business in about 15 minutes. The largest national security trial in Hong Kong history was brought against pro-democracy activists and activists from a group known as the “Hong Kong 47,” with almost all of the defendants found guilty of conspiracy to subvert the country.
Their crime was to try to win the election by holding an unofficial primary in 2020 in which an estimated 600,000 residents participated.
The plan was devised by Crowned King, an activist and academic who was jailed for his involvement in the 2014 Umbrella Movement and has been called a “vicious traitor” by Beijing. Crowned King’s plan started with primaries to select the best candidate to win a legislative majority. He would then block the government budget, dissolve the government, and force Chief Executive Carrie Lam to resign, forcing the government to meet the demands of the Umbrella Movement.
Last Thursday, the court ruled that the plan would lead to a constitutional crisis and threaten national security.
Those convicted included one organiser – Gordon Ng, a dual Hong Kong-Australian citizen – and 13 other candidates, almost all of them former politicians. Two other candidates were acquitted but are out on bail while the government prepares an appeal.
The 16 were the only ones to plead not guilty out of 47 people indicted after massive dawn raids by state security police in early 2021. Thirty-one other defendants, including four prosecution witnesses, had already pleaded guilty, but the court postponed sentencing until the end of the trial of the 16. The 45 activists now convicted could face up to life in prison.
After months of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong throughout 2019, the Hong Kong government intensified its crackdown on the movement in 2020, quelling dissent and opposition with a new national security law. Thousands have been arrested at protests, hundreds on national security charges, and several media outlets have been silenced. Many dissidents have fled overseas. More than three years after the arrests and with freedoms shrinking, supporters of the defendants are hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.
“We knew the chances of winning were slim but we had no choice but to take it in stride,” said Ng’s friend. ObserverNg said he had carefully considered the impact on his family, where he is the primary breadwinner, and his own beliefs, before pleading not guilty. In a statement posted online by an intermediary in August 2022, Ng said: “Do I believe I committed a crime? No, not at all. I am ready to face the biggest fight of my life on the battlefield of the court. I am scared, but I will not back down.”
Most of the 47 defendants have been incarcerated since their arrest. They are not violent criminals but members of Hong Kong’s politically active mainstream society and include a mix of pro-democracy politicians such as Helena Wong, Claudia Mo and Kwok Ka-ki, veteran activists such as Leung “Long Hair” Kwok-hun, up-and-comers who have recently won seats in parliament, and civil society activists.
Some had worked as social workers or trade union officials before moving into politics, and there was Gwyneth Ho, a journalist who was assaulted while covering the 2019 protests and filming a mob attack on demonstrators.
Claudia Mo, a former journalist and popular lawmaker affectionately known as “Auntie Mo,” pleaded guilty. A fierce but unwavering defender of Hong Kong democracy, Mo had spoken frequently to foreign media for many years. These conversations led to her being denied bail.
When police breached the front door of her house, they also seized her mobile phone and laptop, from which WhatsApp conversations between her and the attacker are believed to have been recovered. Guardian and Observer Various media outlets have reported that, while in prison, the 67-year-old has reportedly been giving language lessons to other inmates. She has not been allowed to visit her ailing husband, British journalist Philip Bowling.
Emilia Wong, the girlfriend of politician and activist Ventus Lau, 30, said his wife had become physically weak in prison.
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“I personally felt that these political prisoners were slowly dying in society and falling out of the spotlight,” Wong said in February.
Last Thursday, Stanley Ng queued early outside the West Kowloon Courthouse along with foreign diplomatic observers. Ng, a democrat, has friends and former colleagues who are on trial and in prison. “I’ve visited prisons a number of times, I visited yesterday,” he said, speaking personally. “The trials are damaging to those who are incarcerated, they put pressure on their families, they’re under stress,” he added.
A friend of Gordon Ng’s said Ng never expected to be arrested and struggled during his first year in prison until he found ways to cope: “Over the past few years I’ve seen in him a sense of responsibility and tenacity as well as resilience, and of course a very nerdy sense of humour, which has helped him maintain a positive attitude in such a darkly humoured situation.”
Unofficial primaries had been held before, but this one came less than two weeks after Beijing imposed the national security law and Hong Kong’s Minister Tsang Ying-ti warned that they could violate the law. But organizers went ahead with the primaries, taking a big gamble that the pro-democracy movement would still find a way.
The elections that the primaries were preparing for were postponed by the government, ostensibly due to the pandemic, and by the time they were rescheduled, the government had overhauled the electoral system to allow only pro-Beijing “patriots” to run.
Emily Lau, a Democrat and vocal pro-democracy activist who has not yet been charged, said her city now looks very different: The party can’t field candidates or raise funds, and attempts to hold group parties have been blocked by accusations that it is apparently “reuniting.”
“They have a way of showing you they don’t like you. How do you continue to exist?” she said. “We’re going to keep going. We refuse to just go away.”
