Latest news with #JoshuaWong
HKFP
08-08-2025
- Politics
- HKFP
Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong's second nat. security case to be transferred to High Court
Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong's second national security case will be transferred to the High Court, where he may face life imprisonment if convicted. Wearing a white T-shirt and a black jacket, Wong appeared at West Kowloon Magistrates' Court on Friday. He is currently serving an almost five-year jail sentence under the Beijing-imposed national security law in a case linked to unofficial primaries. While still in prison, he was arrested in June and charged with a second national security offence. The 28-year-old was accused of conspiring with self-exiled activist Nathan Law and 'other persons unknown' between July 1 and November 23, 2020, to request foreign countries or individuals to engage in hostile activities against Hong Kong or China. National security judge Victor So confirmed that Wong's case would be adjourned until September 5 for committal proceedings before the case is transferred from the magistrates' court, the city's lowest-level court, to the High Court. Wong has not indicated how he will plead. Most national security law cases in Hong Kong have taken place in the High Court, where defendants face up to life imprisonment if convicted. One of Hong Kong's most high-profile pro-democracy activists, Wong rose to prominence as a student leader during a 2012 protest against the government's plan to introduce 'moral and national education' in local schools, when he was in secondary school, and later during the Umbrella Movement in 2014, weeks after he started university. Members of foreign consulates, including those of the EU, the US, and France, were in attendance at the court hearing on Friday. There was also a heavier-than-usual police presence around the court building, with at least one police dog spotted. Wong has been in remand since November 23, 2020, over a 2019 protest-related case, which led to a 13.5-month jail sentence in December that year. sentenced in November to four years and eight months.
The Age
06-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
The dissident award-winning artist keeping a close watch on China
In an upstairs room of a Collingwood gallery hangs a line of colourful prints on a wall. It's only when you look closely that you see small areas of damage, evidence of their role in a troubled recent past. Dissident Chinese artist Badiucao points to a scratch on one and steps back. 'Some of the frames are even broken', he explains, saying it was a deliberate choice to leave them this way. These works were originally slated for display in 2018 at a doomed exhibition in Hong Kong. They now open his first Australian solo show, Disagree Where We Must. One of the prints features Joshua Wong, a key figure in Hong Kong's pro-democracy Umbrella Movement. At the time it was created, Badiucao was working anonymously. But three days before the Hong Kong show was due to open, 'the Chinese government found out my identity and took my relatives into the police station, ' he says. In response, he cancelled his show. A year later he shed his anonymity and finally revealed his face and identity to the world. The scratches and dings, he explains, help tell the story of how this group of works was hurriedly removed and hidden in the months and years after the show was cancelled. The Shanghai-born Badiucao, who now lives in Australia, contributes to this masthead and is a Walkley Award winner for his cartoons, has always used his art to critique mainland China's government, its policies, and historical wrongs. This ethos is on full display in Disagree Where We Must. Held in Collingwood's Goldstone gallery, a space opened by artist Nina Sanadze this year, the exhibition takes its title from the Labor government's stated approach to China: 'We will co-operate where we can, disagree where we must, but engage in our national interest.' A room at the back of the space is devoted to a video that first screened on billboards in Hong Kong earlier this year in a test of the limits of free speech in the wake of the sweeping National Security Law implemented in 2020. In the four-second clip, Badiucao silently mouths the words 'you must take part in revolution'.
Sydney Morning Herald
06-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
The dissident award-winning artist keeping a close watch on China
In an upstairs room of a Collingwood gallery hangs a line of colourful prints on a wall. It's only when you look closely that you see small areas of damage, evidence of their role in a troubled recent past. Dissident Chinese artist Badiucao points to a scratch on one and steps back. 'Some of the frames are even broken', he explains, saying it was a deliberate choice to leave them this way. These works were originally slated for display in 2018 at a doomed exhibition in Hong Kong. They now open his first Australian solo show, Disagree Where We Must. One of the prints features Joshua Wong, a key figure in Hong Kong's pro-democracy Umbrella Movement. At the time it was created, Badiucao was working anonymously. But three days before the Hong Kong show was due to open, 'the Chinese government found out my identity and took my relatives into the police station, ' he says. In response, he cancelled his show. A year later he shed his anonymity and finally revealed his face and identity to the world. The scratches and dings, he explains, help tell the story of how this group of works was hurriedly removed and hidden in the months and years after the show was cancelled. The Shanghai-born Badiucao, who now lives in Australia, contributes to this masthead and is a Walkley Award winner for his cartoons, has always used his art to critique mainland China's government, its policies, and historical wrongs. This ethos is on full display in Disagree Where We Must. Held in Collingwood's Goldstone gallery, a space opened by artist Nina Sanadze this year, the exhibition takes its title from the Labor government's stated approach to China: 'We will co-operate where we can, disagree where we must, but engage in our national interest.' A room at the back of the space is devoted to a video that first screened on billboards in Hong Kong earlier this year in a test of the limits of free speech in the wake of the sweeping National Security Law implemented in 2020. In the four-second clip, Badiucao silently mouths the words 'you must take part in revolution'.
Bangkok Post
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Bangkok Post
Hong Kong's dragnet widens 5 years after national security law
HONG KONG - Jailed pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong shrugged and shook his head after a Hong Kong court this month announced a fresh charge of breaching the city's national security law. The 28-year-old protest icon has spent more than four years behind bars and hoped to be let out in early 2027. Now, there is no end in sight. Monday marks five years since Beijing imposed a national security law after widespread and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in the finance hub, which Chinese officials saw as a challenge to their rule. China sees former protest leaders such as Wong as "incorrigible troublemakers", said John Burns, an honorary professor of politics and public administration at the University of Hong Kong. "We have a daily drumbeat of national security on TV, in the media," Burns told AFP. The new charge against Wong, who was jailed for subversion and unlawful assembly, underscores how Hong Kong authorities are still widening the dragnet. The national security law criminalised for the first time secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign collusion, with offenders facing up to life imprisonment. Since the law was introduced, 165 people have been convicted of various national security crimes, including under follow-up legislation in 2024 and colonial-era sedition laws. The most severely punished was legal academic Benny Tai, who was sentenced in November to 10 years in prison as part of a sprawling subversion case involving 47 opposition figures. A lawyer, who requested anonymity in order to discuss sensitive cases, said five years spent defending security law clients had laid bare the limits of his role. Of all those charged with national security crimes, only two have been acquitted. "Our hands are tied," he told AFP. "Practically the only thing (lawyers) can do is argue for a lighter penalty." - 'Information gap' - Authorities have also warned against "soft resistance", a vague term introduced in 2021 and recently highlighted by Xia Baolong, China's top official overseeing Hong Kong. Regina Ip, convenor of the Hong Kong government's cabinet, told AFP: "I don't think the government is being paranoid. "Because of the increasingly complex and volatile international environment, we all need to be alert," she added. Beijing security officials in Hong Kong also took part in "interviews" this month with collusion suspects for the first time, authorities said. Eric Lai, a research fellow at the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, said the city was adapting approaches from mainland China such as "invitation to tea" -- a practice associated with state security agents. Such informal methods "to regulate and to stabilise society" were favoured because they are "less visible", Lai said. Another local lawyer with experience in security cases also noted a worsening "information gap" that has kept the public in the dark. "There are fewer prosecutions now but more arrests, 'interviews' and operations where (people) are not brought to court," said the lawyer, who requested anonymity. High-profile legal battles have not ended: the case of media tycoon Jimmy Lai continues, while a trial involving organisers of Hong Kong's once-annual vigil marking Beijing's deadly Tiananmen Square crackdown has not yet begun. - Wave of departures - Scores of pro-democracy and civil society groups, including trade unions and media outlets, have closed since 2020 and the ouster of opposition lawmakers has had "massive consequences for accountability", said Burns. Hong Kong's Democratic Party has begun a process that will lead to its dissolution, while local media reported on Wednesday that the League of Social Democrats, the other remaining opposition party, could fold within days. The security law has prompted a wave of departures. Hong Kong independence advocate Tony Chung said he felt unsafe after finishing a prison sentence for secession and fled to the United Kingdom in 2023. Chung is among 19 people Hong Kong authorities deem to be national security fugitives. The 24-year-old has at times struggled to adapt while he waits in Britain for political asylum but insists on promoting his separatist views. "Many friends told me that I can start a new life here and leave politics behind," he told AFP. "I see the sun, good weather, a grassy field... But I force myself to remember why I came here."
News.com.au
27-06-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
Hong Kong's dragnet widens 5 years after national security law
Jailed pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong shrugged and shook his head after a Hong Kong court this month announced a fresh charge of breaching the city's national security law. The 28-year-old protest icon has spent more than four years behind bars and hoped to be let out in early 2027. Now, there is no end in sight. Monday marks five years since Beijing imposed a national security law after widespread and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in the finance hub, which Chinese officials saw as a challenge to their rule. China sees former protest leaders such as Wong as "incorrigible troublemakers", said John Burns, an honorary professor of politics and public administration at the University of Hong Kong. "We have a daily drumbeat of national security on TV, in the media," Burns told AFP. The new charge against Wong, who was jailed for subversion and unlawful assembly, underscores how Hong Kong authorities are still widening the dragnet. The national security law criminalised for the first time secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign collusion, with offenders facing up to life imprisonment. Since the law was introduced, 165 people have been convicted of various national security crimes, including under follow-up legislation in 2024 and colonial-era sedition laws. The most severely punished was legal academic Benny Tai, who was sentenced in November to 10 years in prison as part of a sprawling subversion case involving 47 opposition figures. A lawyer, who requested anonymity in order to discuss sensitive cases, said five years spent defending security law clients had laid bare the limits of his role. Of all those charged with national security crimes, only two have been acquitted. "Our hands are tied," he told AFP. "Practically the only thing (lawyers) can do is argue for a lighter penalty." - 'Information gap' - Authorities have also warned against "soft resistance", a vague term introduced in 2021 and recently highlighted by Xia Baolong, China's top official overseeing Hong Kong. Regina Ip, convenor of the Hong Kong government's cabinet, told AFP: "I don't think the government is being paranoid. "Because of the increasingly complex and volatile international environment, we all need to be alert," she added. Beijing security officials in Hong Kong also took part in "interviews" this month with collusion suspects for the first time, authorities said. Eric Lai, a research fellow at the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, said the city was adapting approaches from mainland China such as "invitation to tea" -- a practice associated with state security agents. Such informal methods "to regulate and to stabilise society" were favoured because they are "less visible", Lai said. Another local lawyer with experience in security cases also noted a worsening "information gap" that has kept the public in the dark. "There are fewer prosecutions now but more arrests, 'interviews' and operations where (people) are not brought to court," said the lawyer, who requested anonymity. High-profile legal battles have not ended: the case of media tycoon Jimmy Lai continues, while a trial involving organisers of Hong Kong's once-annual vigil marking Beijing's deadly Tiananmen Square crackdown has not yet begun. - Wave of departures - Scores of pro-democracy and civil society groups, including trade unions and media outlets, have closed since 2020 and the ouster of opposition lawmakers has had "massive consequences for accountability", said Burns. Hong Kong's Democratic Party has begun a process that will lead to its dissolution, while local media reported on Wednesday that the League of Social Democrats, the other remaining opposition party, could fold within days. The security law has prompted a wave of departures. Hong Kong independence advocate Tony Chung said he felt unsafe after finishing a prison sentence for secession and fled to the United Kingdom in 2023. Chung is among 19 people Hong Kong authorities deem to be national security fugitives. The 24-year-old has at times struggled to adapt while he waits in Britain for political asylum but insists on promoting his separatist views. "Many friends told me that I can start a new life here and leave politics behind," he told AFP.
