{"id":186593,"date":"2015-08-28T19:34:25","date_gmt":"2015-08-29T02:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=186593"},"modified":"2021-09-14T20:37:22","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T03:37:22","slug":"sit-leaders-charged-hong-kong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2015\/08\/sit-leaders-charged-hong-kong\/","title":{"rendered":"Umbrella Movement Leaders Charged in Hong Kong"},"content":{"rendered":"
Joshua Wong, Nathan Law, and Alex Chow, three student leaders of the 2014 Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong<\/a>,<\/strong>\u00a0are facing charges for storming into a government compound at the start of the pro-democracy demonstrations<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0calling for free elections of the territory’s next chief executive after Beijing announced plans to vet potential candidates<\/a>. Alan Wong at The New York Times reports:<\/p>\n Joshua Wong, now 18, was charged with unlawful assembly and inciting others to take part in the assembly. If convicted, Mr. Wong, who co-founded a youth protest group called Scholarism, faces a maximum of five years in prison.<\/p>\n Alex Chow, a former leader of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, was charged with unlawful assembly. Nathan Law, the federation\u2019s current leader, was charged with incitement. Last September, they were among a group of students who boycotted classes to protest Beijing\u2019s framework for electing Hong Kong\u2019s next leader. That night, they broke into a fenced square in front of the Hong Kong government headquarters.<\/p>\n That act escalated into clashes with the police as more people gathered in support of the students and of another group of protesters, Occupy Central With Love and Peace, that had joined forces with the two student organizations. The protests spread and prompted sit-ins that shut down three major arteries of Hong Kong for 79 days. [Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n At Hong Kong Free Press, Karen Cheung\u00a0reports that four Occupy protesters who broke into the Hong Kong\u00a0legislature during a November 2014 protest over a draft Internet bill are also facing charges and potential jail time<\/a><\/strong>:<\/p>\n Protesters who smashed a door at the Hong Kong\u00a0legislature during last year\u2019s pro-democracy Occupy protests will now face\u00a0three-and-a-half months imprisonment instead of 150 hours community service following an\u00a0appeal by the Department of Justice. The DoJ argued\u00a0that the original sentence was not heavy enough.<\/p>\n […]\u00a0Three were given jail time and released on bail, though their lawyers have said they will appeal the sentence.\u00a0The fourth defendant\u2019s case has been adjourned to next month in anticipation of a\u00a0report from the detention centre, as\u00a0he\u00a0was only 19 years old at the time of the incident, local media reported. [Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The string of prosecutions highlight fears that Hong Kong’s judicial independence is eroding, a fear that has been present since the Chinese government issued a white paper requiring Hong Kong judges to be patriotic<\/a>. Arthur Lo at the Hong Kong Free Press discusses\u00a0six challenges facing\u00a0Hong Kong\u2019s judiciary<\/a><\/strong>, including excessive workload and lack of political neutrality:<\/p>\n 5. Political neutrality\u00a0of justice minister\u00a0under question<\/p>\n Following the implementation of the\u00a0principal officials accountability system in 2002, the SJ\u00a0became politically appointed by the chief executive rather than promoted from within the civil service. This means\u00a0that the SJ\u00a0is no longer bound to be politically neutral.<\/p>\n Following the publication of the State Council white paper in 2014, SJ\u00a0Rimsky Yuensaid,\u00a0\u201cThe publication of the white paper does not indicate an attempt [by the Chinese government] to\u00a0interfere with Hong Kong\u2019s judicial independence.\u201d The Law Society also defended\u00a0the white paper, saying that \u201cthe paper says five times that Hong Kong can enjoy judicial independence and final adjudication.\u201d<\/p>\n However, more than\u00a01,800 legal professionals\u00a0held a\u00a0silent march in protest of the white paper in 2014. The Bar Association responded strongly against the white paper: \u201cAny erroneous public categorisation of judges and judicial offices as \u2018administrators\u2019 or official exhortation of them to carry out any political\u00a0mission or task will send out the wrong message to the people of Hong Kong.\u201d [Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In addition to judicial independence, Hong Kong’s academic freedom is also coming under fire. Virginia Chang from the Progressive Lawyers Group cites the delayed appointment of Johannes Chan to the position of\u00a0pro-vice-chancellor at the\u00a0University of Hong Kong<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0as the latest example of political interference in academia:<\/p>\n The controversy surrounding Professor\u00a0Johannes Chan\u2019s delayed appointment as pro-vice-chancellor \u2014 the post oversees\u00a0academic staffing and resources \u2014 has been well\u00a0reported. More than seven months ago, a search committee unanimously recommended Chan to the post. Yet, in an \u201cabsolutely ridiculous\u201d turn of events (in\u00a0the professor\u2019s own words), on June 30, the HKU Council decided to delay the appointment, citing the need to first appoint a new deputy vice-chancellor.<\/p>\n […] The continued deferral of Chan\u2019s appointment comes as a worrying blow to academic freedom in Hong Kong. Academic freedom is of utmost importance to our society because it allows scholars to pursue the truth where it takes them, regardless of political correctness or current orthodoxies, and without any fear of repression by the government. For good reason, it is constitutionally protected under Article 137 of the Basic Law.<\/p>\n What is more unsettling is the pressure on members of the academia to self-censor their research. Apart from attacks on Chan, pro-Beijing media have also targeted other members of the HKU law faculty, accusing\u00a0professors of\u00a0trying to \u201cbrainwash\u201d their students by assigning \u201cpro-Occupy Central\u201d reading assignments. [Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Religious freedom in Hong Kong is also being undermined as Chinese authorities crackdown on the special administrative region’s evangelists<\/a>, citing national security as a source of concern. Javier Hernandez and Crystal Tse at The New York Times look at China’s tightening grip on Hong Kong’s Christian communities<\/a><\/strong>:<\/p>\n In recent months, Chinese officials have barred mainland residents from attending some religious conferences in Hong Kong, increased oversight of mainland programs run by Hong Kong pastors, and issued warnings to outspoken leaders like Mr. Woo.<\/p>\n \u201cMany pastors are worried,\u201d said the Rev. Wu Chi-wai, executive director of Hong Kong Church Renewal Movement, a Christian group. \u201cSome are reconsidering their work in the mainland.\u201d<\/p>\n […]\u00a0In March, about 100 people from mainland China were barred from attending a gathering of more than 2,000 pastors and other Christians in Hong Kong, according to China Aid, a Christian human rights group based in Texas. The meeting was hosted by China Ministries International, a California-based group founded by Chinese-Americans that describes its goal as \u201cthe Christianization of China.\u201d Pastors from China, the United States and Canada spoke on subjects including church-state relations and marriage. In interviews, several people who were blocked from attending the conference said they were warned by the police that going to Hong Kong would be \u201cmaking trouble.\u201d Some said they were monitored in the days leading up to the conference. [Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In the 2015\u00a0Human Freedom Index\u00a0published\u00a0by the Fraser Institute in Canada<\/a>, Hong Kong\u00a0topped the list of\u00a0152 countries that are deemed as the world’s most economically liberal regions, a ranking that Hong Kong has held since 1980. However, Thaddeus Hwong\u00a0from York University warns that Hong Kong’s position on the index may slip if press freedom and the rule of law continue to be undermined<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Joshua Wong, Nathan Law, and Alex Chow, three student leaders of the 2014 Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong,\u00a0are facing charges for storming into a government compound at the start of the pro-democracy demonstrations\u00a0calling for free elections of the territory’s next chief executive after Beijing announced plans to vet potential candidates. Alan Wong at The New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1088,"featured_media":186606,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[35,10,14744,14745,14746,100,5,1051],"tags":[1829,17004,10899,5949,16731,16732,78,757],"class_list":["post-186593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hong-kong","category-law","category-level-2-article","category-level-3-article","category-level-4-article","category-politics","category-society","category-top-article","tag-academic-freedom","tag-hong-kong","tag-hong-kong-activism","tag-hong-kong-democracy","tag-hong-kong-protests-2014","tag-joshua-wong","tag-religious-freedom","tag-rule-of-law","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
\n
\n