The first Hong Kong anti-government protester to plead guilty to the charge of rioting during last year’s unrest was sentenced to four years in prison on Friday for a ‘direct attack on the rule of law’.
Sin Ka-ho, a 21-year-old lifeguard, was among thousands who surrounded the Legislative Council on June 12 during a pro-democracy rally.
A few dozen protesters, many wearing black and holding a banner reading ‘Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of our times’, gathered outside the court today, chanting ‘there’s no riot, only tyranny’.
China’s state broadcaster CCTV released a picture, believed to be of Sin Ka-ho, as it reported about his sentencing on Friday. The photo (above) shows a man wearing a black face mask leaving the Eastern Law Courts Building in Hong Kong on an unspecified date
Mask-donning protesters gather outside the court in Hong Kong to support fellow protester Sin Ka-ho. One of the banners (pictured) says ‘Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of our times’
A family member cries and bid farewell to Sin after he was sentenced four years for rioting. Sin is the first protester to plead guilty to the charge of rioting during last year’s demonstrations
Supporters raise their hands up symbolising of the ‘Five demands, not one less’ to support Sin on Friday. Sin was sentenced to four years in prison for a ‘direct attack on the rule of law’
As Sin was driven away in a van, some protesters knocked on its windows and shouted ‘Stay strong!’
Sin’s family members were seen crying while saying good-bye to a prison van that carried the young man.
Sin’s sentencing comes as a Hong Kong exam question reignited a row over academic freedoms in the semi-autonomous city.
The university entrance exam question asked students to assess colonial Japan’s occupation of China. It asked students to explain if Japan’s invasion from 1900 to 1945 ‘did more good than harm’.
‘Hong Kong’s (university exam) question leads students to be traitors,’ condemned China’s state-run Global Times newspaper on Friday.
Protesters gesture for the ‘Five Demands’ they give to the Hong Kong government in front of a prison van outside a courthouse today. Sin was convicted for his role in a rally on June 12, 2019
Sin’s supporters chase a van as he is driven away from the court. Sin’s actions were ‘a direct attack on the rule of law’, District Court Justice Amanda Woodcock said in the sentencing
The protest at the Legislative Council in June, which Sin attended, was the first of many last year that saw riot police dispersing activists with tear gas and rubber bullets.
The police’s act angered moderate Hong Kong people in a pivotal moment for the anti-government movement.
On the day, the demonstrators were trying to stop legislators from giving a second reading to a since-withdrawn extradition bill that would have allowed suspects in Hong Kong to be sent to courts in mainland China for trial.
Subsequent rallies turned more confrontational and broadened their demands for democracy in the Chinese-ruled city amid anger at Beijing’s perceived meddling with its freedoms.
Family members cry and bid farewell to Sin’s prison van after he was given the jail sentence
Nearly 600 Hong Kong protesters have been charged with rioting, risking up to 10 years in jail
Sin admitted to pushing police barricades and hurling umbrellas and other objects at officers, but denied planning the assaults.
The defendant’s actions were ‘a direct attack on the rule of law’, District Court Justice Amanda Woodcock said in the sentencing, which is seen as potentially laying down a marker for the nearly 600 protesters who have been charged with rioting, risking up to 10 years in jail.
Neither Sin nor his lawyer commented on the sentence.
Sin, a 21-year-old lifeguard, was among thousands who surrounded the Legislative Council on June 12 during a pro-democracy rally. Pictured, protesters shelter under umbrellas during a downpour as they occupy roads near the government headquarters in Hong Kong on June 12
Protesters wearing masks are pictured reacting after police fired tear gas during anti-government demonstrations outside the Legislative Council Complex in Hong Kong on June 12
The protest at the Legislative Council in June was the first of many last year that saw riot police dispersing activists with tear gas and rubber bullets. Pictured, police officers in anti-riot gear holds down an anti-extradition bill protester near the Legislative Council Complex on June 12
Sin has been the only one so far to plead guilty, in a symbolic blow for the protest movement, whose demands include amnesty for all those arrested and the government dropping its characterisation of the protests as ‘riots’.
China’s state broadcaster CCTV report about Sin’s sentencing on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter.
The station said ‘rioters occupied roads, gathered to cause trouble and violently assaulted police’ on June 12.
The state TV released a picture believed to be of Sin. The photo shows a man wearing a black face mask leaving the Eastern Law Courts Building on an unspecified date.
More than 8,300 protesters in Hong Kong were arrested between June 2019 and mid-May this year. Over 1,600 have been prosecuted, and 595 face rioting charges. Pictured, pro-democracy lawmaker Roy Kwong (central) chants slogans during a demonstration on June 12
Demonstrations are likely to pick up in the summer after a relative lull this year due to social distancing measures taken to fight COVID-19, which has largely been brought under control
Sin’s sentencing is seen as potentially laying down a marker for the nearly 600 protesters who have been charged with rioting, risking up to 10 years in jail. Pictured, protesters move roadblocks in the Admiralty area near Hong Kong’s Legislative Council building on June 12
Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997 with the guarantee of many freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland, including an independent judiciary. Communist Party rulers in Beijing deny interfering with those freedoms.
The protesters’ main demands are universal suffrage and an independent inquiry into police’s handling of the demonstrations.
Accusations of police brutality must not be used as ‘a weapon of political protest’, the police watchdog said in a report on Friday, adding that the city appeared to be getting dragged into an ‘era of terrorism’.
More than 8,300 protesters were arrested between June 2019 and mid-May this year. Over 1,600 have been prosecuted, and 595 face rioting charges.
Sin’s sentence was reduced from six to four years due to his clear record and guilty plea.
Demonstrations are likely to pick up in the summer after a relative lull this year due to social distancing measures taken to fight the coronavirus outbreak, which has largely been brought under control.
China says Hong Kong’s university exam leads students to be ‘traitors’
A history exam question asking Hong Kong students to assess colonial Japan’s occupation of China sparked a rebuke by Beijing on Friday and reignited a row over academic freedoms in the semi-autonomous city.
The criticism comes as Hong Kong’s schools and universities — some of the best in Asia — become the latest ideological battleground in a city convulsed by political unrest.
China’s foreign ministry and state media rounded on a university entrance exam question that asked students to decide whether Japan’s invasion of China in 1900-45 ‘did more good than harm’.
Compared to strictly state-controlled schools in mainland China, semi-autonomous Hong Kong has a much freer system that encourages debate and analysis. Pictured, students participate in a visual arts mock exam in Hong Kong on March 9
‘Hong Kong’s education sector must not become a chicken coop without a roof,’ the foreign ministry wrote on the Facebook page of its Hong Kong office, using a metaphor referring to the idea that students should be protected from negative influences or ideas.
‘Hong Kong’s (university exam) question leads students to be traitors,’ wrote the pugnaciously nationalist Global Times newspaper on Friday.
After the criticism from the mainland, Hong Kong’s Education Secretary Kevin Yeung announced the question would not be marked by examiners because it was ‘biased’ and had ‘seriously hurt the feelings and dignity of the Chinese people’.
He also ordered the city’s exam board to report to him on how it was included in the test.
Beijing wants Hong Kong’s education system to be more patriotic as calls for democracy in the city grow
Japan’s colonial occupation of parts of China between 1900-1945 was brutal and led to millions of deaths.
Mainland China’s schools and universities are strictly controlled, with little deviation from Communist Party lines tolerated.
Semi-autonomous Hong Kong has a much freer system that encourages debate and analysis.
But education is becoming a new target for Beijing after seven months of huge and often violent democracy protests rocked Hong Kong last year.
The ‘chicken coop’ metaphor was used by Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam last week as she warned liberal studies, a secondary school class that teaches critical thinking, helped fuel last year’s unrest.
Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam (pictured on May 12) has promised to unveil plans to reform the subject later in the year
The subject has become a bete noire for China and pro-Beijing politicians in Hong Kong who have called for more openly patriotic education.
Lam has promised to unveil plans to reform the subject later in the year.
The exam question went viral on China’s heavily policed Twitter-like platform Weibo on Friday, with a hashtag about the topic receiving around 400 million views with many comments condemning Hong Kong.
Some academics and teachers are rattled by the government’s enthusiasm for reforming curriculums.
Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union on Thursday accused the government of ‘placing politics above education’.
‘In order to pursue political correctness, the education bureau is smothering the space for discussion in exams,’ the union said.
Ip Kin-yuen, a lawmaker who represents the education sector, said students would be expected to know and write about Japan’s violent excesses in an exam question assessing the country’s legacy within China.
‘Students… can use what they know to discuss against a statement, this is very common in a history exam,’ he told AFP.