Hong Kongers who clapped in court jailed on sedition charges
Associated PressHONG KONG — Two Hong Kong residents, including a pastor, were found guilty of sedition and sentenced to jail Thursday for clapping and criticizing a judge during a previous trial over a banned vigil in the city. Garry Pang Moon-yuen and Chiu Mei-ying, a housewife, were arrested in April for disturbances during a court hearing in January in which a leader of a group that organized a vigil commemorating China’s 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square was sentenced for inciting others to join the prohibited event last year. Hong Kong is undergoing a political crackdown following widespread anti-government protests in 2019 and the imposition of a sweeping National Security Law in 2020, with many prominent democracy activists arrested and jailed. For decades, Hong Kong and nearby Macao were the only places in China allowed to commemorate the Chinese army’s violent suppression of student protesters demanding greater democracy in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. A Hong Kong government spokesman on Wednesday said the city’s ranking was still better than some Western countries, which he said have “unreasonably” criticized the rule of law in Hong Kong.