Simply seeking the truth or just helping an exiled relative is enough to land you in jail
By Benedict Rogers in UCA News
The decision by a Hong Kong court last week to sentence a 69-year-old man to eight months in prison simply for trying to cancel his insurance policy shows that the regime can perceive any ordinary action as a political crime.
It marks once again the transformation of Hong Kong from one of Asia’s most open societies to one of its most repressive police states.
Kwok Yin-sang, the father of 29-year-old exiled pro-democracy activist Anna Kwok, was reportedly accused of obtaining funds from an AIA life and personal accident insurance policy, which he bought for his daughter when she was a child. He reportedly tried to withdraw around US$11,000 from the insurance policy that is in his name, arguing that his daughter no longer lives in Hong Kong.
Anna Kwok, the executive director of the Hong Kong Democracy Council, left Hong Kong after the imposition of Beijing’s draconian National Security Law in 2020 and lives in Washington, D.C.
The Hong Kong authorities accused her of collusion with foreign forces and described her as an “absconder.” In 2023, they issued a bounty of HK$1 million (US$128,000) for her arrest. She is one of 34 Hong Kong activists wanted by the national security police.
The targeting of Kwok’s father is — as she says — a deliberate attempt to silence her. But it also marks a ratcheting up in the authorities’ campaign of repression, because it is the first time that Hong Kong authorities have jailed a family member of a wanted activist abroad.
Hong Kong authorities have reportedly called in relatives of other exiled activists for questioning, but have not arrested or jailed them until now.
Hong Kong authorities arrested Kwok’s father last year. They convicted him last month under Hong Kong’s homegrown Safeguarding National Security Ordinance (known as Article 23), which expands on the National Security Law imposed by Beijing in 2020.
Handling an absconder’s funds or assisting them financially is a crime under this law. Acting Principal Magistrate Andy Cheng called the offense “serious” as it increased the likelihood of Kwok’s daughter not returning to Hong Kong.
This case demonstrates that Hong Kong authorities may not only target those who speak out for democracy and human rights but may also target their parents and relatives who, as in Kwok’s case, may not themselves have engaged in any political activity.
After all, what father would not help his daughter with her financial affairs? It is also a sign that Beijing’s campaign of transnational repression — targeting exiled activists and foreign critics with threats and intimidation — reaches where it hurts most: the punishment of relatives back home.
Kwok Yin-sang’s imprisonment is not the only recent example of the continuing dismantling of freedom of expression in Hong Kong. Earlier last month, the Chinese University of Hong Kong reportedly expelled a student simply for calling for an independent investigation into a fire.
Hong Kong’s national security police reportedly detained Miles Kwan, a politics student, for two nights for distributing leaflets demanding an inquiry into the apartment complex fire in Tai Po last November that killed 168 people.
Kwan was accused of “seditious intent” simply for seeking accountability, and the university accused him of “multiple acts of misconduct.”
The Hong Kong authorities have imprisoned more than 1,900 people on political charges since 2019, mostly for participating in pro-democracy protests.
Among those currently on trial are barrister Chow Hang-Tung, solicitor Albert Ho, and trade unionist Lee Cheuk-yan, jailed and facing prosecution for organizing a peaceful candlelit vigil to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. They, along with many others, have been imprisoned awaiting trial for almost five years.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Court of Appeal overturned bogus fraud charges against 78-year-old media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai. But as Lai’s daughter, Claire, and the head of his international legal team, Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, argue, this changes nothing.
“No one should be fooled into thinking that this fraud appeal belatedly succeeding suggests the Hong Kong system operates fairly or justly,” Gallagher told the BBC.
The trumped-up fraud charges accused Lai of illegally subletting office space and resulted in a prison sentence of almost six years. But the Hong Kong authorities have jailed him for more than five years — and last month issued a 20-year sentence against him under the National Security Law.
The truth is that Hong Kong today is a bizarre and cruel mix of George Orwell’s 1984 and Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. In the trial scene in Alice in Wonderland, the Queen demands “sentence first, verdict afterwards” and repeatedly cries “off with her head.”
In Hong Kong today, they have not yet beheaded anyone, and they still go through the pretense of a verdict first before sentencing, but the idea of a fair trial is long gone.
Judges are politically appointed, and verdicts are politically pre-determined.
And now, you don’t have to be a pro-democracy protester or campaigner to be arrested — simply seeking the truth can be penalized, and just helping an exiled activist relative is enough to land you in jail.
This article was originally published in UCA News.