Hong Kong democracy advocate Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) and four others yesterday pleaded guilty of participating in an illegal assembly on June 4 last year to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre.
It was the first time the vigil had been banned in the territory, with police citing, as it did for all demonstrations last year, COVID-19 restrictions on group gatherings. It is expected to face a similar fate this year.
Still, tens of thousands of people lit candles across Hong Kong in what was largely a peaceful event, bar a brief skirmish with riot police in one neighborhood.
Photo: AFP
Wong, already in prison after he was found guilty of participating and organizing an unauthorized assembly during the mass 2019 pro-democracy protests, pleaded guilty in the District Court.
The other advocates who pleaded guilty were district councilors Lester Shum (岑敖暉), Jannelle Leung (梁凱晴) and Tiffany Yuen (袁嘉蔚). Another advocate, Eddie Chu (朱凱迪), asked for an adjournment and his case is to be heard on June 11, with 19 others facing similar charges.
Unlawful assembly charges can carry up to five years in prison.
Shum and Yuen were already in custody on national security charges, which Wong also faces.
Leung was remanded into custody after her plea and the four are to be sentenced on Thursday next week.
Other defendants — who include some of the territory’s most prominent democracy advocates, many of them also jailed or in detention — are to be tried later this summer.
The June 4 anniversary struck an especially sensitive nerve in the territory last year, falling just as Beijing prepared to introduce Hong Kong’s National Security Law, which punishes anything China sees as subversion, secession, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.
This year, the June 4 event is particularly awkward for Beijing, which celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥), asked whether commemorating the victims of the Tiananmen Square Massacre would contravene the new law, said this week that it was important to show respect to the party.
Additional reporting by AFP
CLOSURES: Several forest recreation areas have been closed as a precaution, while some ferry and flight services have been suspended or rescheduled A land warning for Tropical Storm Danas was issued last night at 8:30pm, as the storm’s outer bands began bringing heavy rain to southeastern regions, including Hualien and Taitung counties, and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島), according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). As of 9:15pm, the storm was approximately 330km west-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, moving north-northeast at 10-20kph, the CWA reported. A sea warning had already been issued at 8:30am yesterday. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 83kph, with gusts of up to 108kph, according to the CWA. As of 9:30pm last night, Kaohsiung, Tainan,
POWERFUL DETERRENT: Precision fire and dispersed deployment of units would allow Taiwanese artillery to inflict heavy casualties in an invasion, a researcher said The nation’s military has boosted its self-defense capability with the establishment of a new company equipped with the US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). The company, part of the army’s 58th Artillery Command, is Taiwan’s first HIMARS unit. Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄), who presided over the formation ceremony in Taichung on Friday, called the unit a significant addition to the nation’s defensive strength, saying it would help deter adversaries from starting a war. The unit is made up of top-performing soldiers who received training in the US, according to the Ministry of National Defense. The HIMARS can be equipped with
STRONG WINDS: Without the Central Mountain Range as a shield, people should be ready for high-speed winds, CWA weather forecaster Liu Yu-chi said Danas was yesterday upgraded to a typhoon and could grow stronger as it moves closely along the nation’s west coastline, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Hsinchu and Chiayi cities, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, as well as Hsinchu, Miaoli, Changhua, Yunlin, Nantou, Chiayi, Penghu and Pingtung counties have canceled work and school today. Work and school in Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, and Yilan, Taitung, Hualien, Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties would continue as usual, although offices and schools would be closed in Taoyuan’s Luju (蘆竹), Dayuan (大園), Guangyin (觀音) and Sinwu (新屋) districts. As of 5pm yesterday, the typhoon’s
UNILATERAL: The move from China’s aviation authority comes despite a previous 2015 agreement that any changes to flight paths would be done by consensus The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday slammed Beijing for arbitrarily opening the M503 flight route’s W121 connecting path, saying that such unilateral conduct disrespected the consensus between both sides and could destabilize the Taiwan Strait and the wider region. The condemnation came after the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) earlier yesterday announced it “has activated the W121 connecting path of the M503 flight route,” meaning that west-to-east flights are now permitted along the path. The newly activated west-to-east route is intended to “alleviate the pressure caused by the increase of flights,” China’s state-run Xinhua news agency quoted China’s Taiwan Affairs Office
RSS