A 20-year-old Hong Kong student was sentenced to three years and seven months in prison on Nov. 23, becoming the youngest activist to be jailed under the Beijing-imposed national security law.
The charges were related to Chung’s role in Studentlocalism, a pro-independence student organization that was disbanded before Beijing implemented the national security law in Hong Kong in June 2020.
The law criminalizes four vaguely defined categories of offenses, including secession, subversion, and collusion with a foreign country. People who break the law can face up to life in prison.
The prosecutor, Ivan Chung, claimed that Tony Chung had “continued his endeavor and the pursuit of his political ideas”—which violates the security law—by forming the U.S. branch of Studentlocalism and attempting to recruit overseas students through social media platforms, from July 1, 2020, to Oct. 27, 2020.
The money laundering charge was related to the donations of more than HK$133,000 (about $17,000) that he received via PayPal.
Chung was the third—and also the youngest—person to be convicted under the national security law.
Since the law has taken effect, more than 100 people—mostly pro-democracy politicians, activists, media figures, and students—have been charged for similar offenses.
Hong Kong courts are set to hand down sentences to two other pro-democracy activists for allegedly violating the national security law. In August, Andy Li and paralegal Chan Tsz-wah became the first people to plead guilty to charges under the law.
Western countries and activists have criticized the national security law and raised concerns over its draconian measures, such as taking away people’s basic freedoms and eroding Hong Kong’s autonomy—which China’s ruling communist regime had promised would last for 50 years when Britain handed over the former British colony to Beijing in 1997.
