HK Barrister Who Judged Before Trial Under NS Law Confined in Solitary for Making Cheese in Prison

'When the system breaks down, it doesn't mean we give up the ability to judge what is right and wrong'

In January, Chow Hang-tung was sentenced to about a week of solitary confinement for making cheese in prison. (Adrian Yu/The Epoch Times)

Chow Hang-tung, the Vice Chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (HKASPDMC), has been imprisoned for more than a year for her involvement in the “Hong Kong National Security Law (NSL).”

On March 18, through assistance from her friend, she posted on her Facebook page, revealing that in January, she was punished with a week of solitary confinement for trying to make cheese with milk.

She emphasized that the focus is not only on compliance with the law but also on the content of the law and the legislative process. She will not arbitrarily recognize any rules as “law” and said that the rule of law and democracy have always been inseparable.

She confessed that she did it naively because “it was fun” and “I didn’t want to waste delicious food for nothing.” She didn’t feel she had a strong reason not to do it except to break the rules.

Chow said that when people break the rules in prison, they have to pass through a process similar to a trial. The charges are read out before someone is asked to plead guilty. Witnesses were called to testify, followed by the announcement of sentence and reprimand.

However, she could not see what was wrong with the cheese-making or feel remorse afterward.

However, she admitted that she appeared somewhat “naive” and “bruised” because the cost was not proportional to the benefit, but the humiliation of the whole process was real.

Gave up her Doctorate to Become an Attorney

Chow graduated from the prestigious Anglo-Chinese Girls’ School, was awarded a “5A” in the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination in 2003, and continued her  education studying Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge.

In 2008, when the Sichuan earthquake occurred in China, Chow, a Ph.D. student in geophysics at Cambridge University, wanted to do field research in mainland China. However, she was not allowed to do so because Cambridge University was an overseas research organization. She began to feel that her scientific research could not benefit people.

As a result, she gave up her doctoral studies. Instead, she returned to Hong Kong to study law at the University of Hong Kong School of Professional and Continuing Education. She was admitted to practice as a barrister in 2016.

She attended the June 4 rally in Victoria Park, Hong Kong, with her family as a child. While studying in the UK, she organized June 4 commemorative activities, thus planting the seeds for her future social involvement.

Elected to the Standing Committee of Alliance in 2014 and Began Serving as Vice Chairman in 2015

On the eve of the June 4 vigil, 2021, the HKASPDMC applied to the police for permission to hold a vigil in Victoria Park. However, the application was not approved, and Chow was arrested on the morning of June 4 for allegedly promoting and calling for participation in the June 4 vigil.

On Dec 4, 2021, the Chinese Democracy Education Foundation (CDEF) presented Chow with its 35th Outstanding Democrat Award.

In December 2022, High Court Judge Sonia Cheung Wai-Ling ruled in favor of the appeal and dismissed the conviction and sentence. The Department of Justice appealed to the Court of Final Appeal, which was granted on Jan. 19.

On remand in 2021, in September, Chow and the two former chairmen of the Alliance, Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho, were accused of refusing to provide information about the organization’s activities to the National Security Department (NSD) and were charged with failure to comply with the notification requirement. The charge was later changed to “inciting subversion of state power,” and sentenced to 4.5 months in prison on March 11.

On Feb. 2, six Hong Kong people, including Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan, and Jimmy Lai, founder of Apple Daily, a disbanded newspaper that served as a “pillar” for the pro-democracy voices in Hong Kong, were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

As she said in court, “It is easy to see that all my legal troubles are related to the HKASPDMC and the June 4 vigil. And the accumulating charges reflect how the regime has been suppressing and eradicating the memory of the June 4 massacre.

Prisons are Filled with the Most Incomprehensible Rules

She once said that being in jail in Hong Kong was nothing compared to being in prison in China. With her optimistic personality, she even considers herself a “capitalist” compared to her fellow inmates in Hong Kong, and she has always had friends visit and give her supplies. Although many packages were returned after the CSD’s review, she feels much luckier than other inmates.

Chow reflects that “law-abiding” and “cooperation” seem taken for granted as public virtues as if they had been self-evidently justified. “We are always accustomed to asking the offender to explain, to provide some super-unbeatable reasons to override the presumed proper rules. However, we rarely impose the same requirement on the rule itself. Instead, we ask the ‘rule’ to explain its reason for existence. In addition, we give the ‘offender’ and the ‘rule’ an equal opportunity to confront each other.

She said that prison is full of the most incomprehensible rules. Although it is convenient for prison administrators to manage, “if the prison rules are imagined to be the ‘law’ of this small closed society, it is the most typical ‘rule by law’ mentality, and the law is irrelevant to society’s sense of right and wrong, but only a naked tool to control society.”

Misguided Rules Will Make Normal People Become Lawbreakers

Chow pointed out that the rule of law is not only about compliance with the law but also the content of the law and the legislative process and that no rule will be casually recognized as “law.” She further said that the rule of law requires that ”we do not fall into the logic of asking ‘criminals’ to explain themselves without thinking, but rather we must first examine the reasonableness of the rules that make people criminals. Strangely, we are strict with those who break the law but generous with those unfair laws.”

Citing the NSL as an example, Chow said, “What we need to explain is why we can’t lobby internationally, not why we have to ‘collude with foreign powers,’ or even explain why our actions are lobbying not collusion.”

She also said that the reasoning is not limited to political crimes but is universal to all kinds of crimes in society, “misguided rules will make normal people become lawbreakers. This may seem like common sense, but to put it into practice and break out of that rule-first mentality is not easy to apply.”

As she pointed out, the current charges against her are merely political, based on “stigmatization in the name of the law.”

The logic of the law and the calculation of sentences silences us, makes us cooperate, and makes us plead guilty. Thus, the law tames the struggle but opens the platform for the narrative of those in power.

Their version of the truth is the only one left. Whether it is proven legally or not (and it almost certainly is in political cases), their version is the only ‘truth.’”

Her plea of not guilty is precisely to avoid such a trick, and even “pleading not guilty” is not a way for her to get past her concerns: “I can’t plead not guilty and criticize the government for misinterpreting and abusing the law while pleading guilty and admitting that the law is what they claim it is, so I’m guilty…You can force me to do tough labor work, wash toilets, and eat stinky porridge, but you can’t force me to say things that are not true to my heart. You may even force me not to speak, but you can’t force me to say what I don’t believe.”

The Rule of Law and Democracy are Inextricably Linked

Chow also pointed out that the rule of law and democracy have always been inseparable. This is because when everyone embraces the rule of law and demands it, it naturally follows that the legislative process must be open and transparent.

In addition, legislators must explain and convince what appears to be a democratic political demand. “In a place where the rule of law is lacking, it will be challenging to maintain obedience.

Chow said that if the prison’s draconian laws are meant to teach inmates to obey the law, it can only be said that its methods are counterproductive.

It only makes people lose respect for the law and turns those inclined to cooperate and abide by it into law-avoiders, causing the trust that holds society together to crumble. She said, “Order without justice is built on sand and will collapse at the first touch.”

Chow: NS Required Delivery of Information Stepped on the Bottom Line

In the case of the Alliance not handing over information, Chow said the system is terrible. However, she has to be responsible for her own life. She cannot put all the blame on the current situation and helplessness.

She said straight away that her two bottom lines are “not to disclose anything” and “not to betray my companions,” so the National Security Police requesting the Alliance to hand over information is a step on the bottom line and impossible to comply with.

Chow finally said, “When the system collapses, and authority fails, we may lose a public shortcut to judge right and wrong, but it does not mean that we have to give up the ability to judge right and wrong and to turn away from good and evil.” We may need to learn and adapt, “or we may need a lot of reflection and experimentation, cost and misjudgment - but we must not give up, nor forget what is right and wrong. “