Internet radio host Edmund Wan has repeatedly called for Hong Kong independence and the overthrow of the government. He has now been sentenced to prison for this.
A Hong Kong radio host has been jailed for more than two and a half years for making “seditious” statements against the Chinese government. District Judge Adriana Noelle Tse Ching ruled on Friday that Edmund Wan “clearly broke the law” and “put fuel on the fire”. The internet radio host had called for the city’s independence and the overthrow of the government.
In a program in 2020, Wan quoted the fall of former Ukrainian head of state Viktor Yanukovych and said that Hong Kongers should also “expel” then-Prime Minister Carrie Lam. In another program, he accused the Chinese Communist Party of “culturally eradicating” minorities and said their national flag represented authoritarianism. Wan also used his performances to call for donations for young Hong Kongers who had fled to Taiwan.
Hong Kong radio host charged with violating security law
The judge argued that some of the 39 programs cited by prosecutors were broadcast after the passage of a national security law enacted by Beijing. The so-called security law, combined with a colonial-era sedition law, has been used to criminalize dissent in Hong Kong since the 2019 pro-democracy protests.
The former crown colony of Hong Kong has been a special administrative region in the Chinese state since it was returned to China by Great Britain in 1997. Upon return, the Chinese leadership agreed to respect Hong Kong’s autonomy and the democratic freedoms prevailing there for another 50 years according to the principle of “one country, two systems”.
Critics accuse Beijing of using the “security laws” to undermine the civil liberties that are actually guaranteed. Chinese authorities dismiss criticism of the law as “unfounded”.
Source: Stern
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