Two other defendants in the same case signed a 12-month binding-over order with a bail of HK$40,000 (about $5,095.)
ICAC earlier accused the three of posting six advertisements in Ming Pao and Apple Daily—Hong Kong’s two influential local newspapers—that incurred illegal election expenses totaling over HK$253,000 (about $32,230) in the 2016 Legislative Council general election, citing that they were not candidates or election expense agents for candidates.
In 2016, Tai Yiu-ting, then associate professor at the University of Hong Kong’s Law Department, proposed the “ThunderGo” initiative that aimed to reverse the situation of the Legislative Council being manipulated by the pro-Beijing camp.
Hong Kong was expected to achieve universal suffrage of “one person, one vote,” a goal set for The Basic Law by the Chief Executive and all members of the Legislative Council when its sovereignty was handed over to China in 1997.
But Hong Kong runs counter to the law. Half of the seats in the Legislative Council are elected by minority-controlled functional constituencies, most of which are in the saddle of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
In the hope of a democratic political environment, Tai planned, through the “ThunderGo” project, to enable the opposite camp or pan-democrats to attain over half of the seats in the election.
ThunderGo is programmed to concentrate votes by coordinating with the opposition camp and reducing the number of candidates, with the goal of securing half of the seats for the camp in the election. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy supporters could form the “Thunderbolt rescue force” making the vote count be based on consideration of ideal candidate and winning-out possibilities.
The efforts of Tai and pro-democracy supporters were likely rewarded, as the opposition camp gained an unprecedented 30 seats in the district direct election, out of a total of 70 seats. They retained the right to veto in the division and gained one more seat than the previous term.
The Pro-Beijing camp got 40 seats, 2 fewer than last term, according to Singapore-based media The Initium on Sept. 4, 2016.
However, five years after the election, ICAC filed a case against Tai Yiu-ting and two directors of the Eggs Alliance Company for allegedly violating the Elections Ordinance (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct).
The defense also said that Tai did not personally benefit, the preparation process was transparent and open, the money was raised from the public, no fraud was involved, and the fairness of the election was not affected. The defendant could not report the election expenses just because he did not represent any candidate.
The judge responded that the prosecution has nothing to do with the “ThunderGo” project, nor was it a political prosecution, but rather a charge of unlawful incurrence of election expenses.
Forty-seven of them were later prosecuted for “conspiracy to subvert state power,” a case that has yet to reach the formal sentencing stage.
Umbrella Movement
As one of nine people who led the Umbrella Movement, Tai Yiu-ting received a 16-month prison sentence on 24 April, 2019 for alleged “incitement to incite public nuisance.”
From September to December 2014, a slew of civil disobedience campaigns for genuine universal suffrage took place in Hong Kong. More than 100,000 protesters took to major thoroughfares and staged sit-ins and marches. The main symbol of this movement was the yellow umbrella, hence it was named the “Umbrella Movement.”
Although the Umbrella Movement was eventually suppressed by the police, it is credited with awakening the political consciousness of Hong Kong people.
