Hong Kong Man Convicted Under New Law for Wearing Protest Slogan T-Shirt

The Hong Kong flag outside the High Court in Hong Kong on July 28, 2023. Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images

A Hong Kong man pleaded guilty to sedition on Sept. 16 for wearing a T-shirt with a protest slogan, in what is believed to be the first conviction under the city’s national security law enacted in March.

Chu Kai-pong, 27, pleaded guilty to one count of “doing with a seditious intention an act” under the city’s new security law, known as Article 23, the Hong Kong Free Press reported.

Chu was detained at a train station on June 12 for wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times,” which Hong Kong authorities consider to be an example of inciting secession.

He also wore a mask bearing the letters “FDNOL,” which stands for “five demands, not one less,” according to the report. Both slogans were chanted frequently during mass protests in 2019.

Chu told police that he wore the T-shirt on that particular day to remind people of the 2019 protests—which erupted over the Chinese Communist Party’s extradition law that was seen as a threat to the city’s human rights and judicial independence.

Chief Magistrate Victor So has set the sentencing for Sept. 19.

Chu was arrested at a Hong Kong airport in November 2023 for wearing the same T-shirt and carrying a flag with the same protest slogan. He was sentenced to three months in jail earlier this year.

Passed by Hong Kong’s Legislative Council in March, Article 23 covers five offenses: treason, insurrection, theft of state secrets and espionage, destructive activities endangering national security, and external interference.

The new security law increased the maximum sentence for sedition from two years to seven years in prison, and the sentence could even go to 10 years if collusion with external forces is found, according to Amnesty International.

The U.S. government has highlighted concerns over the vague and expansive definitions outlined by the Hong Kong government, particularly regarding terms such as “state secrets” and “external interference.”

Such ambiguity “could be used to eliminate dissent through the fear of arrest and detention,” Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the State Department, said in a February statement.

Article 23 is the second security law introduced since 2020, when Beijing implemented a national security law in the city that punishes secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.

Since the enactment of the sweeping legislation, Hong Kong has taken a swift authoritarian turn, with most democratic politicians now either in jail or in self-exile, dozens of civil society organizations folding, and international businesses leaving the city.

Dorothy Li and Reuters contributed to this report.