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.
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.
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.