The Use of the Sedition Law to Throttle Free Speech
#8 in the Hong Kong Repression Monitor series
The Hong Kong Repression Monitor series provides overviews of indicators of repression in Hong Kong, based on research and data collected from 2019 to the present. For more information, see this introduction, which also provides a full list of entries in the series as they are published.
This article is #8 in the Hong Kong Repression Monitor series. It starts with an overview of the sedition law in Hong Kong; then presents basic statistics related to sedition arrests, trials and imprisonments; then introduces some important sedition cases.
UPDATE: On July 22, 2026, an 18-year-old was convicted of “sedition” for writing messages on the walls of a men’s restroom in July 2025. The messages included "Bomb John Lee to death," "Liberate Hong Kong," "Dead black police," and "Carrie Lam, step down." The young man had plead guilty to three counts of criminal damage (the typical charge in Hong Kong for graffiti) but denied sedition. The national security police had apparently been tipped off on the graffiti and actually staked out the restroom in order to catch the culprit, who wrote on the restroom walls on three occasions. Unlike the vast majority of those charged with sedition, he had been free on bail pending completion of trial. Following his conviction, he was remanded in custody pending sentencing, which is set to take place on August 12, becoming the 1,949th political prisoner in Hong Kong. Now, in all, 55 people have been convicted of sedition; 0 have been acquitted. Including all convictions for “endangering national security” (ie, under the 2020 national security law imposed by the CCP, the 2024 Safeguarding National Security Ordinance imposed by the Hong Kong government, and the UK colonial-era sedition law), the number now stands at 147.
UPDATE: On July 15, 2026, three people associated with Have a Nice Stay bookstore and two people associated with Greenfield bookstore were arrested for “sedition.” The bookstores were raided by the national security police and many boxes of items were seized. Now, in all, in 2026, eleven booksellers from four different independent bookstores have been arrested for sedition in Hong Kong. This brings the total of all of those known to have been arrested for sedition to 130. For more on the use of the “sedition” in the crackdown on independent bookstores, see “Book Censorship in Hong Kong.”
UPDATE: On June 24, 2026, Hunter Bookstore owner and former pro-democracy District Councillor Letitia Wong and one other person have been arrested by national security police on suspicion of “sedition” and "dealing with property known or believed to represent the proceeds of an indictable offence" (commonly referred to as money laundering) under the 2024 Safeguarding National Security Ordinance. The store was raided and books and other items suspected of being “seditious” were seized. Hunter Bookstore has been targeted previously as part of the crackdown on independent bookstores, but this is the first instance of people related to the store being arrested. National security police later issued a statement confirming the arrests and saying the second offense was related to the arrestees “having received multiple remittances funded by foreign political organisations.” Now, in all, 125 people have been arrested for “sedition” in Hong Kong.
UPDATE: On May 21, 2026, a 55-year-old man plead guilty to two counts of sedition at his first court appearance and remanded in custody. On June 9, he was sentenced to 10 months in prison. He was arrested on April 21, 2026 for throwing pieces of paper with messages written on them out of the window of his 12th-floor flat on October 2, 2024, and December 5, 2025. On October 2, 2024, he threw at least 42 messages and on December 5, 2025, at least 16. On the former occasion, the messages included “Kill the police, avenge our compatriots”; “Give me back Hong Kong, Hong Kong, add oil!”; “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times”; “Kill the imperialist traitors and mainland pigs”; “Kill mainlanders”; “Down with communism”; and “Kill the corrupt officials, bomb the black police.” On December 5, 2025, two days before the fake Legislative Council elections, they included, “Liberate Hong Kong, don’t vote.” A pro-CCP District Councillor found the messages and reported them to police. Now, in all, 123 have been arrested for “sedition” in Hong Kong; 70 charged in court; 55 convicted and given custodial sentences (prison or juvenile detention); and 0 acquitted. The machinery of the “national security” apparatus is becoming ever more obscured: it used to be that when someone was arrested for “sedition,” police published a statement about the arrest, but they stopped doing that in late 2025. Almost no one was aware of this case until the defendant appeared in court.
UPDATE: On April 14, 2026, a 61-year-old man plead guilty to “sedition” and was sentenced to one year in prison. He was arrested on November 29, 2025 at the height of the crackdown on public criticism and calls for accountability surrounding the Wang Fuk Court fire. His “crime” consisted of 53 Facebook posts between March 26, 2024 and November 29, 2025. Most of the posts were critical of the Chinese Communist Party. Now, in all, 54 have been convicted of sedition in Hong Kong and 0 have been acquitted.
UPDATE: On March 24, 2026, a 43-year-old man plead guilty to “sedition” and three counts of “threatening to damage or destroy property” and was sentenced to 12 months in prison. This was a very unusual sedition case in that the defendant appeared to have no political motive. The story goes that he created a website to promote the de facto banned song, “Glory to Hong Kong.” The contact information on the website led police to the husband of the defendant’s ex-girlfriend, whom he was apparently attempting to frame. The way in which this came to the attention of the police was that the defendant sent letters to four pro-CCP media outlets threatening to set their office on fire if they didn’t publish articles about the website. The defendant was arrested on July 31, 2025 and remanded in custody from then until the time of his sentencing. Now, in all, 122 people have been arrested for “sedition;” 69 have been charged in court; 62 have been remanded in custody pending trial; 53 have been convicted; 0 acquitted.
UPDATE: On February 27, 2026, a 68-year-old man plead guilty to “sedition” and was sentenced to eight months in prison. His “crime” was 130 Facebook posts from 26 September 26, 2024 to November 18, 2025, including posts calling on people not to vote in the sham Legislative Council election of December 2025. In fact, it was for the latter that he was arrested on November 18, as part of a wider crackdown at the end of 2025 on people calling for a fake election boycott and calling for governmental accountability for the Wang Fuk Court fire. He is the second among the 35 arrested in November and December 2025 to be convicted. A 61-year-old woman was sentenced on February 23 for “inciting others not to vote.” Several others are currently on trial. Now, in all, 122 people have been arrested for “sedition;” 68 have been charged in court; 61 have been remanded in custody pending trial; 52 have been convicted; 0 acquitted.
UPDATE: On January 8, 2026, a 61-year-old man was charged in court with “sedition” for Facebook posts. He was arrested on November 29, 2025, but the arrest had not been previously announced or reported. He was remanded in custody pending trial. Now, in all, 122 people have been arrested for “sedition;” 68 have been charged in court; 61 have been remanded in custody pending trial; 51 have been convicted; 0 acquitted.
UPDATE: On December 15, Jimmy Lai was convicted of sedition as well as two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces under the 2020 national security law. The sedition charge is related to his ownership of and writing in Apple Daily. Now, in all, 67 people have been charged with sedition; 60 have been remanded in custody pending trial; 51 have been convicted; 0 have been acquitted.
UPDATE: On December 6, Hong Kong national security police announced the arrest of a 71-year-old for “prejudicing of investigation of offences endangering national security” and “doing an act that has a seditious intention with a seditious intention.” The arrestee was reportedly veteran political commentator Wong On-yin, who had been taken in by national security police for interrogation on December 2 and then discussed the matter publicly afterwards. The “sedition” allegation relates to what police cited as Wong’s comments in regard to the Chinese government’s aid efforts directed toward the Wang Fuk Court fire being “just for show.” That makes this at lest the fifth sedition arrest related to the fire. Unlike the four previous arrests which authorities have refused to confirm, national security police actually announced this one, returning to previous standard procedure in regard to arrests for sedition and other offenses “endangering national security.” Now, in all, 121 have been arrested for sedition in Hong Kong. This is the first arrest ever for “prejudicing” a national security investigation. On December 9, Wong was charged in court, bail was revoked, and he was remanded in custody, becoming the first to be prosecuted for sedition in relation to the Wang Fuk Court fire, and the first ever to be prosecuted for “prejudicing” a national security investigation. His next hearing is January 20, 2026.
UPDATE: On December 3, Hong Kong national security police reportedly arrested a 26-year-old YouTuber for “acting with seditious intent.” As with the three previously reported fire-related sedition arrests, the police refused to confirm the arrest, a departure from the norm up to now announcing arrests of those “endangering national security.” It is unclear why authorities appear to have changed the practice. It may be that, with the world’s attention focused on Hong Kong in the aftermath of the Wang Fuk Court tragedy, it wishes to avoid appearing repressive. Atypically, the arrestee is reported to have made disparaging remarks about the fire victims; usually those arrested for sedition are accused of having “incited hatred” of the government or police. It is unclear in what sense making comments, however distasteful they may be, about fire victims can be considered “seditious.” This could be a further widening of the application of the sedition statute to apply to any speech the government dislikes, whether directed at the government or not. Now, in all, 120 have been arrested for sedition in Hong Kong.
UPDATE: On November 29 and 30, Hong Kong national security police arrested three people for sedition in connection with the tragic fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po that, at the moment of writing, has killed 151 people, with search operations still ongoing. On November 29, university student Miles Kwan was arrested for “seditious intention” for initiating a petition calling for accountability for the fire. He was brought in handcuffs to his residence by plainclothes police to conduct a search. He was released on bail on December 1 “pending further investigation.” On November 30, two others were arrested in what appear to be separate incidents. Former pro-democracy District Councillor Kenneth Cheung (張錦雄) was arrested at his residence at about 7 pm. An unidentified volunteer at supply station near the scene of the fire was also arrested. One pro-CCP outlet suggested it was in relation to warning victims of the fire not to share their personal information with unknown individuals. Cheung posted on December 1 that he had been released on bail “pending further investigation.” Neither the Hong Kong government nor police have issued any public statements about the arrests, which appear intended to deter others from speaking out about the fire. There is great anger in Hong Kong and in the diaspora. One anonymous message left among a large pile of flowers laid to pay respects to the victims this weekend sums up the sentiment: “It is not the bamboo scaffolding that’s the problem; it’s the system.” Now, in all, 119 have been arrested for sedition in Hong Kong. On February 13, 2026, Miles Kwan announced he’d been expelled by Chinese University of Hong Kong to punish him for the petition.
UPDATE: On November 24, Hong Kong national security police arrested a man and a woman on suspicion of “doing an act with seditious intention” and “assisting offenders.” The man is the owner of the “yellow” (pro-democracy) shop hk9cake/鳩戟, which was also raided by police. The police said the man had posted “seditious” posts between 2020 and 2025 on the shop’s social media platforms. The shop is known to have employed recently released political prisoners, and this may be the background behind the police suspicion of the two having “assisting offenders.” The police announcement is phrased in such a way as to lead one to understand that both the man and woman were arrested for sedition, but some media reports suggests only the man was. For now, both are counted in the statistics: there have been in all 116 arrests for sedition.
UPDATE: On November 18, Hong Kong national security police arrested a 68-year-old man for “knowingly publishing publications that had a seditious intention” and “inciting others to not vote” in the upcoming fake election for Legco. This is part of an overall pre-fake-election crackdown, with so far at least 19 people overall having been arrested in fake-election-related arrests. There have now been in all 114 arrests for sedition. On November 20, he was charged in court with sedition, denied bail, and remanded in custody. The next court hearing is December 30. Now, in all, 67 people have been charged with sedition; 60 have been remanded in custody pending trial; 50 have been convicted; 0 have been acquitted.
UPDATE: On October 31, 19-year-old Lan Fei plead guilty to “doing with a seditious intention an act or acts that had a seditious intention”. She will be sentenced on November 13. While abroad in Canada earlier this year, she appeared in promotional videos for the Hong Kong Parliament’s election. She then returned to Hong Kong and her arrest was reported on August 26 (see below). On November 13, she was sentenced to one year in prison. Now, in all, 66 people have been charged with sedition; 59 have been remanded in custody pending trial; 50 have been convicted; 0 have been acquitted.
UPDATE: On October 29, Hong Kong national security police announced the arrests of five people on a variety of charges, most of which appear to be related to the mass protests of 2019. One of the five was arrested for sedition for his online speech, but no mention was made of the time period in which he was suspected of committing the offense. It is rare these days for new arrests in relation to the 2019 protests to occur, and questions must be asked about why exactly the national security police have decided to act now. The case bears some relation to the arrest some months back of Joshua Wong in prison on national security charges for acts allegedly committed in 2020. In that case, the motivation was transparent: to keep Joshua in prison indefinitely. In this case, it has been reported that one of those arrested was recently acquitted in the so-called bomb plot trial, in which all eight defendants were acquitted of principle charges while three were convicted of alternative charges. That trial was highly unusual in that it was a political trial by jury at the High Court. Most political defendants at the High Court are denied jury trial (for example, Tong Ying-kit, Jimmy Lai, Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho) and instead a panel of three designated national security judges are appointed to hear their case. While very little information has yet been divulged, these arrests have the whiff of payback: the government’s defeat in the jury trial in the bomb plot case was exceedingly rare and it appears it is trying to find another way to lock away one of the defendants. There have now been in all 114 arrests for sedition.
UPDATE: On October 1, 89-year-old Benedict Ng was arrested in Causeway Bay and charged with sedition. He was released on bail and not charged. Police have not said what act he did “with seditious intent.” He has previously done solo protests on June 4 and been simply lead away by police. Now, in all, there have been 113 arrests for sedition.
UPDATE: On August 26, a 19-year-old woman was charged with “doing with a seditious intention an act or acts that had a seditious intention” for allegedly promoting a “subversive” overseas group. She was remanded in custody pending trial. While it was unclear whether or not she was arrested recently, pro-CCP SCMP reported that she was, though details (ie, date, place) have not emerged. Now, in all, there have been 112 arrests for sedition; 65 have been charged; 58 have been remanded in custody pending trial; 49 have been convicted; 0 acquitted.
UPDATE: On July 21 and July 31, two people were arrested for sedition. On July 21, an 18-year-old was arrested for graffiti in a men’s toilet stall at China Hong Kong mall on Jul 17, 18 and 21, 2025 and charged with three counts of criminal damage, one count of “doing an act with seditious intent.” He was initially remanded in custody pending trial, but upon appeal was released on bail. On July 31, a 43-year-old man was arrested for “seditious intention” and “criminal intimidation” for allegedly sending letters to media organizations threatening them with arson if they didn’t publish reports on a website that sold goods to fundraise for wanted overseas Hong Kong activists. There has since been no word whether he was brought to court and charged or released on bail. Now, in all, there have been 111 arrests for sedition and 64 have been charged.
UPDATE: On May 8, a 32-year-old plead guilty to sedition and was sentenced to 12 months in prison for 117 posts on Facebook between March 29, 2024 and January 21, 2025. Most of the posts criticized the Hong Kong police for arbitrary arrests, brutality and violence against protesters. Judges and the judicial system were also criticized. The man said rule of law in Hong Kong was dead and that the national security law imposed by the Communist Party was evil. Now, in all, 49 people have been convicted of sedition and 0 have been acquitted. The numbers below have been updated accordingly.
UPDATE: On April 30, 2025, a 22-year-old was arrested for “repeatedly publishing posts with seditious intentions on online social platforms, with content provoking hatred, contempt or disaffection against the fundamental system of the state.” He was charged with "knowingly publishing publications with seditious intent" on Instagram and X from June 27, 2024 to April 28, 2025 and remanded in custody. Next court appearance: June 12. No evidence was presented in court as to the content of his posts. Now, in all, 109 have been arrested for sedition and 63 charged. Of the 109 arrests, 44 have been for online speech.
UPDATE: On April 8, 2025, 57-year-old Chow Kim-ho plead guilty to “knowingly publishing publications with seditious intent” for 145 posts made on Facebook, Instagram and Threads between March 26 and November 12, 2024. He had been arrested on November 12 and remanded in custody on November 13. After he plead guilty, he was sentenced to 12 months in prison. In court, the prosecution presented at least 14 examples of his statements as evidence of sedition: "Eliminate the Communist Party.” "The Communist Party eats shit.” "If you are brave enough, start a war and use them as cannon fodder.” "The Communist Party is the representative of the Axis of Evil.” "It is natural for the Communist Party to break the law.” "I really want to see the Communist Party perish.” "Bomb Beijing.” "Hong Kong is sanctioned because of the Communist Party.” "The dictatorial and murderous regime controls Hong Kong and has caused Hong Kong's economy to die.” "The Communist Party is a beast with no humanity.” "One country, two systems is dead and the Communist Party already rules Hong Kong dictatorially.” "A beastly country that exports terrorism.” "A party that governs the country with lies.”"There is only slavery in China.”
Following Chow’s conviction, now in all 48 people have been convicted of sedition in Hong Kong, and 0 acquitted. The numbers below have been updated accordingly.
During these years of political crackdown in Hong Kong, “sedition” has frequently been confused with national security law crimes, the four most prominent of which are secession, subversion of state power, terrorism, and collusion with external forces. Excellent work has been done by others on the NSL.1 I’m still considering whether to do my own separate post on NSL arrests and prosecutions. Here I want to focus on “sedition” as a specific tool in the regime’s toolbox of repression, partly because it gets less attention, and partly because the Hong Kong government (as always, directed and backed by the CCP2) is using the sedition law for a specific purpose.
As has been often remarked, the UK-colonial-era sedition law had never been used in post-handover Hong Kong until 2020, when it was taken out and dusted off.3 From 2020 to 2024, the regime classified “sedition” as an offense “endangering national security,” even though, formally and legally speaking, it was not a crime in the national security law imposed by the CCP on Hong Kong in June 2020.
Then in March 2024, the Hong Kong government enacted a second national security law that repealed the UK-colonial-era sedition law and substituted its own sedition law.4 That second national security law, called the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, formally incorporated the sedition law into the regime’s national security architecture. Substantially, the law is more or less the same as the original UK-colonial-era law. The most substantial change is the maximum penalty for sedition was increased from two years in prison to seven, with up to ten years in cases where the offense is committed in collusion with external forces.
The key words in the new sedition law that pertain most directly to the current crackdown are the definition: “an intention to bring a Chinese citizen, Hong Kong permanent resident or a person in the HKSAR into hatred, contempt or disaffection against the following system or institution….” What follows is a list of Chinese government and Hong Kong government institutions, including the PLA and the police. Again, this is substantially the same as the UK-colonial-era sedition law employed from 2020 to March 2024, except that the latter referred to “Her Majesty” and “Her Majesty’s government.” The regime construes “seditious intention” to encompass a wide variety of speech acts from criticism of the government and police to expression of frustration or resentment of the regime; in effect, it’s whatever the regime considers “oppositional” in nature.
In contrast, probably the most standard working definition of “sedition” in other jurisdictions where that offense exists is that it involves inciting rebellion against state or government, “rebellion” here meaning something akin to a violent uprising. Because none of those charged with “sedition” in Hong Kong have explicitly advocated for a violent rebellion against the regime, government and courts have contented themselves with characterizing an alleged offender as “inciting hatred, contempt or disaffection”—a very low bar indeed which can encompass virtually any criticism or expression of discontent.
When the regime first started arresting people for “sedition” in 2020, its employment of the offense appeared somewhat improvisational—it looked like it was meant to plug what the regime considered a gap in enforcement of its prerogatives. Then through using it, it seems the government became convinced of its efficacy. So it was that in the space of four years, “sedition” went from being a never-before-since-the-handover employed offense to an improvisational stopgap to a central part of the “national security” regimen. Its primary purpose throughout this transformation has been to chill free speech.
Almost all of the people arrested and prosecuted for “sedition” in Hong Kong engaged in speech or conduct that would be within the bounds of the acceptable in free societies. I say “almost all” because four people were reportedly arrested for, among other things, inciting violence against Hong Kong government officials. Only one of them was prosecuted and convicted, but for inciting hatred, not violence. That is to say, no one has been prosecuted for or convicted of “sedition” in Hong Kong for inciting violence against others. It is possible that one or more of those four did incite violence against others, but no evidence was ever presented in a court of law to that effect. Hong Kong also has a law against “inciting grievous bodily harm;” speech inciting violence against others is already outlawed. The sedition law is not used to prohibit or punish that; it is specifically focused on targeting criticism or expression of discontent with government, courts and police or expressing views on “sensitive” matters such as the Tiananmen Massacre, Hong Kong political status, and Taiwan that differ from official views.
The basic statistics
As of February 28, 2025, a total of 108 people have been arrested for “sedition” since the first arrest on July 29, 2020. (In addition, four entities—three associated with the news outlet Apple Daily and one with the news outlet Stand News—have been charged.) 105 people were arrested under the old UK-colonial-era sedition law between 2020 and 2024; three under the new sedition law enacted as part of the second national security law in March 2024. Of these…
43 were arrested for online speech on Facebook, YouTube, Telegram, Instagram, Twitter, LIHKG and Threads;
15 of those arrested were journalists or executives at Apple Daily (7), Stand News (7) and D100 radio station (1);
13 were arrested for books: five for publishing allegorical children’s books about sheep; six for selling books about the 2019 mass protests; one for importing allegorical children’s books about sheep; and one for possessing allegorical children’s books about sheep;
12 were arrested in relation to protests: four for commemorating the Tiananmen Massacre; three for simply planning protests (against the Beijing Winter Olympics, against new fake elections, and commemorating the Tiananmen Massacre); two for shouting slogans on the street or at protests; two for a protest during graduation at Chinese University; and one for playing an instrumental version of the protest anthem, “Glory to Hong Kong,” on the harmonica outside the British consulate where people were paying their respects to the recently deceased Queen;
6 were arrested for making noise in court at a hearing in one of the several trials of Chow Hang-tung;
5 were arrested in relation to the arrest warrant and HK$1 million bounty issued for exiled pro-democracy leader Nathan Law;
4 were arrested for putting up posters or handing out leaflets;
2 were arrested for wearing t-shirts with “seditious” messages;
1 was arrested for writing “seditious” graffiti on bus seats;
In 7 cases, the reasons for the arrests are unknown.
As for the content of their “seditious” messages / conduct, the following list is not exhaustive but quite illustrative:
16 were arrested for criticizing the Hong Kong government or specific Hong Kong government officials
16 were arrested for criticizing the Chinese government or Chinese Communist Party
13 for speaking out about the Tiananmen Massacre
11 for criticizing judges and prosecutors in political / NSL trials
9 for expressing support for Hong Kong independence
8 for criticizing police
4 for using the protest slogan, “Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times”
2 for administering the Civil Servants Secrets Facebook page
2 for posting humorous messages about foreign sporting bodies thinking the protest anthem “Glory to Hong Kong" was the official HK anthem
2 for advocating sanctions of Hong Kong officials
2 for criticizing draconian anti-pandemic measures
2 for inciting attacks on Hong Kong government officials
1 for expressing a view about the political status of Taiwan that differed from the official view
1 for spoofing the PRC national anthem
1 for advocating the deliberate spread COVID
Of the 108 people arrested,
61 were eventually charged with “sedition”; 2 others had their charges changed to national security offenses. As stated above, 4 entities were also charged.
Of the 61 charged with sedition, 56 were remanded in custody pending trial. In general, since the crackdown began in 2019, the use of pre-trial detention has been greatly ramped up. Although not a single one of the 56 who were remanded had committed a violent act or incited violence or posed a physical threat to themselves or others, the prosecution successfully argued that they “posed a threat to national security” and the judges remanded them. (Note that even before NSL2 was enacted in March 2024, only designated NSL judges could preside over sedition trials. This is a secret list of judges designated by the Chief Executive. The only way we know who these judges are is by inference and deduction, ie, we observe them presiding over NSL and sedition trials and conclude they must be designated NSL judges.)
So far, 49 people and 4 entities have been convicted of “sedition” and 0 have been acquitted. That’s a 100 percent conviction rate, even higher than in NSL trials, where, of all those tried, two have been acquitted.
48 people have been sentenced. 46 of them have been sentenced to prison and 2 to juvenile detention. The 46 sentenced to prison have received sentences averaging about 12.3 months, just a little over a year. Since the enactment of NSL2 in March 2024, which raised the maximum penalty for sedition, five people arrested after that date have been convicted. They have been sentenced to ten, 14, 14, 12 and 12 months in prison—sentences similar in length to pre-NSL2 sentences.
While three people were arrested for sedition from July to November 2020, it wasn’t until June 2021 that arrests for sedition started to be made with high frequency. By then, 124 arrests had already been made under the NSL. Basically, the regime used the NSL to take out a lot of the people at the top of its list of enemies. Then, once it got those people behind bars, it used the sedition law to go after others and to plug areas that were difficult to plug with the NSL, in particular, online speech.
The first sedition arrest for online speech wasn’t made until November 11, 2021; the second on February 5, 2022; the third on April 6, 2022; and the fourth on April 28, 2022. After that, the floodgates opened, leading to 39 more arrests for online speech since.5 These sedition arrests for online speech have a very specific purpose: to act as a deterrent and “train” Hong Kong people to censor themselves on social media.
The Hong Kong government seeks to create an air-tight political environment where neither through protest nor through the media nor through social media nor anywhere else in society can political views differing from those of the government be expressed.
Below is a list of the 111 sedition arrests by year:
2020: 3
2021: 23
2022: 40
2023: 26
2024: 15
2025: 4 so far
And here is a corresponding list of the 167 NSL arrests by year:
2020: 32 (the NSL was enacted on June 30)
2021: 102
2022: 8
2023: 25
2024: 0
2025: 0 so far
Basically, 2020 and 2021 were the two big years of NSL arrests. Since then, they’ve drastically decreased while the number of sedition arrests has increased: since the start of 2022, there have been 33 NSL arrests and 82 sedition arrests.
In the past year, the number of arrests for all offenses “endangering national security” has decreased, mostly because the regime’s now locked up most of those it has intended to target while people remaining in Hong Kong have become ever more cautious about expressing themselves politically.
Some important sedition cases
Tam Tak-chi, arrested September 6, 2020
Tam was the second person ever arrested for sedition but the first to be prosecuted. (The first to be arrested for sedition, Studentlocalism leader Tony Chung, was eventually charged with “secession” under the NSL.) I sensed that someone in the government or police had a particular animus against Tam and was out to get him. He was best known as a radio show host (he played “Fast Beat” to pro-democracy leader Raymond Chan’s “Slow Beat”) but was also a leader of the People Power pro-democracy political party.
The government threw the book at him: he was charged with a total of 14 counts: seven counts of “uttering seditious words,” one count of “conspiracy to utter seditious words,” one count of “inciting utterance of seditious words,” one count of “unauthorized assembly,” three counts of “disorderly conduct,” and one count of “refusal to comply with police orders”—this all for standing on the street shouting slogans, what just about everyone else in Hong Kong was doing at the time. He was convicted of 11 of those counts and acquitted of three on March 2, 2022 and sentenced to a whopping 40 months in prison.
That was not the end of it: he has appealed his conviction and sentence all the way to the very top court, the Court of Final Appeal. The CFA hearing was held January 10 this year, and the verdict is scheduled this week, on March 6. Several other sedition trials have been postponed, awaiting the CFA’s verdict in Tam’s case.
In the meantime, he was also a defendant in the HK47 trial of 47 pro-democracy leaders for “conspiracy to subvert state power” by taking part in the 2020 pro-democracy primary election. In that case, he plead guilty and was sentenced in November 2024 to 53 months in prison. His projected release date is in March 2027. That’s a lot of time behind bars for entirely nonviolent acts that caused nobody else any harm at all.
General Union of Hong Kong Speech Therapists, arrested July 22, 2021
Along with the Stand News trial, this has probably gotten more attention than just about any other sedition case, mostly because it’s so outrageously absurd. Five leaders of the General Union of Hong Kong Speech Therapists were prosecuted for publishing three allegorical children’s books about sheep trying to defend their village from wolves. This was one of those defining moments that woke Hong Kongers up to just how extreme the repression was becoming.
The union was one of the many inspired to start by the protests and vocally pro-democracy. The five leaders were in their mid- to late twenties, full of idealism and benevolent intentions. I love the photo of Lai Man-ling and Melody Yeung Yat-yi at the top of this article: looking at each other while holding the first book in the series. When I view it, all I see is young people who want nothing but the best for Hong Kong, their home.
The five union leaders were all convicted and sentenced to 19 months in prison each, just five months below the maximum penalty at the time of 24 months. For publishing children’s books.
Someone in the government or police must have really had it out for this book because of the total of 13 book-related arrests in Hong Kong, seven were in relation to the Sheep Village books—the five trade union leaders, plus one man arrested for importing the books from abroad (and eventually sentenced to four months in prison) and another man arrested on the same day simply for possessing the Sheep Village books (he was never prosecuted).
Jimmy Lai and six Apple Daily executives, charged December 28, 2021
Jimmy Lai and Apple Daily executives have been arrested and tried for so many things, it can be hard to keep them straight. They were charged with both “collusion with external forces” under the NSL and sedition. The six executives plead guilty in November 2022 to collusion and the sedition charges were dropped. Jimmy’s trial for collusion and sedition went ahead. In fact, it’s still going on. Today was the 142nd day. At the moment, the verdict is expected in October, but it’s been delayed so many other times up to now, it won’t be a surprise if it’s later than that. In the meantime, the six executives have been remanded, now for more than two years, awaiting the conclusion of Jimmy’s trial. Most of his trial has focused on the “collusion” charges. The sedition charges have to do with the defendants using Apple Daily to “incite hatred” against the regime.
Two editors and four members of the board of directors of Stand News, December 29, 2021
The six were arrested the day after Jimmy and the Apple Daily executives were charged with sedition. The four board members were released without charge. They included the pro-democracy singer Denise Ho and the Civic Party leader, former Legco representative and lawyer Margaret Ng. The two editors, Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam, were prosecuted and convicted on August 29, 2024. Chung was sentenced to 21 months in prison, Lam to 11 and immediately released for time served on remand. Lam has a serious illness which the judge took into account in the sentencing. Chung is still in prison. The two were prosecuted based on 17 articles they edited. The articles were mostly profiles of pro-democracy figures or commentaries written by well-known pro-democracy figures. Chung is the husband of Chan Pui-man, the Apple Daily executive imprisoned since 2021 and yet to be sentenced. Much of Chung’s mitigation statement was about his wife’s dedication to journalism. Below is a translation of Patrick Lam’s mitigation statement.
Your Honor:
I still remember that at the beginning of my remand, several police officers came to visit me on official duties as usual. One of them said, "Everyone is his own master." I regret not taking the opportunity to explain to the police officer that journalists have no allegiance or antagonism. And if we really have someone to be loyal to, it can only be the public. Because we believe in freedom of the press and freedom of speech, and only the freedom to spread ideas can protect everyone's freedom.
I joined the media industry in 2010. At that time, the news industry was already facing various concerns. Obvious and covert censorship were becoming more and more frequent. Newsroom policies were inevitably facing interference by bosses as well as corporate and other powers, and the space for editorial autonomy was becoming increasingly narrow.
Stand News was founded against that backdrop. Everyone involved in Stand News held the same ideals and tried to run a Hong Kong media organization with complete editorial independence. I believe that the main reason Stand News was able to survive for seven years is that readers wanted to see news that was truly not influenced by corporations, powers or political parties.
Even up to the last moment, when press freedom hung in the balance, under tremendous pressure, colleagues still stood firm and were worthy of the times.
We uncovered truths that had been very nearly hidden, even when it was difficult. We spoke up for the powerless, the vulnerable and the minority, even in the face of attacks and condemnation. We tried to record Hong Kong as much as possible, and tried our best to leave the first draft of history before these people and things disappeared.
Our freedom was decreasing, and every colleague was aware of this; they chose to stay, step up, and use all of the narrowing space. From July 2020, the beginning of the period in which the prosecution alleges we committed sedition, up to today, our colleagues at Stand News have won more than 30 journalism awards and commendations for their reporting. It has been an honor to work alongside this exceptional group of journalists.
The heart of this case is press freedom and freedom of speech. Journalists are of course responsible for their own reporting, but they are also derelict in their responsibility if they deliberately avoid reporting despite knowing that the public has a right to know. For this reason, the only way for journalists to defend press freedom is to report, just like everyone who is still working hard today. I happen to be just one person in the industry who is a defendant.
Patrick Lam6
Koo Sze-yiu, arrested February 4, 2022 and December 8, 2023
In typical civil disobedient fashion, Koo notified the media in advance that he was going to do these protests. So the police visited him at home and arrested him. For the first protest, he planned to go to the Chinese government’s Liaison Office and protest the Beijing Winter Olympics. For the second, he planned to go to the Electoral Affairs Office with a homemade coffin and protest the new fake elections to District Councils after the government had changed the rules to ensure no opposition candidates could run for office. The Throughout this period, Koo, in his seventies, had advanced cancer. Despite that, he was sentenced to nine months in prison both times. The formal wording of his crimes was "attempting to do or making any preparation to do an act or acts with seditious intention.” In the first case, he was initially arrested on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power.” In Hong Kong these days, you don’t even have to go so far as to protest to get sent to prison; simply planning to is sufficient. The photo above shows Koo upon release from prison on April 7, 2021 after conviction for “desecration of the PRC flag”—for holding a PRC flag upside down with the words ‘fascist terror’ and 'white terror' written on it outside a courthouse where a political trial was going on. As you can see, he looks scrawny and diminished, especially in comparison to previous photos (for example, in the gallery at the top of this article) of a healthy Koo where he appears unusually robust for someone his age.
Of course, there are many other important stories to tell.
Zeng Yuxuan was the first Chinese to be imprisoned for sedition in 2023, simply for planning a protest on June 4. She’d intended to exhibit banners showing the famous Pillar of Shame statue made by Danish artist Jens Galschiøt and on show for years at the University of Hong Kong before it was removed in December 2021. In October 2023, when she was to be released, friends showed up at the prison to greet her but she didn’t appear. The Hong Kong government divulged in the evening that she had been immediately sent back to China. As of April 2024, no one had heard from her.
Joseph John was a Portuguese national living in London where he worked as a music teacher. When he came to Hong Kong in November 2022, he was arrested for sedition. He was eventually prosecuted for “conspiracy to incite secession” under the NSL, plead guilty, and was sentenced to five years in prison for posting pro-independence messages under the identity of Hong Kong Independence Party on Facebook. Instagram, Telegram and Twitter, a party virtually no one had ever heard of.
Chu Kai-pong was arrested, convicted and imprisoned twice for wearing a “Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times” t-shirt; the first time on November 27, 2023 at the Hong Kong airport, and the second time on June 12, 2024 outside Shek Mun MTR station. He got three months in prison the first time; 14 months the second time. He is among three people arrested and convicted since the NSL2 was enacted in March 2024, lengthening the maximum penalty for sedition.
Lydia Wong, Eric Yan-ho Lai, Charlotte Yeung, and Thomas Kellogg also include sedition arrests and prosecutions in their NSL database. It’s the most thorough and complete around.
Remember that as a result of the national security law imposed by the CCP in 2020, there is an Office for Safeguarding National Security of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. This office is entirely secret. No one knows what it does or how it interacts with the Hong Kong government and police authorities responsible for “national security.” It is probably that for the first time ever, Chinese police are based in Hong Kong. This is one of the key ways in which the national security law undermines Hong Kong’s autonomy.
Important background on the UK-colonial-era sedition law can be found here, including how the UK colonial government used it, attempts to repeal it before the 1997, and the United Nations Human Rights Committee urging the Hong Kong government to abolish both the sedition law and the national security law in 2022.
This is the notice from the Hong Kong government on the change: “Ss. 9 and 10 of the Crimes Ordinance (Cap. 200) have been repealed by s. 139 of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance (6 of 2024) (“SNSO”) and replaced by ss. 23 to 26 of the SNSO which has come into effect since 23 March 2024.” The original UK-colonial-era sedition law can also be found at the above link under Section 9, Seditious Intention. The law remains essentially the same, except that references to “Her Majesty” are replaced by the phrase, “Central
Authorities / Central People’s Government or other competent authorities.”
Exiled pro-democracy leader Ted Hui recently poked fun at the National Security Department (the official name of the police branch with primary responsibility for investigating acts “endangering national security”). He said billions of HK dollars are spent by the police on national security, but it appears the NSD mostly just sits around scrolling the internet. Almost all of the “evidence” of the multiple nefarious crimes the regime accused Ted of committing in a trial document was his Facebook posts.
The original: 余若薇庭上讀出，林紹桐的陳情信：
法官閣下：
我依然記得，在還押最初，幾位警官循例來公務探訪，其中一位形容「大家各為其主」。我後悔沒有把握機會向警官解釋，新聞工作者從沒有要效忠誰、擁護誰，或者與誰為敵。而如果我們真的有效忠的對象，只有是公眾，亦只能是公眾。因為我們信奉新聞自由、言論自由，而唯有傳播思想的自由，才能保障每個人的自由。
我 2010 年加入傳媒行業，當時新聞業界已面臨各種隱憂，或明或暗的審查愈見頻密，編採室方針難逃老闆、財團及權力各種干預，編輯自主空間愈來愈狹窄。
《立場新聞》是在如此背景下成立，參與《立場》的每一位抱着同一個理想，嘗試在香港經營一個完全編輯自主的傳媒機構。《立場》能夠生存七年，我相信很大原因，是讀者希望看到的新聞，真正不受財團、金主、權力或黨派左右。
即使在最後的時間，新聞自由在半空墜落，在巨大壓力之下，同事依然堅守崗位，無愧於時代。
我們發掘差點被掩沒的真相，即使困難重重。我們為無權者、弱勢和小眾發聲，即使面臨譴責攻擊。我們盡可能記錄香港，趁這些人與事消失之前，盡力留下歷史初稿。
我們的自由在倒數，每一位同事都心知肚明；他們選擇留下，加緊步伐，用盡狹縫裡所有空間。由 2020 年 7 月（即控方指控煽動的案發開始）一直至今天，《立場》同事的報道先後獲得 30 多項新聞獎項及嘉許。曾經與這一群出類拔萃的新聞工作者並肩工作，是我的榮幸。
這宗案件的關鍵是新聞自由，是言論自由。新聞工作者不但要為自己的報道負責，若明知公眾有知情權，但刻意迴避不報道亦是失責。亦因如此，新聞工作者捍衛新聞自由的唯一方式是報道，正如今天仍然緊守崗位的每一位。而我只是行業的其中一人，剛巧成為被告。