The United States has called for the release of four Hong Kong activists convicted of criminals for participating in a vigil for those who suffered the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing.
On Thursday, through Secretary of State Antony Blinken, he called for the most recent condemnation across the United States of an offensive against protesters in Hong Kong, which has noticed a pro-democracy movement in the face of perceived erosion of freedoms held through the semi-autonomous ”. one country, two systems. “
“The United States supports the other people of Hong Kong and rejects the condemnation of activists for attending a commemoration in Tiananmen,” Blinken wrote on Twitter.
“All those imprisoned for the nonviolent exercise of guaranteed freedoms must be released immediately,” he added.
– Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) 7 May 2021
For more than three decades, Hong Kong has marked the anniversary of the fatal crackdown on Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing in 1989 through candlelight vigils.
But last year’s occasion was banned for the first time, with police bringing out the coronavirus pandemic and security fears after a year of protests in favor of democracy.
Tens of thousands of people defied the ban and gathered peacefully at the classic vigil in Victoria Park. Since then, prosecutors have accused more than two dozen prominent activists who showed up at the vigil.
Joshua Wong, Lester Shum, Tiffany Yuen and Janelle Leung, four prominent 20-year-old youth activists, were sentenced to delinquenth on Thursday after pleading guilty in an “unauthorized assembly” last year to commemorate Tiananmen’s birthday on June 4.
Wong, one of the city’s best-known democracy activists, recently serves 17. 5 months in prison for two sentences similar to the 2019 anti-government protests.
He sentenced to 10 consecutive months in prison for the new conviction, which will begin once the existing sentences are served.
Shum, 27, won six months, while Yuen, 27, and Leung, 26, won four months.
Wong, Shum and Yuen were also charged with a debatable national security law that Beijing imposed on the city last year to eliminate dissent. They face criminal life if convicted.
The arrests are the latest in a series of criminal cases that have caught the city’s besathed movement for democracy, which further obstructed the national security law passed by the Chinese National People’s Assembly (NTA) last year that categorizes a wide range of actions. “crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces punishable by life imprisonment. “
As a component of the 1997 move-in agreement with the UK, Beijing agreed to allow Hong Kong to maintain safe freedoms and autonomy until 2047, contributing to its transformation into one of the world’s leading monetary centers.
Carrie Lam says her government is “serious” in the fight against “misinformation, hatred and lies. “
Darkus Yu is one of thousands of Hong Kongers who have chosen to leave the space they have known.
Those who moved to Hong Kong because it presented more freedoms than anywhere else in China are anxious.
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