8 HK dissidents get jail terms for attending rallies
HONG KONG/WASHINGTON: Jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was among eight democracy activists handed new prison sentences on Friday for attending protests on the 70th anniversary of the founding of communist China that were followed by a sweeping crackdown.
Lai, who is already behind bars for taking part in earlier protests, was given 14 months after pleading guilty to organising an unlawful assembly on October 1, 2019. He will now have to serve a total of 20 months for his multiple protest convictions.
Seven other leading activists, including 25-year-old youth campaigner Figo Chan, as well as former lawmakers Lee Cheukyan and Leung Kwok-hung, were also given new jail terms.
The new sentences are the latest in a relentless and successful campaign by China to smother dissent and dismantle Hong Kong’s democracy movement.
The finance hub was convulsed by months of huge and often violent pro-democracy protests in 2019 in the most serious challenge to Beijing’s rule since the city’s 1997 handover.
The clashes with police on China’s October 1 National Day were some of the worst of that period.
It was a vivid and embarrassing illustration of how huge swathes of Hong Kong’s population seethe under Beijing’s rule as the government celebrated 70 years since communist China’s founding.
The march attended by the activists who were jailed on Friday
remained largely peaceful. But it did not have official police permission, a requirement in Hong Kong.
US Senate’s tech bill takes aim at China
The US Senate on Thursday advanced a sweeping package of legislation intended to boost the country’s ability to compete with Chinese technology, as Congress increasingly seeks to take a tough line against Beijing.
Senators voted 68-30 to end debate on the $250 billion US Innovation and Competition Act of 2021, or USICA, and move nearer to a final vote on the legislation.
The desire for a hard line in dealings with China is one of the few truly bipartisan sentiments in the deeply divided US Congress, which is narrowly controlled by President Joe Biden’s fellow Democrats.
Senate Democratic majority leader Chuck Schumer, who co-wrote the legislation, said the United States spends less than 1% of gross domestic product on basic scientific research, less than half of what China does.