Hong Kong convicts teenagers under national security law for first time

Judge says defendants had advocated ‘bloody revolution’

Five teenagers in Hong Kong were sentenced to three years in detention at a correctional facility under the draconian national security law for allegedly advocating to overthrow the government.

It is the first time Hong Kong has convicted minors under the sweeping security law, which was implemented in 2020 after widespread pro-democracy protests.

On Saturday, judge Kwok Wai-kin said the defendants had advocated a “bloody revolution” to overthrow the Chinese state at street booths and on social media, which could have turned peaceful demonstrators violent.

“Even if only one person is incited by them, the social stability of Hong Kong and the safety of residents may be seriously endangered,” the judge said.

However, he added, there is no “evidence to directly prove that anyone was incited by the defendants to subvert state power, but this real risk exists”.

Taking their “age and maturity” into account, the judge capped their sentence to three years and asked them to be placed in a detention centre for young people rather than a prison.

The teenagers, aged between 16 and 19, were members of a pro-democracy group called “Returning Valiant” and promoted an “armed revolution” against the Chinese administration, the court was told.

The group had pleaded guilty to “inciting others to subvert state power”.

Prosecutors Anthony Chau and Stella Lo, in a previous hearing, told the court that the group had distributed pamphlets, addressed press conferences and held online broadcasts for months.

Their flyers mentioned the French and Ukrainian revolutions as examples of successful armed rebellions and quoted Mao Zedong on a revolution being “a violent act of one class overthrowing another”, prosecutors said.

They added the police had seized flags, leaflets, air guns, ammunition and extendable batons in an industrial building.

Sentences for two more defendants, aged 21 and 26, will be decided separately next month.

At least 22 people linked to the group were arrested last year, with separate charges of conspiring to commit terrorism level against them.

Under the national security law, alleged crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces are punishable by a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Critics have accused the Communist government of throttling dissent with the help of the new law that makes arresting protesters unchallenging.