Father of U.S.-based activist sentenced in Hong Kong beneath nationwide safety legislation : NPR

A Hong Kong court docket on Thursday used town’s nationwide safety legislation to jail a 69-year outdated man for eight months, within the first case towards a member of the family of a pro-democracy activist needed by authorities.

Kwok Yin-sang, the daddy of exiled pro-democracy activist Anna Kwok, was convicted in early February, discovered responsible of dealing with monetary belongings belonging to his daughter. Anna Kwok, 29, is one in every of greater than two dozen abroad activists who is needed by Hong Kong authorities, who’ve issued a bounty of $1 million Hong Kong {dollars} (roughly $127,000 ) for her arrest.

Anna Kwok lives in Washington, the place she is the chief director of the Hong Kong Democracy Council (HKDC), a lobbyist group that raises points just like the plight of town’s political prisoners and ongoing human rights abuses.

Prosecutors argued that Kwok Yin-sang dedicated against the law by making an attempt to withdraw funds from an training financial savings insurance coverage coverage that he purchased for his daughter when she was 2 years outdated. Below the home nationwide safety legislation, often known as Article 23, offering any monetary help to “absconders” is a felony offense. Kwok Yin-sang pleaded not responsible.

In handing down the sentence, the choose stated the offense was critical and that Kwok Yin-sang had proven no regret, in accordance with Hong Kong Free Press.

Anna Kwok, in an interview with NPR, stated the cost was “ridiculous” as she had by no means taken management of the insurance coverage coverage, signed any papers or communicated along with her father about benefitting financially in any approach.

The Hong Kong courts “are developing a storyline that’s primarily utilizing legalese to place my dad in jail, simply to focus on me,” she stated.

Kwok’s imprisonment marks the primary time a member of the family of a Hong Kong activist has been jailed in reference to their relations’ abroad lobbying, marking a brand new chapter of repression within the once-autonomous monetary heart. Beijing has lengthy deployed such techniques towards abroad Chinese language dissidents in addition to the Uyghur and Tibetan diaspora, whose relations nonetheless inside attain of Chinese language authorities have been detained, harassed and intimidated.

Kwok Yin-sang (L) leaves the Excessive Court docket after a choose granted him bail in Hong Kong on Might 20, 2025.

Tommy Wang/AFP by way of Getty Photographs

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Tommy Wang/AFP by way of Getty Photographs

Kwok Yin-sang’s case additionally exhibits authorities’ willingness to make the most of their full arsenal of punitive nationwide safety laws to criminalize a wider swath of Hong Kong’s inhabitants, in accordance with Eric Lai, a senior fellow on the Georgetown Heart for Asian Legislation. Article 23, which was drafted domestically and signed into legislation in 2024, added new nationwide safety offenses that weren’t lined beneath the Beijing imposed nationwide safety legislation in 2020.

With Article 23, and Kwok’s case, the Hong Kong authorities is “legalizing collective punishment,” stated Lai. “Punishing peaceable advocates and their associates primarily due to… political orientation ought to by no means be accepted in civilized and rights-respecting jurisdiction in any respect.”

David Tobin, a lecturer in East Asian Research on the College of Sheffield in England, stated these techniques have lengthy been deployed by China’s ruling Communist Celebration, the place the “entire safety equipment screens the household” moderately than the person.

“It deters anybody who does not have the social capital, [foreign] citizenship and funds, and who can’t defend themselves,” he added.

Anna Kwok solely grew to become a named activist after the enactment of the nationwide safety legislation, hoping to indicate others, she stated, that they didn’t need to again down. When Hong Kong residents took to the streets in 2019 to face towards Beijing’s encroachment, Anna Kwok says she was nonetheless an nameless activist, lobbying behind the scenes with out the profile of extra distinguished youth leaders.

In focusing on her household, authorities have remoted Anna Kwok from them, unable to work together along with her father, brother or others since police first began investigations in 2023. She stated she has needed to guess how her father is doing, relying solely on public reporting, pictures and his gait as he walked into the courtroom, since he obscured his face all through the trial with a masks.

The expertise, she stated, has prompted a deep introspection on the sacrifices that include a lifetime of activism – and has recommitted her to advocacy work.

“They wish to use this as a option to silence everybody, as a option to intimidate everybody into not doing something [and] forgetting about Hong Kong,” Anna Kwok stated.

“I do see it as my function to indicate individuals that you could nonetheless transfer ahead.”