Editorial: The jailing of 45 pro-democracy activists testifies to the ruthless suppression of a once-vibrant civil society
Police hold back the media outside the court in Hong Kong. ‘The show trial is intended to decapitate a movement and intimidate a population.’Police hold back the media outside the court in Hong Kong. ‘The show trial is intended to decapitate a movement and intimidate a population.
Through an unofficial primary process – designed to create a shortlist of the strongest pro-democratic candidates ahead of legislative elections – activists had hoped to improve their chances of blocking bills in the legislative council. Authorities said they were planning to paralyse government business and used this as a pretext for wiping out the pro-democracy movement once and for all, removing its leading figures from the scene and intimidating sympathisers into silence.
Those sentenced on Tuesday had already been consigned to more than three years of limbo in detention. They comprise figures from across civic life, including social workers and academics, as well as activists such as Joshua Wong. Defendants such as, a former lawmaker who was handed a four-year sentence, were high-profile figures in mainstream public life.
As a show trial intended to decapitate a movement and intimidate a population reaches its conclusion, it is painful to recall the different future Hong Kong was promised. The criminalisation of legitimate political activity completes the erasure of civil freedoms ostensibly guaranteed for half a century under the “one country, two systems”, which accompanied the territory’s 1997 return to Chinese rule.
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