US State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Thursday had condemned the conviction of seven activists who took part in anti-government protests in Hong Kong by the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities…reports Asian Lite News.
Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was sentenced by a Hong Kong court to one year in prison on Friday over illegal assembly in August 2019, reported Xinhua.
Lai and some other protestors of Hong Kong riots were convicted earlier by the local court for organising and participating in an unauthorised assembly on August 18, 2019, in Hong Kong.
Lai was also involved in multiple other cases including illegal assemblies and national security law violations, reported Xinhua.
Earlier, the US State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Thursday had condemned the conviction of seven activists who took part in anti-government protests in Hong Kong by the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities. Subversion was made a criminally punishable offence in Hong Kong last year under the Beijing-drafted national security law.
According to Beijing, the legislation criminalises activities related to terrorism, separatism, subversion of state power and collusion with foreign forces, while local pro-democracy activists and certain Western nations claim that the law undermines Hong Kong’s civil liberties and democratic freedoms.
Beijing was perturbed by violent anti-government protests in 2019 and has imposed the national security law to take action against those who protested against the government.
The process will also further concentrate power in the hands of the ruling Communist Party and decimate the political hopes of the territory’s already beleaguered opposition for years to come.
These actions have raised fears among the people as China is rejecting the ‘one country, two systems’ concept which the city was promised when it was transferred from British to Chinese control in 1997.
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