Advertisement

National security law: is chanting ‘Liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our times’ now illegal? City’s lawyers aren’t so sure

  • Government’s equating protester slogan with call for independence ‘premature’, as decision lies in hands of the courts, Bar Association chief says
  • Legal scholar, pro-establishment heavyweight agree guilt based on chanting alone would be hard to prove

Reading Time:5 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0
A banner bearing the slogan “Liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our time” is held aloft at a 2020 New Year’s party in Hong Kong’s Central district. Photo: Sam Tsang

The Hong Kong government’s assertion that popular protest slogan “Liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our times” equates to a separatist call is not a legally binding one, the city’s lawyers said on Friday.

Observers and opposition politicians also cited the government pronouncement as an example of the chilling effect created by the sweeping new national security law, which they said granted authorities an excuse to silence dissidents.

Two days after Beijing imposed its legislation outlawing acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, the Hong Kong government issued a statement on Thursday defining the familiar slogan of last year’s anti-government protests as an expression of support for independence.

“The slogan … nowadays connotes ‘Hong Kong independence’, or separating the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region from the People’s Republic of China, altering the legal status of the HKSAR, or subverting state power,” the spokesman said in warning people not to break the law.

The statement prompted Hongkongers to come up with creative new ways to express the slogan overnight. Variations included “GFHG, SDGM”, the initials of the chant’s romanised Chinese characters, and “36390242”, which shares a similar pronunciation in Cantonese.

But in an interview with the Post, Bar Association council chairman Philip Dykes said it was “premature” for the government to declare the slogan against the law.

loading
Advertisement