Explainer: Hong Kong’s national security crackdown – month 75

In September, Hong Kong saw the sentencing of three Tiananmen vigil activists, another conviction for prominent activist Joshua Wong, and the conviction of two young men with autism. Elizabeth Tang (second from left), the mother of Chow Hang-tung (middle), and Lau Ka-yee (first from right) outside court on September 11, 2026. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. Top officials continued to issue warnings about “soft resistance,” a political term authorities started using in 2023 without clarifying its exact meaning. Authorities also continued to condemn “foreign forces” for interfering in Hong Kong affairs, such as the ongoing detention of pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai. Meanwhile, an independent journalist was arrested for alleged sedition – the first such case under Hong Kong’s homegrown security law, which was passed in 2024 following a separate security law imposed by Beijing in 2020. Sentencing Tiananmen vigil activists Three activists who once organised annual vigils to mark the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown were sentenced on September 11 to up to seven years and three months in prison. Appearing before a panel of designated judges at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building, Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan, and Albert Ho were handed the jail terms for inciting subversion under the Beijing-imposed national security law. Lee received a jail sentence of seven years, while Chow was jailed for seven years and three months. Ho – who pleaded guilty – received a sentence of five years and two months in prison. Family members and friends of Tiananmen vigil activists meet the press on September 11, 2026. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. The Alliance, which was also convicted and fined HK$1.5 million, held annual candlelight vigils in Victoria Park to remember the crackdown on protesters in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. Outside of the court, family and friends of the three activists decried the years-long prison terms as “totally unjust,” and said that two of the defendants will appeal. “It’s a sad day for me as his wife,” Lee’s wife, Elizabeth Tang, said in Cantonese. “I cannot imagine that he has to spend another three years in jail.” “People will be shocked and angry,” she added. “Millions of people were there in Victoria Park.” Joshua Wong pleads guilty Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigner Joshua Wong pleaded guilty on September 2 to conspiracy to collude with foreign forces – his second conviction under the Beijing-imposed national security law following a landmark subversion case. Joshua Wong. File photo: Studio Incendo. The 29-year-old was accused of conspiring with self-exiled activist Nathan Law and others in 2020 to request that foreign countries impose sanctions and blockades, or engage in other hostile activities, directed against the governments of Hong Kong and mainland China. The offence carries a maximum penalty of life behind bars. Authorities weigh action over film The Security Bureau said on September 21 it is “taking relevant follow-up actions” after a state-backed newspaper flagged a years-old Netflix documentary about pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong. Released nearly a decade ago, Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower shot to the top of the Netflix charts in mid-September following a report in state-backed Wen Wei Po. The 2017 documentary Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower. Photo: Netflix. The story said: “Wen Wei Po discovered that a film glorifying [Wong’s] offences remains available on the US streaming platform Netflix. Its nearly two-minute trailer ‘filled with incitement’ can be viewed in Hong Kong without a paid subscription.” In response to HKFP’s enquiries, a Security Bureau spokesperson said that all videos broadcast in Hong Kong must comply with local law, including the city’s two security laws. “If any suspected illegal act is identified, the law enforcement agencies will handle it in accordance with the law… In relation to the video mentioned in the enquiry, the HKSAR Government is taking relevant follow-up actions,” they said. US lawmakers’ Jimmy Lai hearing Hong Kong authorities condemned US lawmakers in the middle of the month for holding a hearing on jailed pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai and allegedly colluding with “anti-China and destabilising elements” to demand his release ahead of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s state visit to the US capital between September 23-25. Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai. File photo: Kelly Ho/HKFP. The government said in a statement on September 17 that it “firmly rejected” members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), a US government agency that monitors human rights in China. Following a hearing with Lai’s son Sebastien, CECC leaders introduced a bill aimed at securing the release of Lai and other “democracy advocates, journalists, former legislators, and civil society leaders” imprisoned in Hong Kong. Lai’s daughter Claire was also scheduled to testify alongside her brother but pulled out due to a recent cancer diagnosis. Reporter among 8 arrested over sedition Hong Kong police arrested two people on September 30 for allegedly acting “with seditious intent,” authorities said, with local media identifying the pair as independent journalist Tang Ho-wing and activist Lee Ying-chi. Tang Ho-wing in a YouTube video. Photo: Screenshot via Boom News. Tang, who runs the online media outlet Boom News, is known for his big hair and has about 200,000 followers across multiple platforms. Tang’s detention marked the first publicly known time a journalist has been arrested for sedition under Hong Kong’s 2024 homegrown security law according to the Hong Kong Journalists Association. Tang was released on bail after two days’ detention on October 2. He told HKFP he had no comment regarding his arrest. The arrests were part of a series of operations linked to an incident on August 31 outside Prince Edward metro station, police said in a statement. That evening, “some people were standing outside MTR Prince Edward Station holding bouquets and shouting seditious slogans,” police said, adding that they were suspected of “spreading false information and attacking the [Hong Kong government] with lies.” Three people – two men and a woman aged 33 to 79 – were arrested on September 3, while another man and two women aged 46 to 65 were apprehended between September 27 and 28 over the same offence, the police said. All six have been released on bail. In total, eight people have been arrested over the incident, and the police did not rule out further arrests. A passerby holds an umbrella printed with a 2019 protest slogan as rains falls around Prince Edward station on August 31, 2026. Photo: The Collective. On August 31, 2019, as Hong Kong was embroiled in months-long pro-democracy protests and unrest, baton-wielding riot police stormed Prince Edward MTR station following hours of protest clashes. Officers were filmed pepper-spraying people in carriages as they drove away reporters and medics. Rumours of civilian deaths emerged after the incident, despite there being no evidence for such claims and consistent denials from police. Elderly woman charged with sedition A 61-year-old woman will go to trial over allegedly displaying seditious publications from her flat, despite being diagnosed with psychosis and delusional disorder after a Hong Kong court requested that she undergo a psychological evaluation. Tin Chung Court in Tin Shui Wai. Photo: Wikicommons. Yang Chau-kei, 61, pleaded not guilty at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court on September 21, less than a month after Chief Magistrate Victor So ordered the prosecution to obtain psychiatric reports on her mental state. The elderly woman stands accused of displaying seditious materials outside her flat in Tin Shui Wai – an offence under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, Hong Kong’s homegrown security legislation known colloquially as Article 23. Yang appeared in court unrepresented. The case will go to trial on October 14, and is projected to last three days. In early September, So expressed concerns about Yang’s mental state after Yang repeatedly said “I did not break the law, they framed me” when the judge asked her whether she needs a lawyer. Men with autism jailed for 3 years Two young men were jailed in early September over their participation in a Taiwan-based group that called for Hong Kong independence and US sanctions. Chan Tai-sum, 27, and Ng Chi-tung, 25, received their sentences at the District Court on September 10. Chan was jailed for 38 months while Ng was sentenced to 36 months’ imprisonment. District Court in Wan Chai. File photo: HKFP. The pair pleaded guilty in early July to conspiracy to commit secession. According to a mitigation statement submitted by the defence, both Chan and Ng suffer from autism: Chan had been seeking treatment since the age of 12, while Ng was diagnosed when he was in primary school. Chan and Ng admitted to being “active members” of the Hong Kong Democratic Independence Union between November 2024 and July 2025. The Taiwan-based group was founded by a self-exiled Hongkonger. ‘The evil of soft resistance’ On September 21, Hong Kong’s security chief named “soft resistance” the “most malicious” threat to national security in the city. “The evil of soft resistance lies in the fact that you may not know it is evil,” Secretary for Security Chris Tang said in an interview with Commercial Radio. “You may even think it is [coming from] a good person.” Secretary for Security Chris Tang meeting the press on September 27, 2023. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. Reiterating language introduced by the government last year, Tang listed “four great national security risks” in Hong Kong. These include interference by foreign forces, domestic terrorist activities, fugitives continuing to spread “Hong Kong independence ideology,” and “soft resistance.” Among the four, Tang said, “soft resistance” is the “most malicious” since its dangers are not as clear as the others’. On September 12, national security department director Andrew Kan warned in Cantonese at a passing-out parade for 17 probationary officers and 110 recruit constables at the Police College that “hidden dangers lurk in every corner of our communities.” Kan told the graduates that “national security challenges have become more invisible,” cautioning them to stay on guard against “external forces,” “soft resistance,” and “ideological infiltration,” without providing examples of these, according to an official readout. Andrew Kan appears in Causeway Bay on June 4, 2025. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. Later in the month, Kan also said in an interview with some selective media that questioning why the government will not release a list of books banned in Hong Kong or specify where the red lines lie for seditious content is a form of “soft resistance.” Release of democrat A former pro-democracy district councillor was released from prison on September 25, after spending five years and seven months behind bars for conspiracy to subvert state power. Ng Kin-wai, an ex-local councillor in Yuen Long, was released from Shek Pik Prison on Lantau Island. Several vehicles with curtains drawn were seen departing the facility in the early hours of the day. Ng Kin-wai. File photo: Ng Kin-wai, via Facebook. The 31-year-old later appeared in Yuen Long and had breakfast with a former District Council colleague, before speaking to reporters about his newfound freedom. “In the past five years and seven months, I have been sad, confused, and angry – but I have also been proud of myself,” he said in Cantonese. “Because I chose what I believed was best for the future of Hong Kong at that time, and I chose to sacrifice.” Infographic chart showing known prosecutions in Hong Kong since the introduction of the National Security Law in June 2020. Graphic: Nicholas Shearman /John Saeki. Safeguard press freedom; keep HKFP free for all readers by supporting our team Support HKFP | Policies & Ethics | Error/typo? | Contact | Newsletter | Transparency & Annual Report | Apps Make a one-off donation.