In this file photo taken on August 8, 2020, teenage activist Tony Chung poses near the water in Hong Kong. – Hong Kong faces no respite from Beijing’s crackdown on dissent after a year that saw its status as a free speech bastion collapse under a security law that has radically transformed the city. / TO GO WITH AFP STORY HONG KONG-CHINA-POLITICS,FOCUS BY JEROME TAYLOR, SU XINQI AND YAN ZHAO
While serving his sentence, Chung will be waiting for trial over a charge of “secession”, which could land him life imprisonment according to the draconian national security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong on 30 June.Chung is the first public political figure prosecuted under the new security law, which Beijing described as a “sword” to return “order and stability” to the financial hub after seven months of massive, often violent pro-democracy protests last year.
Chung was arrested by plainclothes police opposite the US consulate in late October and had been remanded in custody since.Speculation has swirled that the authorities moved on Chung because he was hoping to ask for asylum at the US consulate in Hong Kong.An increasing number of pro-democracy activists across the political spectrum have fled Hong Kong since Beijing stepped up its crackdown on the city’s protests against China’s authoritarian rule.
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