3rd November 2023 – (Hong Kong) A local Hong Kong student studying in Japan has been sentenced to two months in jail for continuously posting inflammatory remarks on social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, over a period of more than four years starting from 2018. The defendant was arrested upon her return to Hong Kong to change her identification card. She had previously pleaded guilty to the charge of “committing acts with intent to incite others to hate” and received her sentence today (3rd) at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts.
The judge presiding over the case acknowledged that although the frequency of the defendant’s message postings was not high, she consistently utilized the internet to disseminate these messages openly to the public. In order to serve as a deterrent, the judge deemed that a suspended sentence was not an appropriate option and thus sentenced the defendant to two months’ imprisonment.
The defendant, Yuen Ching-ting, 23, claimed to be a student and was born in mainland China. She arrived in Hong Kong at the age of three and went to Japan for further studies in 2018. Currently, she is pursuing a degree in Political Economy. Yuen was charged with posting, providing, and/or continuously providing statements, photographs, and/or images on Facebook and Instagram with the intent to incite hatred or contempt towards the central government and/or the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, as well as to incite Hong Kong residents to pursue unlawful means to bring about changes to lawfully established matters in Hong Kong, and/or to encourage others to act unlawfully or disobey lawful orders.
According to the details of the case, the 13 posts in question included statements such as “I am a Hongkonger, and I advocate Hong Kong independence,” “Without the demise of the Chinese Communist Party, how can we have a home?,” “This terror organisation called the Communist Party,” and “Hong Kong independence is the only way out.” The defendant returned to Hong Kong on 24th February of this year and was subsequently arrested on 8th March. During the caution interview, the defendant mentioned that she had briefly returned to Hong Kong in 2019 and this year for summer vacation and to change her identification card.
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