Jailing of Hong Kong protesters will further polarise already divided society, pro-democracy lawmaker says

Pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo Man-ching met with Lam this week and said the city’s chief is trying to distance herself from the issue

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Joshua Wong Chi-fung poses a question to Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor at a protest. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 8:03am, 19 Aug 2017Updated: 8:02am, 19 Aug 2017

The imprisonment of 13 young protestors and three prominent student leaders this week will mean even more broken ties between the government and the city’s youth, and will make it more difficult for the chief executive to mend rifts in Hong Kong society, according to a pro-democracy lawmaker and university academic.

Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Nathan Law Kwun-chung and Alex Chow Yong-kang were jailed for six to eight months on Thursday for storming the government headquarters. It was the government’s second successful attempt in a week to seek tougher sentences for protesting activists.

Although the sentencing reviews were lodged by the department of justice last year, the city’s leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, who took office on July 1 this year, was destined to be affected by the “political bombs”, according to commentators.

Pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo Man-ching, who met Lam on Wednesday to discuss her first policy address, to be given in October, said Lam has distanced herself from the ruling.

Mo said she had raised the two legal cases in the meeting and Lam stressed that she believed in judicial independence. “I would not, and should not have played any part in that matter,” Mo quoted Lam as saying.