Hong Kong man jailed for 8 months over seditious social media posts praising national anthem blunder, promoting separatism
- Wong Chun-kit had praised a recent national anthem blunder and called for Chinese President Xi Jinping to ‘get out’ of the city during his visit last year
- Chief Magistrate Victor So reduced the 42-year-old’s sentence after he pleaded guilty to the sedition charge
A 42-year-old Hong Kong courier has been jailed for eight months under a colonial-era sedition law for publishing more than 100 social media posts attacking local and mainland Chinese authorities.
Wong Chun-kit’s crimes also included reposting footage of a protest song being played instead of the national anthem at a rugby match in South Korea. He had been remanded in custody since November on national security grounds.
In handing down the sentence at West Kowloon Court on Thursday, Chief Magistrate Victor So Wai-tak found that two of the posts, which praised the high-profile blunder in Incheon, were part of Wong’s bid to attack Beijing and the Hong Kong government and promote separatism. The magistrate is one of the judges approved by the city’s leader to oversee national security cases.
A deterrent sentence was needed to prevent others from publishing similar seditious content and reduce the chance of someone being spurred into action by the offensive posts in question, the magistrate added.
Wong pleaded guilty last month to committing seditious acts regarding the 113 posts he made on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram between January 2021 and November last year.