Hong Kong awaits verdict in first national security trial

Tong Ying-kit did not give evidence in the trial, which focussed on the meaning of the ‘Liberate Hong Kong’ flag he was carrying.

Hong Kong, China – That Tong Ying-kit buzzed his motorcycle past a cheering crowd and angry police on July 1, 2020, is not in question, nor that his bike wobbled and crashed and injured three police. What consumed most of the 15 days of Tong’s trial on charges of inciting separatism and terrorism – the first under the territory’s national security law (NSL) – was the meaning of a protest slogan emblazoned on a flag affixed to Tong’s bike and uttered by hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong people in 2019: “Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Time.” To the government, charged with enforcing a broad national security law imposed by Beijing only hours before the incident, Tong was a “terrorist” who seriously injured police after he ignored commands to stop and instead whipped up a crowd to revolt against China, which governs the semi-autonomous territory. To the defence counsel, Tong was a young man who, before an officer made him lose control and crash, cheered up a crowd angry over a new law, approved without their consent. All he did was display one of the favoured slogans of the anti-government protests that rocked the territory in 2019.