A Facebook community that shared news of Hong Kong shops winding up said the group itself would shut down and reopen with a more neutral name because “too many people are attacking the group’s name”. The creator of the Closure Concern Group, which had more than 300,000 members, said they had a “responsibility to society” and that it was not good to discuss only store shutdowns.
A Portuguese national was sentenced to five years for conspiring to incite secession under Hong Kong’s National Security Law. Joseph John, also known as Wong Kin-chung, was the first known European citizen jailed under the legislation. The music teacher had a Hong Kong passport and was based in the United Kingdom. He was arrested during his return to Hong Kong to visit relatives.
A watered-down version of Thai water festival Songkran has shifted from “Little Thailand” Kowloon City to a nearby basketball court and set new restrictions. Participants told media they were being careful about whom to splash water on. Last year, three men were arrested and charged over spraying water at police and reporters at the annual celebrations.
United States citizen John Leung, a native of Hong Kong jailed in mainland China, appeared in a WeChat video confession for the Chinese Ministry of State Security’s National Security Education Day on 15 April. Leung, a former leader of patriotic overseas Chinese groups, started serving a life sentence in May last year for “spying for the US since the late 1980s”.
The British government reiterated its support for Hong Kong immigrants in its latest half-yearly Foreign Office report on the city, issued on Monday. In the foreword, Lord Cameron responded to the city’s new Safeguarding National Security Ordinance and stressed: “I want to assure our valued Hong Kong community in the United Kingdom: you are safe here.”
New Hong Kong migrants to Canada were facing lengthy processing, up from half a year to 21 months presently, to secure permanent residency under the country’s lifeboat scheme, lawmaker Jenny Kwan said in Parliament. The scheme had accumulated more than 8,000 applicants, costing them jobs, healthcare coverage and children’s access to education. She called on Ottawa to renew temporary permits automatically.
Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai has lost his judicial challenge of the Hong Kong government’s decision to bar British barrister Tim Owen KC from representing him. Madam Justice Susan Kwan of the Court of Appeal said the bench was “all bound up and tied” by Beijing’s clear interpretation of the city’s National Security Law and “has no alternatives”.
A Hong Kong immigrant has cast doubt on a petition urging the UK to grant holders of the British National (Overseas) passport immediate entitlement to citizenship. Former district councillor Daniel Kwok, of the Scottish Hongkongers activist group, questioned the identity, motivation and credibility of its anonymous creator “Ying Kwok Yan”, which was Cantonese for “British person”. More than 9,200 people had signed the petition by 18 April, 800 short of the threshold that would oblige the government to respond.
Activist Wong Yat-chin was heckled by four men outside Tung Chung train station in Hong Kong. The men filmed Wong with their phones and one of them kept swearing at him, claiming he had sold T-shirts made in China to “cheat money” out of them. That man was wearing the said T-shirt. They fled after receiving a call.
Hong Kong jailed the ninth member of an armed mob that assaulted commuters inside Yuen Long train station on 21 July 2019. Tang Siu-hung, 42, was sentenced to four years and seven months after pleading guilty to rioting and conspiracy to wound. Tang was one of the attackers clothed in white, and was charged four years after the incident. Out of dozens in the white-clad mob, 14 have been prosecuted and nine convicted.