Hong Kong’s anti-corruption watchdog has charged two men accused of urging others on social media to boycott and cast blank votes in last year’s legislative elections.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), which oversees Hong Kong’s election legislation, said in a Monday statement that the two men, aged 38 and 63, were charged with alleged breaches of the Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct) Ordinance.

The pair, both security guards, have been released on bail and are scheduled to appear at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Thursday.

Ramirez Lam, 38, faces one count of engaging in illegal conduct to incite another person to cast an invalid vote during an election period, while Wong Wah-kwong, 63, faces one count of engaging in illegal conduct to incite another person not to vote.

Their posts were made last year, between October 24, when the nomination period commenced, and December 7, the polling day, the ICAC said.

Lam is accused of leaving a comment on a media outlet’s social media post to incite an invalid vote at the election. The post was a news report on security chief Chris Tang’s remarks that it is an offence to incite people not to vote or cast an invalid vote.

Wong shared a post by wanted overseas-based activist Alan Keung on social media, calling on people not to vote.

Keung himself faces two charges under the elections ordinance for inciting people not to vote. The activist, who also has a HK$200,000 bounty on his head for a separate national security allegation, called for a boycott of what he described as a “fake election.”

The ICAC charged three people accused of sharing posts made by Keung and another overseas activist, Tong Wai-kung, in November.

One Hong Kong woman, 61-year-old housewife Bonney Ma, was given an 18-month suspended jail sentence last month. The two other defendants are scheduled to appear in court in May.

The 2025 “patriots only” legislative polls took place on December 7, days after the deadly Wang Fuk Court fire. The 31.9 per cent turnout – a slight increase compared with the 2021 polls – was the second lowest on record.

The number of registered voters was down compared to 2021, with 32,998 fewer Hongkongers casting a ballot than in 2021, and a record 3.12 per cent of invalid votes were cast.

China’s top official in charge of Hong Kong affairs has warned of some people who “politicised” the deadly Tai Po fire and tried to use the disaster to “stir up chaos” in Hong Kong.

Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, delivered his remarks on Wednesday via a recorded video shown at a National Security Education Day ceremony.

In his speech, Xia mentioned the massive fire that broke out at Wang Fuk Court, a government-subsidised housing estate, on November 26, killing 168 people.

“After the Tai Po fire, some malicious people politicised the tragedy, attempting to use the disaster as a means to disrupt Hong Kong,” Xia said in Mandarin, without giving further details.

“Once again, it reminds us that along Hong Kong’s path toward prosperity under good governance, there will be various risks and challenges.”

He went on to emphasise that there are still national security risks in Hong Kong, six years after the China-imposed national security law came into effect in the city.

“Anti-China and anti–Hong Kong troublemakers are still plotting and biding their time to launch a comeback… Everyone should be alert to the risks of external forces meddling and interfering,” Xia said.

Speaking at the same event on Wednesday, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee also said that some people were “using the disaster to stir up chaos” and “to incite hatred” in Hong Kong.

“Only through the government’s swift action and decisive law enforcement has the situation been able to return to normal,” Lee said in Mandarin.

He vowed that the government “will hold people accountable” and implement “systematic reforms” once the independent committee completes its investigation into the blaze.

The independent committee, chaired by Judge David Lok, is currently hearing testimony from various parties – including residents, employees of fire contractors, a property management firm, and firefighters.

Hong Kong authorities and China’s national security authorities have repeatedly issued warnings related to the blaze – the city’s deadliest in eight decades.

On November 29, days after the blaze, Beijing’s Office for Safeguarding National Security (OSNS) warned that “anti-China disruptors” sought to co-opt the deadly Tai Po fire to “incite resentment” against the government.

In early December, the Hong Kong government issued a statement, blasting “foreign forces, including anti-China media organisations, and anti-China and destabilising forces” for “making unfounded and slanderous remarks,” and trying to use the fire to “stir up chaos in society.”

More recently, in February, Hong Kong security chief Chris Tang warned of people engaging in “soft resistance” by making false claims about the tragedy.

National security police said in mid-February that three people had been charged under Article 23, Hong Kong’s local national security law, over comments relating to the blaze.

Cantopop star Hins Cheung has said he will serve as a mentor in a Security Bureau programme aimed at rehabilitating former 2019 protesters.

Chinese state-backed newspaper Wen Wei Po published an interview with Cheung on Saturday, in which the singer said he used to be “ignorant” and “rash.”

He also apologised for being “swept up in the social atmosphere” when he supported the pro-democracy movement.

“Regarding some of my past remarks, which were inappropriate and caused people to question how I view my feelings and attitude towards the country and Hong Kong, which I care deeply about, I sincerely apologise,” the 45-year-old was quoted as saying.

Born in Guangzhou, Cheung previously made comments supporting social movements in Hong Kong, including the national education protests in 2012 and the Umbrella Movement in 2014.

Cheung is now volunteering as a mentor for a rehabilitation programme run by the Security Bureau aimed at helping young people, he told the newspaper.

The singer said that in the coming month, he would be a guest speaker for the programme and also planned to lead youths on trips to mainland China during the first half of the year.

“I hope that by participating in the Security Bureau’s programme, the doubts about me in society can be dispelled,” he said.

After the Wen Wei Po interview was published, local media reported that Cheung unfollowed more than 1,000 accounts on Instagram, including those of Cantopop singers Keung To and Joey Yung, as well as his own fan club.

‘Remorse’

For the past one or two years, the bureau has been running a rehabilitation programme targeting around 7,000 people who were arrested during the 2019 protests and unrest but who have not been charged, Secretary for Security Chris Tang told media outlets on Sunday.

It includes taking participants on trips to mainland China. In exchange for joining the programme, authorities would drop the charges against them, Tang said.

The government said in 2022 that a total of 10,279 protesters had been arrested, of whom 1,754 were aged under 18. Of the 2,893 prosecuted, 517 were minors.

Tang said that besides Cheung, other mentors from different sectors of society have also volunteered for the programme.

He said the programme was not aimed at getting participants to admit wrongdoing.

See also: Hong Kong gov’t expands rehabilitation programme for released protesters with mainland China tours

“We hope they can deepen their understanding of [China], and we can even help them in their career,” Tang told TVB in Cantonese.

“We are not setting any hard targets, such as [requiring them to go to mainland China] three or four times, or that they have to say certain things,” he said.

“[When] we think they have shown remorse, we will give them a chance,” he added. “The most important thing is their attitude.”

Hong Kong introduced new national security rules in March that empower police to demand that national security suspects surrender passwords to their devices. Meanwhile, an independent bookshop owner and his employees were arrested for allegedly selling seditious books.

The national security trial of two Tiananmen vigil activists continued, and the city’s largest teachers’ union officially dissolved.

New national security amendments

The government introduced amendments to the “implementation rules” of the national security law that Beijing imposed in 2020.

Under the new rules, gazetted on March 23, police can require people under national security investigation to provide passwords or help decrypt their electronic devices.

Failure to do so can be punished by up to one year behind bars and a HK$100,000 fine. Providing a false or misleading statement is punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of HK$500,000.

The new rules also empowered customs officers to freeze or confiscate assets relating to national security crimes or to forfeit “articles that have seditious intention.”

Such powers were previously restricted to the secretary for justice, the secretary for security, and the police force.

In an attempt to quell public concerns, security chief Chris Tang described claims that police could stop people on the street and demand their phone passwords as “false and misleading.”

Tang said in the Legislative Council (LegCo) on March 26 that with the new requirements in place, there was public concern that police would randomly demand that citizens on the street hand over mobile phone passwords.

The minister said that police must apply for a court warrant providing “national security reasons” before requesting people suspected of endangering national security to hand over mobile phone passwords.

China summons top US diplomat

Beijing summoned the top US diplomat in Hong Kong after the US Consulate General issued an alert over a new rule in the financial hub empowering police to demand that national security suspects surrender their passwords.

In a statement on February 28, Beijing’s foreign ministry office in Hong Kong said it had summoned Julie Eadeh, the US consul general in Hong Kong, for “solemn representations.”

The statement said the move was in response to the “so-called ‘security alert’” issued by the US Consulate General on February 26, days after the Hong Kong government introduced the new national security rule.

Bookshop owner, staff arrested

In late March, Hong Kong independent bookseller Pong Yat-ming and three of his staff members were reportedly arrested on suspicion of selling seditious titles, including a biography of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai.

Local media reported on March 24 that national security police arrested one man and three women for allegedly “knowingly selling a publication that has a seditious intention,” an offence under Hong Kong’s homegrown security law, the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, known locally as Article 23.

Citing anonymous sources, the reports said police also raided Book Punch – Pong’s Sham Shui Po bookstore – and seized allegedly seditious publications, including Lai’s 2024 biography – The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong Kong’s Greatest Dissident, and China’s Most Feared Critic.

The bookstore owner and the employees were released on bail on March 25, Book Punch said on Facebook. Pong confirmed with HKFP that he and his staff had been released on bail, but he could not say anything about the case.

Trial of Tiananmen vigil activists

The high-profile national security trial of Tiananmen vigil activists – barrister Chow Hang-tung and unionist Lee Cheuk-yan – continued in March.

The former leaders of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China are standing trial for “inciting subversion,” which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail. The third defendant, solicitor Albert Ho, pleaded guilty when the trial opened in January.

The case revolves around the Alliance’s key slogan calling for “an end to one-party rule” in China, which prosecutors allege amounts to a breach of China’s constitution and incitement to subversion.

On March 5, a panel of three national security judges ruled to bar a Taiwanese academic from testifying as the evidence he planned to give was deemed “irrelevant” to the case. Chow had initially applied to have Ho Ming-sho, a sociology professor at National Taiwan University, testify in the trial.

Both defendants had sought early acquittals from their charges, arguing that the prosecution failed to present sufficient evidence.

Lee’s barrister, Erik Shum, argued that prosecutors had misinterpreted the Chinese constitution and erred in saying that there are no “lawful means” to call for an end to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) rule. The lawyer also told the court that calling for an end to the CCP’s rule does not mean “overthrowing” its government and state organs.

Chow, who represents herself, said the prosecution had adopted a broad reading of the Chinese constitution and had erred in alleging that she had directly breached it. The Alliance’s slogans fell within a Chinese citizen’s legitimate demand for choosing the country’s leadership, she also told the court.

However, the court ruled on March 13 that the prosecution established a prima facie case against Chow, Lee, and the Alliance, and the trial would go on.

Taking the stand on March 17, Lee denied that his demand for an end to one-party rule in China amounted to a call to overthrow the CCP. “I have no enmity in my heart, only love. Based on my love for the people, I hoped the Communist Party would reform, to let people have the rights and happiness they deserve,” he said the following day. 

Later, on March 20, Chow told the court that the Tiananmen vigils had “always promoted love and responsibility” rather than “hatred and despair.”

She also said writings published by the Alliance were not meant to be subversive, but to expose Hongkongers to democratic movements in mainland China. Her articles were intended to “tell stories” about Chinese activists facing oppression, including the late dissident Liu Xiaobo and his widow Liu Xia, she added.

On March 25, she played a video of the 2018 vigil in the courtroom, as well as a clip of Di Mengqi, a member of the Tiananmen Mothers, recounting the death of her son during the 1989 crackdown. “The most important session of the vigils was the speeches by the Tiananmen Mothers. They are the most directly affected parties and victims of the crackdown,” she said.

The following day, Chow told the court that the Alliance held internal discussions to address “concerns that the national security law would be used as a tool for political suppression,” weeks before its implementation in late June 2020.

Chow called three defence witnesses to testify in court. Former Alliance volunteer Choi Shuk-fong, 66, said she witnessed the Tiananmen crackdown when she was working as a journalist for Sing Tao Daily.

However, the judges barred a photo of injured, bloodied protesters at Tiananmen Square, which was taken by Choi, from being shown in court. “At the moment, I don’t see how this can help the court,” Judge Alex Lee said. Instead, Judge Johnny Chan verbally described the image.

A second defence witness, former vigil attendee Shum Lai-fong, 69, told the court she believed the Alliance’s call for an end to one-party rule was not directed at any specific party.

Kwan Chun-pong, 54, a former standing committee member and volunteer of the Alliance, also testified as a defence witness for Chow. Judge Lee instructed Chow to ask Kwan only questions about matters from 2018 onwards.

At one point, the judge reprimanded Chow when she referred to the crackdown as the “June 4 massacre.” “If you use phrases like this, I will need to consider whether to allow you to continue asking questions,” he said, correcting the term to “June 4 incident.”

Judge Lee adjourned the case to May 18 for the prosecution and the defence to present their closing submissions.

Appeals in Apple Daily case

Pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai decided not to appeal against his national security conviction and jail term, his lawyer said on March 6, nearly one month after the sentencing of the Apple Daily founder. The lawyer did not elaborate on the reason for not appealing.

Lai, 78, was sentenced to 20 years behind bars on February 9 – the longest jail term handed down so far under the Beijing-imposed national security law.

Two of his eight co-defendants filed an appeal against their 10-year sentences.

Fung Wai-kong, former editorial writer and editor-in-chief of Apple Daily’s English news section, and Lam Man-chung, former executive editor-in-chief at the tabloid, filed their appeals on March 2 and March 10, respectively, according to local media and High Court documents.

Eight co-defendants – including Fung, Lam and four other former Apple Daily executives – pleaded guilty and were sentenced to up to 10 years in prison alongside Lai.

Dissolution of the city’s largest teachers’ union

The pro-democracy Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union (HKPTU) officially dissolved last month – nearly five years after it announced steps to disband.

The Registry of Trade Unions gazetted on March 27 that the HKPTU – the city’s largest teachers’ union – was dissolved, marking the end of the group’s half-century of history.

Once a prominent force in Hong Kong’s civil society and democratic movement, the 53-year-old union had over 95,000 members before its dissolution, representing 90 per cent of the profession.

The HKPTU announced it would disband in August 2021, days after attacks by Chinese state media and the Education Bureau’s decision to cut ties with the union.

Film competition with nat. security terms

The Hong Kong Arts Centre (HKAC) revived an Asian film competition in early March after a 17-month hiatus, adding new terms requiring participants to ensure their work complies with the city’s national security legislation.

The HKAC’s Incubator for Film and Visual Media in Asia (ifva) Awards opened for applications on March 1.

According to the awards’ rules and regulations, “entrants must acknowledge and agree [that] the submitted entry… does not violate any provisions of the National Security Law, including these pertaining to secession, subversion, terrorist activities, and collusion with foreign entities.”

Prosecution and arrests figures

As of April 1, a total of 394 people have been arrested for “cases involving suspected acts or activities that endanger national security” since Beijing’s national security law came into effect, according to the Security Bureau. That figure includes those arrested under Article 23 and for other offences.

Of the 208 people and five companies that have so far been charged, 180 people and four companies have been convicted or are awaiting sentencing.

In total, 100 people and four companies have been charged under Beijing’s national security law, with 79 persons and three companies convicted. Thirteen people have been charged under Article 23, 10 of whom have been convicted.