Op-ed - Japan News: Overlooking China’s Tyranny Endangers Japan’s Security; Suppression of Hong Kong Democracy Leaves No One Safe
This article was published in Japan News on 26 December 2024
Overlooking China’s Tyranny Endangers Japan’s Security; Suppression of Hong Kong Democracy Leaves No One Safe
By Patrick Poon / Special to The Japan News
11:02 JST, December 26, 2024
Hong Kong legal scholar Benny Tai was sentenced to 10 years in prison by Hong Kong’s High Court last month under the national security law. Tai, a cofounder of the Occupy Central movement in 2014, which came to be known as the 79-day Umbrella Movement, was the initiator of an unofficial primary election held by pro-democracy figures and activists in Hong Kong in 2020. Another 44 out of the 47 former politicians and prominent pro-democracy activists who had been charged with “conspiracy to commit subversion” over the primary election have been given harsh prison sentences ranging from four years and two months to seven years and nine months.
