A Hong Kong woman has been jailed for one year for sedition, under the city’s domestic security law, after appearing in promotional videos for a “shadow legislature” seeking to overthrow the government.
Lan Fei, 19, was sentenced on Thursday at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts after pleading guilty last month to sedition under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, known locally as Article 23.
She appeared in two videos dated April and May this year promoting the election for the self-proclaimed “Hong Kong Parliament,” a Canada-based group that sought to form a shadow legislature outside the city with an aim of toppling the city’s government.
The court previously heard that the group, deemed subversive by local authorities, had goals that included Hong Kong independence, the destruction of the Chinese Communist Party, and the designation of China’s ruling party as a “transnational criminal organisation.”
Lan was paid CA$100 (HK$550) for each of her appearances in the videos, in which she called on viewers to “reclaim the rights” that belong to Hong Kong people and said that the parliament could help those jailed in the city.
It was revealed in court that Lan was an ex-girlfriend of Tony Lam, one of the individuals wanted by Hong Kong’s national security police for their links to the unofficial parliament.
Chief Magistrate Victor So said on Thursday that Lan, by encouraging others to participate in the polls organised by the Hong Kong Parliament, had “endorsed and aligned herself with the radical and ill-conceived ideology” of the group.
So also noted that the two videos combined had reached over 900,000 views on the YouTube channel of wanted activist Elmer Yuen, who faces a HK$1 million bounty for his arrest on national security charges.
The magistrate highlighted that the offence involved an “international element,” which constituted an aggravating factor for sentencing.
The Hong Kong Parliament was “established as foreign bases with the purposes of propagating hostile sentiments and opposition to [China] on a global scale,” he said.
But So accepted the plea by defence counsel Luke McGuinniety that Lan was acting under the “undue influence” of Lam, her then boyfriend, who was 37 years old.
“The defendant was, to some extent, influenced, if not manipulated, by Lam, who was her boyfriend at the material time and markedly older and more emotionally mature,” he said.
The magistrate set the starting sentence at 18 months’ imprisonment and reduced the jail term by a third in recognition of Lan’s timely guilty plea.
Lan appeared calm when she heard the penalty. Her family members and staff from the Canadian and German consulates in Hong Kong were present in the courtroom’s public gallery on Thursday.
Under Article 23, the maximum penalty for sedition is seven years behind bars, or 10 years if the offender is found to have colluded with an “external force.”
Lan was arrested after she broke up with Lam and returned to Hong Kong in July this year.
Police found text messages on her phone encouraging friends to vote in the unofficial polls, as well as photographs of her displaying slogans such as “Hong Kong Independence.”
Separate from the 2020 Beijing-enacted security law, the homegrown Safeguarding National Security Ordinance targets treason, insurrection, sabotage, external interference, sedition, theft of state secrets and espionage. It allows for pre-charge detention of up to 16 days, and suspects’ access to lawyers may be restricted, with penalties involving up to life in prison. Article 23 was shelved in 2003 amid mass protests, remaining taboo for years. But, on March 23, 2024, it was enacted having been fast-tracked and unanimously approved at the city’s opposition-free legislature.
The law has been criticised by rights NGOs, Western states and the UN as vague, broad and “regressive.” Authorities, however, cited perceived foreign interference and a constitutional duty to “close loopholes” after the 2019 protests and unrest.
