Young Democrats ‘re-educated’ in jail

They are also subjected to military training sessions. “Brainwashed” like Xinjiang Uyghurs and Chinese Catholics not aligned with the Communist Party. Mandatory patriotic education in city schools. Security Law: Small legal victory for Catholic tycoon Jimmy Lai.

Hong Kong () – Pro-democratic youth imprisoned for the 2019 protests are being forced to attend “patriotic education” sessions and military training. As Radio Free Asia observes, the city’s pro-Beijing authorities consider these to be minors with “extreme ideological views” who need to be re-educated.

According to the UN Human Rights Commissioner’s office, it is fundamentally the same treatment that the Chinese government applies to Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, accused of terrorism and separatism. And it’s no different from the “brainwashing” Catholic bishops and priests are often subjected to in order to force them to join the “official” Church, controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.

The Hong Kong democracy movement organized mass demonstrations three years ago against the approval of a law that would allow judicial extradition to China. The protests later broadened to include calls for universal suffrage and greater popular control over the executive.

According to data provided by the city government, of the tens of thousands of people detained, more than 1,000 were under 18 years of age. On August 31, Security Secretary Chris Tang informed Legco (the city parliament) that the procuracy had criminally prosecuted 517 minors arrested in connection with the 2019 riots.

In addition to the obligation to carry out marches and military exercises, young detainees are required to attend “civic and moral education” and national security classes. These educational programs are also taught to primary and secondary school students, and even university students, after the adoption of the security law imposed by Beijing in 2020 to suppress the democratic field.

As for the ongoing trials against democratic personalities imprisoned under the security law, news broke today that the trial against the 17 political figures accused of subversion for organizing or participating in the 2020 primary elections of the countryside democratic, will begin on January 30. Unlike 30 other defendants, these defendants did not plead guilty.

Small legal victory for Catholic tycoon Jimmy Lai, who has been in jail for almost two years and is awaiting trial for threats to national security. Today they rejected the Justice Department’s appeal against the High Court’s decision to allow the Democratic activist to be defended by a British lawyer. The first hearing has been scheduled for December 1.