Hong Kong has detained five speech therapists
for hate speech on Saturday over a series of illustrated children’s books depicting the city’s pro-democracy supporters as sheep defending their village from wolves.
They join a growing list of residents jailed over a colonial-era sedition offense that authorities used alongside a national security law Beijing introduced in 2020 to stamp out dissent.
The group, all in their 20s and affiliated with a speech therapists’ union, have been behind bars for over a year awaiting sentencing.
They were all sentenced to 19 months in prison for a picture book series that began in 2020 to explain Hong Kong’s democracy movement to children. The group could be released in 31 days after serving time, one of their lawyers estimated.
Three of them struck a defiant tone during Saturday’s sentencing hearing.
Melody Yeung told the court she has no regrets about her decisions and hopes to always stand with the sheep.
“My only regret is not being able to publish more picture books before I was arrested.”
Defendant’s lawyer, Sidney Ng, quoted his client as saying the charges “had the objective effect of intimidating civil society and alienating Hong Kongers from one another.”
Judge Kwok Wai-kin berated the defendants for “brainwashing” children and planting the “seeds of instability” in the city and across China.
The judge, chosen by the Hong Kong leader from a pool of lawyers to hear national security cases, had convicted the group on Wednesday of conspiring to disseminate inflammatory content.
– “History of the People” –
Prosecutors had argued the books contained “anti-China sentiment” and aimed to “incite readers’ hatred of mainland authorities.”
In one book, a village of sheep fights invading wolves, while another depicts the canines as spreading disease in the village of sheep.
On Saturday, the judge said the books were “a brainwashing exercise” and that there was clear evidence the children were being instilled with fear, hatred and dissatisfaction.
“Once[the kids]get that mindset, that’s when the seeds of instability are sown,” he said.
But the defendants claimed that the books chronicled “history from the people’s perspective” and were intended to help children understand systemic injustice in society.
“Rather than being inflammatory, (the books) chronicled brave deeds for a just cause,” Ng said.
Amnesty International, which recently left Hong Kong over the national security law, called the convictions “an absurd example of relentless repression.”
Hong Kong was a bastion of free speech in China and home to a vibrant and outspoken publishing industry.
But Beijing unleashed a full-scale political crackdown on the city in response to huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests three years ago.
The Sedition Act, which carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison, has been dormant for decades but was recently approved by police and prosecutors.
