China Decoded is Newsweek’s in-depth newsletter about China’s growing influence on the world, written by Senior Correspondent for International Affairs and Investigations Didi Kirsten Tatlow and China Editor John Feng. It goes beyond the headlines to examine how Beijing thinks, how its policies travel beyond China’s borders, and what they mean for the United States and its allies. Here, for Newsweek Members, is the latest edition of China Decoded in full: Joshua Wong Chi-fung was always so young.
Last Thursday, he was sentenced for the fifth time for peaceful political activities. The Hong Kong democracy activist now isn’t due to be released until 2036, when he will be 40. But there is no guarantee he will be released then.
The Hong Kong authorities may be trying to keep him in prison for as long as they can. I’m starting to wonder if Joshua will end up in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s longest-serving political prisoner—an achievement I would not wish for anyone. After all, he was charged last year with a second state security crime while still serving time for a first one.
Thursday’s new sentence came two months before he was due to be released. Earlier this year, a Hong Kong court sentenced 78-year-old Jimmy Lai, a newspaper publisher and fellow democrat, to 20 years in prison on political crimes. It was effectively a life sentence.
Here I’d also like to highlight the case of Au Kam San, 69, in Macau, the former Portuguese territory next to Hong Kong. Au was sentenced yesterday to 12 years and six months in prison for “subversion against the political power of the state,” the BBC reported. But Joshua always was so young.
A political prodigy, in fact. He was 15 in 2011, the year he founded an organization to resist the implementation of the Chinese Communist Party’s “patriotic education” on Hong Kong children. That was 14 years after Hong Kong became part of China after a century and a half of British rule.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
