Two Hong Kong men who attacked information booths belonging to adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual practice in 2021 were handed minor prison sentences on April 21.
Hu Aimin and Chow Wing-lam are doing 15 and nine weeks behind bars, respectively, for the crime of damaging property.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a popular Chinese meditative discipline practiced by tens of millions. It has been ruthlessly persecuted by the communist regime in mainland China since 1999, but is still freely practiced in Hong Kong, where adherents maintain booths clarifying the facts about their faith and the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign against it.
- Hong Kong Court Finds Pro-CCP Man Guilty of Attacking Falun Gong Practitioners
- Falun Gong Under Renewed Pressure in Hong Kong as Establishment Lawmakers Call for Ban
Since the Communist Party imposed its “national security” law (NSL) upon Hong Kong in mid-2020, Falun Gong has come under increased pressure in the former British colony, but so far the authorities do not seem to be directly targeting the faith group, and have even downplayed calls by pro-communist lawmakers to enact an official ban.
At least six Falun Gong “truth clarification” booths were vandalized at least 10 times in the week prior to the April 3, 2021 incident involving Hu and Chow, according to The Epoch Times, which also reported a violent attack by thugs on the paper’s local printing press in Hong Kong’s Chuen Wan district that April 12.
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In her ruling, Magistrate Frances Leung Nga-yan of the Kowloon City Magistrates’ Court reprimanded Hu and Chow for trying to take the law into their own hands by “blatantly and repeatedly vandalizing” Falun Gong property in full view of the public, and said that such behavior was unacceptable in Hong Kong “no matter what grievances you have against any group or complaints about law enforcement authorities.”
Leung added that the perpetrators had to be sentenced to prison so as to demonstrate that the rule of law still exists in Hong Kong.
Eight people were arrested in connection with the actions targeting Falun Gong practitioners and their information booths, but only three stood trial. The third defendant, Zhuo Jinshen, was acquitted on April 3 as police said there was insufficient evidence to tie him to surveillance footage of a man clad in black attacking the Falun Gong site.
While Falun Gong, whose adherents regularly call for Chinese and others to cut ties with the CCP and Marxism, has not been targeted under the NSL, the criminal attacks against practitioners and their property in Hong Kong seem to be planned, not spontaneous acts.
According to Hong Kong police, Hu, a “patriotic” mainland Chinese immigrant to Hong Kong who supports the CCP, was in communication with someone via phone regarding his upcoming attacks on Falun Gong’s information booths. “If something happens to me, my boss will arrange for someone to send me living expenses,” he wrote in a text message brought forth by the prosecution.
