Hong Kong police have charged an 18-year-old man with sedition and criminal damage for allegedly writing “seditious words” in a commercial building’s toilet on three occasions.
Authorities said the graffiti expressed hatred or contempt toward Hong Kong’s government and incited others to break the law, violating Section 24 of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance – also known as Article 23 – which was passed in March last year.
The unidentified man was arrested in Kowloon on Monday on suspicion of “doing with a seditious intention an act or acts that had a seditious intention”, authorities said in a statement on Wednesday.
If convicted, the man could face up to seven years in prison.
Police said that “the contents included provoking hatred, contempt or disaffection against the constitutional order and the executive, legislative or judicial authority of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), as well as inciting other person to do an act that does not comply with the law of the HKSAR, etc”.
Police also warned the public against violating the law and said that “offenders shall be liable to imprisonment for seven years on first conviction”. The statement added that “members of the public are urged not to defy the law.”
Earlier in May this year, Hong Kong authorities announced the new legislative changes to amend the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance to provide better “clarity” and support to Beijing’s national security office.
Hong Kong authorities, last year, imposed the domestic security law despite growing international criticism that it could erode freedoms in the city.
Since 2024, Hong Kong’s homegrown national security law has been used to prosecute individuals for acts as minor as writing pro-independence messages on bus seats or wearing T-shirts bearing protest slogans that authorities claim suggest support for separating the city from China – a red line for Beijing.
Last year in September, a 27-year-old Hong Kong man, Chu Kai-pong, became the first person convicted under Article 23, after pleading guilty to sedition for wearing a T-shirt bearing a banned protest slogan.
Arrested in June 2023, Mr Chu admitted he wore the shirt to commemorate the 2019 protests.
Authorities claimed that the slogan, “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times”, promoted secession and incited hatred and discontent against the “fundamental system of the state established by the constitution of the People’s Republic of China”.
