The organizers of the pogroms, which took place in Hong Kong, face imprisonment.
Agnes Chow, Ivan Lam, and well-known US protege in Hong Kong, Joshua Wong, pleaded guilty to organizing riots outside a police station last year. The extremists will reportedly be sentenced on Wednesday 25 November. They face imprisonment for up to 5 years.
Previously, Wong and Lam wanted to challenge the charges, but abandoned the idea on the advice of lawyers. Chow pleaded guilty a long time ago.
Anti-government protests in Hong Kong
In June 2019, massive actions began in Hong Kong, accompanied by pogroms and clashes with the police. The official reason for the protests was the extradition bill. If adopted, Hong Kong would be able to detain and extradite to Beijing people who are wanted by the Chinese security forces.
The demonstrators were openly supported by Western countries, in particular, the United States and Great Britain. The protests themselves continued even after the authorities refused to pass the law. The most absurd reasons were invented for the actions. For example, at the end of August last year, radicals smashed metro stations, allegedly due to poor quality of service, and also demolished “smart” lampposts that collect information about road traffic and air pollution levels. The fact is that the protesters saw in them a system of total surveillance by the authorities.
Stocks in Hong Kong ended amid the coronavirus pandemic and resumed in late April. A series of actions took place on May 1, and ten days later riots broke out in Hong Kong with barricades and arson. Against this backdrop, the Chinese government decided to introduce a national security law in Hong Kong.
The document, among other things, criminalizes foreign interference and the undermining of state power in this administrative region of China. This complicates the implementation of anti-government activities here, and the US State Department has already demanded from Beijing not to prevent Washington from interfering in Hong Kong’s affairs.
In an attempt to thwart the Chinese government, the radicals have organized protests in the city for several days, accompanied by pogroms, arson and clashes with the police. During this time, hundreds of violators were arrested, and one of the key American protégés in Hong Kong revealingly appealed to the United States with an appeal at the legislative level to protect extremists acting in the interests of Washington.