By Chapman Chen, HK Bilingual News
4 Hong Kong Umbrella Movement leaders were recently sent to jail for their involvement in the campaign. HK law expert Wong On-yin suspects that this might be a Beijing retaliation for the HK pan-democrats supporting John Tsang rather than Carrie Lam in the 2017 HK Chief Executive Election. Wong's reasoning is as follows: The nine leaders were prosecuted on 27 March 2017, right after Carrie Lam was elected HK Chief Executive on the preceding day. In the roughly 1200 strong election committee, 300+ pan-democracy members collectively voted for former financial secretary John Tsang, who got his degree from a US university. The Chinese Communist Party was probably very angry about the pan-democrats for doing so, and might thus have ordered the HK Government to prosecute the Umbrella Movement leaders, two years after it ended. (Chapman Chen, Hong Kong Bilingual News reports)
"The message is subtle, but quite obvious, that is to remind the pro-democracy camp, 'Be a good boy,'" Wong On-yin adds, "And they did behave so in the last two years."
Text: Chapman Chen, Hong Kong Bilingual News
