A 27-year-old Hong Kong citizen has been jailed for three months for replacing the Chinese national anthem with the anthem of the pro-democracy movement. It is the first time this penalty has been applied in Hong Kong.
For the first time, a Hong Kong citizen has been jailed for insulting the Chinese national anthem. A court sentenced a 27-year-old to three months in prison for replacing the anthem “March of the Volunteers” with the protest song “Glory to Hong Kong” in an online video, according to the Hong Kong Free Press news portal.
According to a regulation that came into force in June 2020, the maximum penalty for insulting the national anthem is three years in prison and the equivalent of almost 6,000 euros in fines.
Forbidden Hymn of democracy movement
The song “Glory to Hong Kong”, composed by a musician using the pseudonym “Thomas dgx yhl”, became the anthem of the pro-democracy movement during the 2019-20 mass demonstrations. It was banned by the authorities under the National Security Law enacted by China for promoting subversion. The government announced in early June that Hong Kong would take legal action to prevent the song from being distributed or reproduced in any way, including adaptations of its melody or lyrics.
Hong Kong had previously asked the search service Google to stop listing “Glory to Hong Kong” as a result when searching for “national anthem Hong Kong”.
democracy movement actually shattered
26 years ago, on July 1, 1997, the British crown colony of Hong Kong was handed over to China and the principle of “one country, two systems” was agreed: it guaranteed Hong Kong for 50 years that it would be able to maintain its democratic system and not have to adopt the communist one-party system of the People’s Republic of China.
Since China’s de facto takeover of power in Hong Kong through the National Security Law in July 2020, the democracy movement has been systematically crushed. Basic democratic rights such as freedom of the press, opinion, assembly and religion are increasingly being suppressed in the special administrative zone.