| Monday, March 22, 2021 8 CHINA DAILY | HONG KONG EDITION Friday, April 23, 2021 | 7 COMMENTHK Crime and punishment: National security education should be Just outcomes for o enders in every classroom

Grenville Cross says HK’s judiciary is fiercely independent, s an alumnus and Honor- ary Clinical Assistant Pro- conducts trials fairly based on the evidence and the law, fessor of the University of and can be trusted never to buckle to political pressure Hong Kong (HKU), I must commentA on the HKU students union’s open letter to the university and its Vice-Chancellor Professor Chow Pak-chin n April 16, nine high-pro- cal disability and family di™ culties (HCMA Xiang Zhang. The author is president of Wisdom Hong Kong, a local think tank. fi le defendants, who had 294/2016). If, therefore, an oˆ ender can rely on With regard to the student body’s been convicted of involve- potent mitigating factors, this may persuade request for “more transparency” on ment in an unauthorized the court to suspend the term of imprison- the university’s national security Without a national se- assembly on August 18, ment which would otherwise have been appro- courses, I want to emphasize that 2019, were sentenced to priate. protecting national security is a curity law, as we have terms of imprisonment Grenville Cross In the case of Yeung Sum, for example, must and duty of all citizens in any witnessed before, there The author is a senior counsel, law which ranged from 8 to 18 months (DCC the judge decided to suspend his sentence of country. professor and criminal justice analyst, will be chaos that chal- 536/2000). Three of them, however, Martin imprisonment of 8 months, for a period of Toward the end of the Qing O and was previously the director of public 12 months. This was because of the powerful lenges the “one country, Lee Chu-ming, Albert Ho Chun-yan and Mar- prosecutions of the Hong Kong SAR. dynasty, China was deeply divided garet Ng Ngoi-yee, had their sentences sus- mitigation upon which he was able to rely. He and weakened. Without the notion two systems” principle. pended. The defendants, two of whom pleaded was 72 years old, of good character, had been a of national security and the related All of these things are guilty, were convicted of either organizing an able. This is recognized around the world, and legislator for many years, and had shown “ded- legal means, the country suˆ ered at unauthorized assembly, or participating in one, in the United States, for example, restrictions ication to education and social work, especially the hands of foreign aggressors. interconnected, and and, in some instances, of both. The oˆ enses on public gatherings in major cities are com- at the grassroots level”. He had, moreover, been The 19th-century China was tar- one cannot exist with- occurred when the defendants, following an mon. In New York City, police permission is awarded the Silver Bauhinia Star (SBS) by the nished by internal commotion and authorized assembly involving 300,000 people required to conduct a march in a public street, HKSAR, which showed that he was “recog- strife, foreign invasions and coer- out the other. The NSL in Victoria Park, embarked upon an unauthor- to hold an event in a park with more than 20 nized for either taking a leading role in public cion, severe economic disruption is there to protect us ized march from Causeway Bay to Central, people, or to use amplifi ed sounds on public aˆ airs or voluntary work over a long period and immense suˆ ering on the part and national interests, ignoring a police objection. property. In light of this, the intervention of of time for the good of Hong Kong.” The same of the people, whatever their politi- In convicting the defendants, Judge Amanda the US Consul General, Hanscom Smith, who type of considerations would have infl uenced cal beliefs. it is a prerequisite and Woodcock brushed aside their challenge to the claimed that “it was enormously troubling to Woodcock when she suspended Martin Lee’s Does any of this sound familiar? not a selective as some legitimacy of the charges, explaining that while have this case of people who were convicted of sentence of 11 months’ imprisonment, and And need I remind these students make it out to be. the Basic Law guarantees freedom of assembly peaceful assembly”, was rank hypocrisy of the Margaret Ng’s and Albert Ho’s sentences, each it was the abhorrently anti-social, and freedom of expression, these rights “are worst type, albeit now very familiar. of 12 months’ imprisonment. violent activities in 2019 that forced not absolute”. Indeed, in 2005, as she noted, the In Hong Kong, nobody is above the law, as Under the Criminal Procedure Ordinance Beijing to promulgate the National Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal had upheld Smith knows, and the convictions of the ten (Cap.221), a court which suspends a sentence Security Law (NSL) for Hong Kong? pushing their luck. the constitutionality of the law which criminal- defendants send out an unequivocal message of imprisonment “may impose such conditions Only with a security law in place, The People’s Daily published an izes unauthorized assemblies and establishes that criminal justice applies equally to every- as it thinks fi t” (Sect.109B). Although this is can a country’s economy operate editorial that called for immediate a notifi cation scheme (FACC 1/2005), and body, including the high and mighty. Although broad, any conditions attached to the suspen- smoothly and its citizens live their discipline of the students union, as the defendants had no reasonable excuse for the defendants included the rich, the eminent sion should be reasonable, and the power is lives as they wish, without fear of well as the eradication of “thugs” having violated it. The march the defendants and the well-connected, this, fortunately, has not unlimited. It would, for example, be unrea- foreign intervention or interruption. hiding within the university. engaged in had, said the judge, caused serious provided them with no shield against the sonable to attach a condition to the suspended The NSL provides clarity in matters They went on to say that these tra™ c disruption, and was of a size that “posed sword of justice. While many of them have sentences of Lee, Ho, Ng or Yeung, that they relating to our Basic Law and as unruly students are not only smear- an inherent latent risk of possible violence”. powerful friends in foreign capitals, includ- should not exercise their right to freedom of such, national security education ing our national security education, Two of the defendants, Jimmy Lai Chee- ing the former governor, Chris Patten, who assembly, given that this right is constitution- should be a requisite for every class- but damaging the tenet of “one ying and Lee Cheuk-yan, together with Yeung wailed pathetically about these “champions of ally guaranteed under the Basic Law. In prac- room. country, two systems” and conse- Sum, also pleaded guilty to participating in liberty and democracy” having been placed “in tice, it is very rare these days for the courts to Furthermore, students must quently wreaking constitutional another unauthorized march, in Wan Chai Beijing’s vengeful sights”, this has not availed attach conditions when they suspend sentenc- appreciate that since their tertiary havoc on Hong Kong. on August 31 2019 (DCCC 537/2020). On this them at all, and the rule of law has triumphed. es of imprisonment, and no conditions were education is heavily funded by the On to the fi nal point in the let- occasion, over 2,000 people ignored a police Indeed, as the great English jurist, Lord Den- attached, for example, to Yeung’s suspended public — an amount totaling HK$1 ter — “Gone the Sapientia et Virtus, ban and marched from Southorn Playground ning, once memorably observed, “be you ever sentence of 8 months’ imprisonment. million per student — society has Shame to All Our Ancestors” — in Wan Chai to St John’s Cathedral, in Central. so high, the law is above you”, and, by her care- When the oˆ enders were sentenced, diplo- every right to expect suitable use which simply were “arguments” In sentencing, Woodcock noted that “infl uen- fully reasoned judgment, Woodcock has hon- mats from Canada, France, Germany, the Neth- of public funds. The return on this against patriotic education in China. tial people can draw a crowd”, and that “the ored this mighty principle, and the only regret erlands, Sweden, the United States and the public investment should come in My simple reaction is that the chances were high of violence erupting”. But is that Patten has sought to trash it. European Union were among those observing the form of university graduates students and their union must do as this oˆ ense was less serious than the ear- Some people have queried why four of the the proceedings. It is to be hoped that the serving the public and protecting everything they can to better under- lier one, the sentences of imprisonment were defendants, Martin Lee, Albert Ho, Margaret reports they fi led to their superiors accurately the interests of our country. stand Hong Kong, its constitutional markedly lower, ranging from 6 to 8 months’ Ng and Yeung Sum, were given suspended refl ected the fairness of the trial, and the care Therefore, national security edu- status and political system, and gen- imprisonment. sentences of imprisonment, and the principles the judge devoted to her reasons for both cation is an integral part of protect- erally our motherland. Rather than Under the Public Order Ordinance applicable are not always appreciated. In conviction and sentence. If so, they have, not ing our future interests, including listening to hearsay, they need to (Cap.245), unauthorized assemblies are treated respect of many oˆ enses, including unau- surprisingly, been ignored, as their political those of the students. make an eˆ ort to better understand seriously, and the maximum sentence is 5 thorized assembly, a court, if a sentence of masters have agendas of their own to pursue. The management of a university the current political, economic and years’ imprisonment (Sect.17A). Although not more than two years’ imprisonment is The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, is a matter for the university, not social situations in China. some people have complained that Woodcock’s imposed, may order that it be suspended for for example, without having studied the the students. If the school’s man- “One country, two systems” is sentences were too tough, the Court of Appeal between one and three years. It will, however, evidence, made the extraordinary claim that agement wishes to include national still the tenet that Hong Kong lives has made clear that “the fi rst factor to which be activated, in all likelihood, if the oˆ ender, the charges were politically motivated, and security education in the curricu- by, so they need to understand the any sentencing court should in this context during that period, commits another oˆ ense demanded the release of “those detained or lum, it is their prerogative to do so. importance of unity and its relation have regard is the maximum penalty available” which is punishable with imprisonment. It imprisoned for exercising their fundamental It is just as well that the matter has to “one country”. And remember (CACC 335/2010). In other words, by the maxi- has, therefore, been likened to a Sword of freedoms”, which was a crude assault on the now drawn enough attention, stu- without “one country”, there would mum sentence it has prescribed, the legislature Damocles, with the oˆ ender being given a rule of law. Whatever the position may be in dents in the future can no longer say be no “two systems”. has indicated its view of the seriousness of the second chance, albeit with the threat of impris- the US, the judiciary in Hong Kong is fi ercely that they don’t know this require- Without a national security law, as oˆ ense, and the sentences the courts impose onment hanging over his or her head if there is independent, conducts trials fairly on the basis ment. we have witnessed before, there will should “take their color” from this. The judge’s any further criminality. of the evidence and the law, and takes orders The second point of the letter con- be chaos that challenges the “one sentences, therefore, were well down the scale, In deciding whether to order suspension, from nobody, let alone the likes of Blinken. cerns Vice-Chancellor Zhang and country, two systems” principle. All having regard to the maximum available to the courts have regard to what the Court of Hong Kong, fortunately, is blessed with one of the university as the student body of these things are interconnected, her. Appeal has called “all the circumstances of the fi nest judiciaries in the Asia-Pacifi c region, claims that they have surrendered and one cannot exist without the There may be cogent reasons why a par- the commission of that oˆ ense and that of the and can be trusted never to buckle to political autonomy to “the wolves of the other. ticular assembly cannot be authorized by defendant” (CAAR 1/2015). In one case, for pressure, and long may this continue. tyranny” and called the university’s The NSL is there to protect us and the police, as where, for example, violence is example, an oˆ ender received a suspended conduct “humiliating to the edu- national interests, it is a prerequisite expected to result, or public safety will likely be sentence of imprisonment “in the interest of The views do not necessarily refl ect those of cated class”. and not a selective as some make it endangered, or where tra™ c chaos is unavoid- justice” on account of her clear record, physi- China Daily. It should be remembered what out to be. the initial purpose of setting up If any HKU students object to the HKU was. When HKU was estab- design of the university’s curricu- lished in 1911, Sir Frederick Lugard lum, they can simply fi nd another (then Governor of Hong Kong) said university or study abroad. Hong the university was founded as a Kong doesn’t need any more radical- British university in Hong Kong for ism or unpatriotic behavior. Dreamy China, and it was charged with help- HKU is a public body, so it must ing the new China progress into the be a university that exists to not night future. only educate but ultimately serve Today, HKU is the oldest tertiary the public. institution in Hong Kong and has Zhang and the university manage- Fireflies light their twinkling “lanterns” in gained prominence in interna- ment are not “submitting to tyranny the wooded valley of Sha tional rankings. While the HKSAR is or acting as a ‘puppet of the Educa- Lo Tung in Tai Po district. known internationally as a fi nancial tion Bureau’.” The whole of Hong Sitting at an altitude center, it also has outstanding edu- Kong is simply righting the wrongs of about 200 meters, cation across the board. Therefore, of our current education system and this 80-hectare valley it is the university’s responsibility to trying to bring up a new cohort of provides an excellent sustain our reputation and lead also proud and patriotic students who spot for photographers by example. understand the ins and outs of to capture the dreamlike If the student body likens “educa- Hong Kong and their country. scene in the late spring tional autonomy” to the Hong Kong As a public university, HKU like evening. independence movement, they need other public institutions has a EDMOND TANG/ CHINA DAILY to seriously rethink their demands. responsibility to pass the torch on to President Xi Jinping drew a line our youngsters and future teachers, in the sand by saying that “any politicians, civil servants, and such. attempt to endanger China’s sover- Change will ultimately come from eignty is an act that crosses the line our youth, so we need to start there and is absolutely not permissible in and teach them right from wrong. Hong Kong”. HKU’s Students Union ought The views do not necessarily refl ect to tread carefully and should stop those of China Daily.