• socsa@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Literally ran a newspaper which espoused democracy and independent governance (Hong Kong status quo at the time).

      You might also be interested to learn that democratically elected legislators in Hong Kong were arrested en masse from the floor of their legislative building for the exact same reason. It’s as bad as it sounds.

      • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Link me that information from any source that actually reports on it fully. I’m just trying to understand what actually happened there.

    • sab@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      He published newspapers. He was a newspaper publisher.

      There’s no free speech in China. Publishing a newspaper that doesn’t follow the line of the Chinese Communist Party is a crime, and after the CCP took control over Hong Kong that applied to him as well.

      • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        You could get arrested (rightfully and not) in most of the world for publishing a myriad of things while still calling yourself “pro democracy” (see jan. 6 protests in the US)

        I just wanted to know what he was actually saying to motivate this arrest…

        • sab@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          The arrest itself was actually “motivated” by what they referred to as unauthorised assembly during the pro-democracy protests. This 73 year old man went somewhere he shouldn’t have, and clearly threatened the mighty CCP enough to warrant 20 months in prison in the process. Additional charges up to life are being stacked on top following from the “security law” meant to silence pro-democracy voices in Hong Kong, but as far as I know these charges have not been made public. His newspaper was published daily though, so the nature of his crime was quite public if you’re really interested.

          Here’s a BBC story on the history of the newspaper.

          I’m sorry I couldn’t find anything published by Xinhua News Agency, I have a feeling you might have appreciated that more.

          • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            Still nothing about what prompted the authorities over there to deem it as a national security threat, just vague mentions of a national security law while admitting criticising the government is not actually forbidden if you don’t abuse it. Jan. 6 protesters in the US were “pro-democracy” too, and so are both sides in the ukranian war. What did he actually say in those publications that prompted this arrest?

            Am I just insane for to know a key fact about it before making my judgement of what happened?

        • socsa@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          The Jan 6 people were not arrested for publishing a newspaper.

          • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            But they were “fighting for democracy” too. Give me actual information so I can judge for myself.

            • cryptosporidium140@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              They were definitely not, you’ve got to be shitting me. They wanted their glorious Cheeto Man to still be president after he lost a democratic election

              • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                Thats my point. They said they were anyway, but thats meaningless.

                • cryptosporidium140@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  They also did a bit more than speech and assembly, if it were just that we wouldn’t be imprisoning them. It doesn’t matter what you believe, if you shoot your friend because you think he’s a zombie and then he turns out not to be, that’s still a crime