Are the other 1.7 million going to be prosecuted?

The Court of Final Appeal denies an appeal by pan-dems Martin Lee, Margaret Ng, Jimmy Lai, Albert Ho, Lee Cheuk-yan, “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung and Cyd Ho to overturn their convictions for unauthorized assembly on August 19, 2019 – when 1.7 million people turned up at Victoria Park…

…A panel of judges unanimously rejected the democrats’ argument that their conviction was disproportionate to the protection of their basic human rights.

“The defendants’ proposition is unsustainable. It is contrary to all established principles governing constitutional challenges in Hong Kong and especially contrary to accepted principles for assessing proportionality,” the judgement read.

The defence had submitted that prosecution or conviction over an unauthorised assembly that did not lead to serious public disorder or violence would be a disproportionate restriction of the freedom of assembly.

Two UK Supreme Court decisions were cited in the bid to argue that the lower courts had failed to verify whether the democrats’ conviction would be a proportionate restriction of their fundamental rights.

Chief Justice Andrew Cheung and Permanent Judge Roberto Ribeiro held that the two Supreme Court decisions should not be followed in Hong Kong.

“Their Lordships noted that those decisions were made in contexts which do not arise in Hong Kong and incorporate features of no local relevance,” a summary of the judgement read.

The panel included non-permanent overseas judge David Neuberger. The Guardian quotes Chris Patten as saying the verdict,,,

…“reveals the rapidly deteriorating state of the rule of law in Hong Kong”.

He said: “This unjust verdict is made worse by the fact that Lord Neuberger, a former head of Britain’s supreme court, was a party to this decision. This is particularly surprising since when he was a member of the judiciary in Britain, Lord Neuberger was keen to establish that the English common law could accommodate fundamental aspects of human rights protection.

“He was also always keen that judges should be keen to explain their reasoning. In this case, perhaps some of his views on the law changed between the first-class waiting room at Heathrow and the arrival terminal of Hong Kong international airport.”

…Mark Sabah, the director of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, said it was “shameful and disgraceful” that Neuberger still sat in the court.

The government is further expanding one of its overseas talent schemes.

These schemes have, in practice, topped up Hong Kong’s population following an exodus of several hundred thousand middle-class local and expatriate residents prompted by Covid restrictions and the NatSec clampdown. Most beneficiaries are Mainlanders, and one encountered over the weekend explained that he and several others were working – a bit, to satisfy ‘talent’ visa conditions – as insurance agents selling products mostly to clients over the border. He said their plan was twofold: get their kids access to Hong Kong schools, and later use the city as a stepping stone to emigration to the West.