Five people were sentenced in Hong Kong for writing “seditious” children’s books

• Five speech therapists in Hong Kong were found guilty of printing “seditious” children’s books and were sentenced to 19 months in prison apiece.
• Authorities understood the books, which are about sheep attempting to keep wolves out of their village, to be alluding to Beijing and Hong Kong.
• The volumes, according to the writers, “chronograph history from the perspective of the people.”

Five speech therapists in Hong Kong were found guilty of printing “seditious” children’s books and were sentenced to 19 months in prison apiece.

Authorities understood the books, which are about sheep attempting to keep wolves out of their village, to be alluding to Beijing and Hong Kong.

The volumes, according to the writers, “chronograph history from the perspective of the people.” But a judge chosen by the government said they were “a brainwashing exercise.”

Since China implemented a new national security law in 2020, there has been a crackdown on civil liberties that has led to punishment.

Critics claimed the law was intended to quell dissent and weaken Hong Kong’s autonomy, despite Beijing’s claims that it was necessary to provide stability to the city.

With the “one nation, two systems” premise, Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of China, is intended to have some freedoms.

Lai Man-ling, Melody Yeung, Sidney Ng, Samuel Chan, and Fong Tsz-ho, five speech therapists, have already been detained for more than a year while they wait for the outcome.

Due to the time already served, one of their attorneys predicted that they could be freed within a month.

The group, whose members range in age from 25 to 28, created cartoon e-books that some people perceived as an attempt to explain to kids the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

One of the three books features a sheep hamlet defending itself from a pack of wolves that is attempting to take over the settlement.

The booklets, according to the five speech therapists, were written to aid children in comprehending systemic unfairness.

The speech therapists were charged with “sowing the “seed of instability” in the city and throughout China, according to Judge Kwok Wai-kin.

Instead of the 2020 national security statute, they were charged under a colonial-era sedition law, which up until recently had been rarely invoked by prosecutors.

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