Fallout Two Years After 7.21

Commuters in Yuen Long station were attacked two years ago

 

It's hard to believe it's been two years since the horrific attacks on commuters in Yuen Long by men in white T-shirts armed with long wooden sticks and metal rods. What has happened since then?

Last month five people were convicted in the attacks and will be sentenced tomorrow, another man was acquitted on the lack of evidence. That is only a tiny fraction of the people involved in the incident that left 45 people injured and shocked Hongkongers who watched it unfold in real time.

Ho livestreamed the attack, was later arrested

The brave journalist Gwyneth Ho of Stand News who kept live streaming the incident as she was being attacked became a politician in the hopes of running in the Legislative Council elections in 2019 that were postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

But in January she was arrested along with 52 others for organizing and participating in the pro-democracy primaries last July. Ho was released on bail.

Another now former pro-democracy lawmaker, Lam Cheuk-ting, who rushed to the scene and was injured himself, was arrested for the same charge.

Lam was also arrested earlier this year

RTHK did an extensive investigation into the Yuen Long attacks, but one of its producers, Bao Choy Yuk-ling, was arrested and convicted for "submitting misinformation" when she requested ownership information of some of the vehicles used by the white-shirted men.  

While she was fined HK$6,000 for two violations of the Road Traffic Ordinance, Choy is appealing the decision because she feels she has done nothing wrong.

The RTHK documentary, 7.21: Who Owns the Truth? won a human rights prize and journalism nods, but public broadcaster refused to accept the awards and even tried to withdraw the application beforehand.

Choy does not believe she did anything wrong

But on that same evening in Western district, another attack was happening at the liaison office. Protesters defaced the Chinese emblem with black paint and it was then that state media began reporting on the anti-government protests and described the participants as rioters.

This incident may have set in motion the beginning of plans to implement the national security law less than a year later.

Now two years later, after Apple Daily shut down, laid off its staff and turned off the lights, the former executive editor was taken away by police, along with three others who reported to police following their bail conditions. They are expected to be charged under the national security law.

Lam Man-chung was arrested today

Eight in total have been have been arrested since last month, including two editorial writers, while Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying was arrested last year for violating the national security law.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association said it was shocked and puzzled by the latest arrest, describing freedom of the press as the "cornerstone of an international city".

"The association urges the government not to keep arresting journalists in the name of national security in a bid to create white terror in the field," it said.

What will happen a year from now?