Hong Kong's Second Silver, and a 9-Year Sentence

Haughey with her second silver medal in the 100m free final

 

This morning Hongkongers were on a high as they watched swimmer Siobhan Haughey win a silver medal in the women's 100m freestyle. The 23-year-old clinched double silver in the span of a few days, Hong Kong's third medal of the Tokyo 2020 Games. 

But by the afternoon the mood became sombre with the news that Leon Tong Ying-kit, 24, the first person to be convicted of terrorism and secession under the national security law, was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Haughey set a new Asian record at 52.27 seconds

The government-appointed panel of judges sentenced the former restaurant worker to 6.5 years for the secession crime, and eight years for terrorism, with 5.5 years of the latter term to run concurrently with the first. He was also barred from driving for 10 years.

"The defendant was not a lone protester quietly carrying a flag bearing the slogan amongst a sea of protesters," read the 15-page judgment delivered at the Court of First Instance. "He deliberately challenged a number of police check lines in order to attract as much attention to the secessionist message on the flag as possible and to leave a great impact and a strong impression on people."

There was a flag mounted on the back of Tong's motorcycle with the slogan, "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times".

The panel believed Tong acted alone and did not have a specific plan to separate Hong Kong from the mainland.

Tong riding his motorcycle on July 1, 2020

However the judges believed the defendant committed a terrorist act when he ran into three police officers -- a symbol of law and order -- and intimidating members of the public, especially those with opposing views, by that action.

"What the defendant did was calculated and deliberate acts which created a very dangerous situation for the road users and which indeed caused injuries to three police officers," the judgment read. But they agreed the injuries suffered by the officers were not "serious" as alleged by the prosecution, and so the starting point for sentencing for the charge should be between three and 10 years in jail. The maximum penalty for terrorism under the national security law is life imprisonment.

Thomas Kellogg is the executive director of the Georgetown Centre for Asian Law and describes the sentence as "harsh".

"People can only shape their behaviour after the initial lines of what the national security law covers have been drawn," he said, adding it did not bode well for the 47 opposition activists who were earlier charged with subversion for their part in the unofficial primary election last year. 

Tong has been sentenced to nine years in prison

Kellogg also said it was unfortunate that judges had ruled that the acts to incite secession were of a "serious nature". "If Tong's act of carrying the banner is serious, what acts... are not serious? I worry that the court has essentially expanded the serious nature provision to cover almost all acts of inciting secession," he said.  

Meanwhile Nathan Law Kwun-chung, who is now based in the UK, said the sentence was "outrageous", and raised concerns about free speech.

"The sentencing guideline is unclear, and it gives the judge the power to determine whether a slogan can be seen as 'capable of' inciting secession. This is an extremely low threshold to lock an individual in jail for years," he said.

Today was literally a high and a low...

Adopted Chinese Baby a Gold Medal Swimmer

Maggie MacNeil with her gold medal in the 100 butterfly

 

A few days ago China was in a tizzy when an adopted Chinese girl won Canada's first gold medal in the Tokyo 2020 Games in the women's 100 butterfly. She beat out China's Zhang Yufei by 0.05 seconds.

Maggie MacNeil is 21 years old and according to Chinese state media, she was abandoned by her biological parents in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province in February 2000. A year later she and her younger sister were adopted from a local orphanage by Susan MacNeil and Edward MacNeil and taken back to their hometown of London, Ontario.

MacNeil beat Zhang of China by 0.05 seconds

She began swimming in 2008 and became a sensation in the University of Michigan where she trains with Hong Kong's Siobhan Haughey.

When Chinese netizens found out about MacNeil's origins there was a torrent of comments online.

"Imagine had she not been brought up from the orphanage, or had she not been deserted by her biological parents, what would she be now? The adoption changed her life orbit completely as she was given such quality care and training."

Another said: "She might have dropped out of school to support a younger brother had she stayed in China."

China is now trying to encourage young families to have three children in a bid to boost the country's population numbers, but not many are interested in fulfilling this patriotic duty, particularly young career-minded women.

She began swimming at the age of eight

It is also an extreme response following decades of the one-child policy since 1980. As a result many families preferred to have boys than girls, resulting in many female babies being abandoned, much like MacNeil and her sister.

China launched its international adoption program in 1991 and it is estimated some 110,000 children from China has been adopted, mostly to the United States. According to the US Department of State, of the 82,456 children that Americans adopted from China between 1999 and 2020, 82.14 percent were females.

Some netizens felt that though MacNeil was born in China, she did not bring glory to the motherland.

"Her victory only proves how ethnicity does not matter in sports, as Asians clinched gold and silver in such an epic match," said one.

"She helms the citizenship of Canada, and all the credit should go to those who raised and trained her well in Canada," another said.

China's Zhang, MacNeil and Australian McKeon

"I feel ashamed to see media attention that MacNeil was born in China," a netizen said. "What is more worthy of being mentioned may be that we gave her up 20 years ago."

Ouch.

Nevertheless, MacNeil is taking the controversy in stride.

"I was born in China and I was adopted when I was really young, and that's as far as my Chinese heritage goes," she said in a post-race press conference. "I'm Canadian and I've always been Canadian, so that's just a very small part of my journey to where I am today. It's kind of irrelevant when it comes to swimming."

 

Hong Kong's First Medal in Swimming

Haughey clinches silver in HK's first ever medal in swimming

 

This morning Hong Kong was collectively holding its breath as local swimmer Siobhan Haughey swam the women's 200m freestyle final.

She burst out of the pack early on and led the race until the last 50 metres she was edged out by Australian Ariarne Titmus. 

Haughey (left) led most of the race in 200 free

The 23-year-old Haughey, half Hong Kong Chinese and half Irish also set the new Asian record at 1.53.92 and a silver medal -- making this Olympic games the best ever showing for the city.

"I hope Cheung Ka-long and my performances this Olympics can motivate fellow Hong Kong athletes competing in the games, they can do it. And also the athletes watching at home in Hong Kong -- keep training, because it will be your turn soon," she said in a post-race interview.

"I hope everyone can continue to support Hong Kong athletes. The competitions may be over in a few minutes' time, with a lucky few being able to enjoy the 'glory moments', but what people cannot see are the effort and hard work committed by them," she stressed.

She also thanked her coaches and parents for their support which allowed her to achieve what she could today.

This evening she cruised into the semi-finals of the women's 100 freestyle setting another Asian record at 52.70 and will compete in the final tomorrow morning.

Ng wore a plain black T-shirt in his first match

However, badminton Olympic hopeful Angus Ng Ka-long was knocked out today after being beaten by Guatemalan shuttler Kevin Cordon.

Ng got into a lot of controversy after his first match a few days ago when he wore a black Lululemon T-shirt that met Olympic regulations, but did not have a bauhinia emblem on it critics felt this associated Ng with the 2019 protests when the protesters wore black clothes.

Pro-Beijing lawmaker Nicholas Muk wrote on social media that Ng should withdraw from the games if he did not want to represent Hong Kong. 

After his match, Ng took to Instagram to explain he currently did not have a sponsor and so he was now a free agent and felt comfortable wearing this T-shirt.

Eventually the Hong Kong Badminton Association took the blame for the incident and sorted out Ng's uniform for the next match. 

Criticism caused Ng to change shirts... and lose?

But it seems the damage was done and Ng is now out of the Olympics.

Muk finally said he felt sorry for using "slightly strong words" on Facebook, but did not apologize to the 27-year-old Ng for possibly affecting his performance today.

While the T-shirt debacle was a distraction, it can really ruin an athlete's focus and self-confidence. Muk of the DAB may be trying to win brownie points with Beijing, but really, this is not the time or place to do such a thing. 

Hong Kong athletes need all the support they can get, and condemning them for their outfits is the last thing they want to hear.

 

Where's Hong Kong's Olympic Drive?

Big dreams for Joseph Schooling (right) when he met Michael Phelps in 2008

The Summer Games in Rio are over tomorrow, but Hong Kong came home empty handed this year, raising questions of what went wrong, and why Singapore won its first gold medal ever with Joseph Schooling easily beating Michael Phelps in the 100m butterfly.

Chef de mission Kenneth Fok Kai-kong tried to spin the negative outcome by saying Hong Kong people should avoid looking at Olympic medals as the be all and end all of sporting achievement, adding it was impossible to put a value on intangible benefits of our athletes at international sporting events.

His father Timothy saw Sarah Lee Wai-sze win bronze four years ago in London, and Lee Lai-shan clinch gold 20 years ago in windsurfing in Atlanta.

Kenneth Fok tries to manage Hong Kong's disappointment

Some bright spots in these Games have been Siobhan Haughey, who was the first Hong Kong female swimmer to qualify for an Olympic semi-final, and golfer Tiffany Chan Tsz-ching who worked hard to stay in the game.

Trying to put a brave face on Hong Kong's performance in Rio won't be enough for the Hong Kong public to wonder if athletes aren't given enough resources in terms of training facilities and coaches. The city's new commissioner for sport Yeung Tak-keung put things into perspective, saying Hong Kong has won three medals since first competing in 1952.

What does that say about the priority of sport in the city, and the tiny talent pool we have here?

It starts from parenting and the school system that encourages playing sports, and building talent from the grassroots level, and encouraging kids to continue playing, running, jumping, dribbling, kicking and so on.

Sarah Lee (left) came home empty handed this year

When parents tell their kids they should study than exercise, it's the wrong message -- sports can help them excel in academics, being more disciplined, more focused and more cooperative in working with others. These skills carry on into their working lives.

But it's going to take a long time for attitudes to change and realize academics and sports go hand in hand.

The more children take up sports, the bigger the talent pool and competition to be the best.

How did Schooling do it? In 2008 he took a picture with Phelps in Beijing, with the hopes that one day he would be just as good as his hero.

That is an Olympic dream come true.

Do Hong Kong athletes have the same drive?

The soul searching begins... again.