The Witness: Trial of 47 Democrats | 7 February 2023

In this second video from 法庭線 The Witness, we get some more detail on the opening day of the trial. Almost in passing, the reporter mentions in the opening minute that the press area has been cordoned off with orange tape; the implication seems to be that the media were being discouraged from covering court proceedings in the usual way.

The first day also started with a brief protest staged by the 社會民主連線 League of Social Democrats. The message on the banner is in three lines: 1. 初選無罪 | 打壓可恥 = The Primary Elections are No Crime | The Repression is Shameful 2. 民意代表代表民意何罪 = What Crime Is There in Representatives of the People Representing the Will of the People? and 3. 立即釋放所有政治犯 = Release All Political Prisoners at Once. In typical Chinese fashion, the protestors were told to go back to the designated protest area if they wished to continue.

You’ll also find a bit more detail on the organization of the primary elections, as well as the important term 攬炒 laam chaau, literally “to embrace & to fry”. This term is often translated as “to burn together” or “mutual destruction”, possibly referring to the fact that if a democratic majority gained control of the legislative council, it could veto the budget and so cause the council’s dissolution. This may be why 炒 chaau is used, since it can also mean “to lose one’s job” in certain idioms.

The Cantonese in the video is very clear and not too fast. You can find the video here.

47 democrats who are said to have organized and participated in a primary election have been accused of the crime of conspiring to subvert state power. Sixteen people have pleaded not guilty. The trial began on Monday. At 7 a.m. this morning, over a hundred people lined up outside the court, some of them sleeping on the ground [using] bedding and sleeping bags they had brought with them. Approximately 100 police were outside the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts, patrolling [the premises] and on the alert. The press area was closed off with orange tape. Gordon Ng Ching-hang, Gwyneth Ho Kwai-lan, Lam Cheuk-ting, [“Long Hair”] Leung Kwok-hung, Winnie Yu Wai-ming and Owen Chow Ka-shing, who are currently in detention, were sent to the court in a prison van. The other ten defendants who are out on bail — Lee Yue-shun, Lawrence Lau Wai-chung, Michael Pang Cheuk-kei, Raymond Chan Chi-chuen, Sze Tak-loy, Cheng Tat-hung, Ricky Or Yiu-lam, Clarisse Yeung Suet-ying, Kalvin Ho Kai-ming and Helena Wong Pik-wan arrived at the court at around 9.30 a.m. Hendrick Lui Chi-hang, another defendant who has pleaded guilty, also came to the court to observe proceedings.

● 示威 sih6 wai1 = to hold a demonstration | ● 包圍 baau1 waih4 = to surround | ● 違反 waih4 faan2 = to violate; to contravene | ● 口罩令 hau2 jaau3 lihng6 = (?) a regulation for the wearing of face masks | ● 聽取 teng1 cheui2 = to listen to | ● 答辯 daap3 bihn6 = to answer a charge; to respond to a plea | ● 質疑 jat1 yih4 = to call into question | ● 開案陳詞 hoi1 [ng]on3 chahn4 chihn4 = opening submission/arguments | ● 暴政 bouh6 jing3 = despotism | ● 刪除 saan1 cheuih4 = to cut out; to delete | ● 威脅 wai1 hip3 = to threaten; to intimidate | ● 字眼 jih6 ngaahn5 = wording | ● 單 daan1 = the classifier or measure word used with 案 (a legal case)

Members of the League of Social Democrats held a demonstration outside the court before the trial started. For a time, they were surrounded by police, who asked them to return to the [designated] demonstration zone. One of the [protestors] was taken away by police for having violated the face-mask regulation. In the case, at the outset, there were eighteen people who pleaded not guilty. This morning when the court trial began, their pleas were heard. Ng Kin-wai and Mike Lam King-nan both changed their pleas to guilty. When Ng Kin-wai gave his plea, he said: “Your Honour, I was not successful in subverting state power. I plead guilty. I admit the charge.” One by one, the other sixteen defendants gave their plea of not guilty. One of them, Leung Kwok-hung, declared: “Resisting despotism is not a crime. There is no case to answer.” Before she gave her plea, Gwyneth Ho asked a question, [because] the newly revised opening submission of the prosecution had deleted the wording “to threaten to use violence”, and yet when the clerk of courts read out the charge, the wording was unchanged. Eventually, she said that she respected the court and added: “I don’t want to waste any more time. I plead not guilty.” After that, the prosecution read out the opening submission. [It] stated that the plan to conspire in the case [involved] the group of defendants’ using unlawful means . . .

. . . to disturb the various organs of the HKSAR government and the legal execution of its functions by means of an indiscriminate [無差別] vetoing of financial budgets or public expenditure. [This would] force the government to dissolve the legislative council and ultimately lead to the chief executive’s resignation. The objective of the entire plan was “to subvert state power”. The prosecution revealed that, some time later, they would summon four defendants involved in this case [同案被告] — Au Nok-hin, Andrew Chiu Ka-yin, Ben Chung Kam-lun and Mike Lam King-nan — would give evidence as accomplice witnesses. The prosecution said that the organizers of the primary elections were the five defendants Benny Tai, Au Nok-hin, Andrew Chiu Ka-yin, Ben Chung Kam-lun and Gordon Ng, and took responsibility for formulating the framework of the primary elections and for discussing details with the various individuals taking part in the primaries. Of these [people], Benny Tai wanted to realize his plan of laam chaau (“burning together” or “mutual destruction”). The core [aspect] of the primary elections was to get majority control of the legislative council. The prosecution said that in December 2019, Benny Tai had published an essay in Apple Daily which mentioned the primary elections for the first time and explained how winning a majority in the legislative council would come at the price of having the council dissolved.

● 記者會 gei3 je2 wui6*2 = a press conference | ● 策略 chaak3 leuhk6 = tactics | ● 議席 yih5 jihk6 = a seat in the legislative council | ● 抗衡 kong3 hahng4 = to contend with | ● 發起 faat3 hei2 = to initiate; to launch | ● 呼籲 fu1 yuh6 = to call on (to sb. to do sth.); to appeal (to sb. to do sth.) | ● 遵守 jeun1 sau2 = to observe; to comply with | ● 實踐 saht6 chihn5 = to put into practice | ● 約束 yeuk3 chuk1 = to restrain

They would force the government to agree to their demands. In March 2020, together with Au Nok-hin, he held a press conference to introduce the plan for primary elections as well as [its] tactics. He mentioned that if a majority of seats were obtained in the legislative council, this could become “a weapon of great destructive power”, [allowing democrats] to contend with the Chinese Communist Party and the government. The prosecution said that afterwards Benny Tai continued to write essays [for] Apple Daily, explaining “the ten steps to true laam chaau”, explaining how laam chaau would be realized through the primary elections, including vetoing the financial budget, regardless of what it contained [無差別]. Gordon Ng once launched a campaign called “Three Things to Vote for and Three Things Not to Vote for”, calling on voters [選民] to vote only for candidates who were taking part in the primary elections and who had promised to comply with the outcome. As for the remaining forty-two defendants, people who ran in the primary elections, the prosecution said that they had publicly promised to do all they could to realize the objectives of the plan for primary elections and to be bound by the elections’ outcome. Apart from the twenty-seven defendants who were victorious in the primary elections [and who], after the implementation of the National Security Law, put their names down to take part in legislative council elections . . .

● 頂上 ding2 seuhng6 = ? cf. 頂 ding2 = to substitute; to replace | ● 聯合 lyuhn6 hahp6 = joint | ● 續審 juhk6 sam2 = roughly, “(of a trial) to continue)”

. . . the fifteen defendants who lost in the primaries also promised not to run in the [legislative council] elections or agreed, if the need arose, to act as Plan B substitutes (?) to realize their conspiracy. The prosecution also said that thirty-three of the defendants had signed the joint declaration “Signed in Ink without Regret, Resolute in Resistance: Manifesto of the Resistance Faction’s Standpoint”, [in which] they promised to comply with the plan for primary elections in order to force the government to respond to the Five Demands. The trial with continue on Tuesday [7 February], [when] the prosecution will go on with the reading of their opening submission.