Hong Kong, China – That Tong Ying-kit buzzed his motorcycle past a cheering crowd and angry police on July 1, 2020, is not in question, nor that his bike wobbled and crashed and injured three police. What consumed most of the 15 days of Tong’s trial on charges of inciting separatism and terrorism – the first under the territory’s national security law (NSL) – was the meaning of a protest slogan emblazoned on a flag affixed to Tong’s backpack and uttered by hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong people in 2019: “Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Time.”
To the government, charged with enforcing a broad national security law imposed by Beijing only hours before the incident, Tong was a “terrorist” who seriously injured police after he ignored commands to stop and instead whipped up a crowd to revolt against China, which governs the semi-autonomous territory.