Hong Kong men arrested for ‘seditious’ children’s book: report
Two men have been arrested in Hong Kong for possessing copies of a children’s book that officials deemed “seditious”.
Police and customs arrested the men, who ranged in age from 38 to 50, after raiding their homes and confiscating several copies of the book.
The books, which are part of a series titled “Yangcun,” tell the story of a group of sheep who fight off wolves that try to take over and eat their village.
The authorities interpreted the characters as representative of Hong Kong and the Chinese government, and used colonial-era sedition law to arrest the men, Quartz. mentioned.
The men have been released on bail, but must report to the police next month, the BBC says mentioned.
Yangcun Books previously rattled Hong Kong last year, when five speech therapists who published the books were jailed for 19 months after a Beijing-backed judge found they were “conspiring to publish, distribute and display three books with the intent of sedition”, The Guardian reports. mentioned.
However, the recent arrests appear to be the first case in which citizens have been arrested simply for possessing books deemed seditious by the authorities, the outlet reported.
Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, with a “One country, two systems” The principle that is supposed to allow its citizens some freedoms not possible in mainland China.
However, residents have seen these rights roll back in recent years following Beijing’s introduction of the 2020 National Security Law, which aims to quell the large-scale pro-democracy protests that rocked Hong Kong beginning in 2019.
