'Sitting in jail for everyone else': A Hong Kong democrat's sacrifice

HONG KONG — Owen Chow has spent most of the past four years in prison and in repeated court hearings, fighting charges carrying a possible life sentence — a far cry from his days as a nursing student and one of thousands supporting Hong Kong's democratic freedoms.

The 27-year-old is one of 14 convicted on Thursday (May 30) of conspiracy to commit subversion. Two were acquitted and 31 have pleaded guilty in the landmark national security case, which has drawn international criticism of the financial hub.

Once one of Asia's most liberal cities, China-ruled Hong Kong is experiencing a years-long crackdown on dissent under China-imposed security laws that have silenced liberal voices, unnerved investors and triggered a wave of emigration.

The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of China's State Council has said the laws will "secure Hong Kong's prosperity and stability" as well as safeguard the interests of overseas investors, democracy and freedom.

Chow and the 13 others were found guilty by three judges of conspiracy to commit subversion for holding an unofficial primary election in 2020 that was deemed by Hong Kong authorities as a plot to paralyse the government and "subvert state power".

The verdict caps a marathon legal process following the arrest of Chow and 46 other leading democrats in early 2021 in a citywide police raid.

Chow's activism began when mass protests broke out in 2019 over a planned China extradition bill. In a separate trial he was sentenced in March to more than five years in prison for occupying the city's legislature during those protests.

In several prison visits over three years, Chow told Reuters he had done no more than fight for democratic freedoms legally enshrined when his home city was handed over to China from the British in 1997.

"Democracy is the future of Hong Kong. This won't change regardless of those in power," he said on a phone handset through a pane of glass in a room in a high-security prison.

Chow also talked about his time in prison, his philosophy and finding love after meeting his girlfriend Amanda while briefly out on bail.

In 2019, Chow was a student trying to finish his degree in nursing.

In an interview with Reuters before he was arrested in 2021, Chow said he decided to become a nurse when his father died. Growing up with domestic violence, he said he put aside his hatred and began caring for him when he fell terminally ill.

"Since then I wanted to take care of others," said Chow, who suspended his nursing degree to run in the primary election.

'Patience'

When the massive pro-democracy protests broke out, Chow said he felt compelled towards activism. He gained a reputation as a young firebrand who also railed against the more cautious approach of elder democrats in their demands of Beijing.

He is one of nearly 3,000 people who have been prosecuted for offences related to the city's pro-democracy protests since 2019. More than 290 people have been arrested under national security laws.

In what UN human rights experts and the US say is a departure from established common law practices, Chow and other democrats were denied a jury trial, and 32 of the 47 have languished for over 1,000 days in detention without bail.

The Hong Kong government has said in a statement that all defendants have the right to a fair trial by an independent judiciary.

Many democrats have struggled through the process.

Some became ill, while the high cost of hiring barristers for years has depleted life savings. Many have lost their livelihoods.

Chow — crew cut and cleanly shaven in a short-sleeved, russet prisoner's uniform, shorts and sandals — said he tried to remain physically and mentally strong through exercise, meditation, study and writing letters while in solitary confinement.

He reads six books per month including novels and works on politics, philosophy and Buddhism.

"I have gained more patience, perseverance, and love… and lost much anger and arrogance," he said.

Tattooed on his right arm is a six-syllable Sanskrit Buddhist mantra "Om Mani Padme Hum", inked in early 2021, alluding in part to a spirit of enlightenment.

In March this year, Hong Kong's pro-Beijing legislature unanimously passed a further set of national security laws, giving authorities more power to clamp down on offences including espionage, sedition and theft of state secrets.

Chow told the court he considered withdrawing from the election after studying the security laws imposed by Beijing in 2020.

"But I found that I simply could not make the decision to withdraw from the (primary) election. I felt that I could not leave the masses," he said.

In their judgement on Thursday, the three judges wrote that they had "no doubt" that Chow's objective for taking part in the election was to "undermine, destroy or overthrow the existing political system".

Chow said he had a hard time adapting to prison life at first, and had once cried himself to sleep before the closely watched trial started, due to the pressure he faced.

"If we accept that adversity is inevitable and treat adversity as a rare chance to train ourselves, to improve ourselves, we can all take things in our stride."

Love and sacrifice

Chow met Amanda, a reporter who interviewed him, in 2021 and their relationship blossomed despite his time in detention.

"He's doing something he thinks is right. I also think he's doing the right thing. I don't want him to face these things alone," Amanda, who declined to give her last name given the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters.

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Now based in UK studying for a master's degree, she said they mostly communicate through letters. They also read some books together including "The Daily Stoic" by Ryan Holiday.

On Valentine's Day, Chow surprised her with a bouquet of tulips that arrived at her house in London.

"I want to face the challenges of the world, and on the inside, with you together," Chow wrote Amanda in a letter seen by Reuters.

Chow spends most of his time in solitary confinement in a narrow cell in a long corridor with dozens of other cells.

He begins most days in Stanley Prison by climbing onto his small desk to peer through the iron bars at the sea and a stretch of wild coastline. He is allowed two half-hour visits per month.

After being sentenced in the 2019 case, prison authorities now give Chow a pile of brown sheets of paper that he folds into envelopes with a tub of white glue. He's asked to fold 600 envelopes per week, which he does while listening to the radio when he's tired of reading.

Once known as one of Hong Kong's most radical young democrats, he says his emotions have tempered over the years, and he takes a longer, more philosophical view — based around the Buddhist concepts of repentance, reflection and acceptance.

"Go with the flow," he said. "Hatred won't help you achieve democracy in any place."

Despite the likelihood of another long jail term, he says it is worth it. After serving his sentence, he says he wants to study abroad.

"It's a sacrifice for Hong Kong. It's as if I'm sitting in jail for everyone else and suffering on behalf of others,

"What I've gained is more than I've lost."

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