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Hong Kong retiree gets 1 year in jail for seditious social media comments

Raymond Chong, 61, pleaded guilty at West Kowloon Court to knowingly publishing 53 seditious Facebook posts that denigrated central and local authorities

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The court knocked six months off Raymond Chong’s 18-month sentence in recognition of his guilty plea. Photo: Jelly Tse
Brian Wong
A Hong Kong retiree has been jailed for a year under the domestic national security law over seditious remarks on social media, after suggesting that last year’s Wang Fuk Court fire could trigger unrest similar to the 2019 anti-government protests.

Former salesman Raymond Chong Wai-man, 61, pleaded guilty on Tuesday at West Kowloon Court to knowingly publishing 53 seditious Facebook posts that denigrated the central and local authorities between March 26, 2024 and November 29 last year.

Chong, a father of two, drew official ire after commenting on the inferno in Tai Po that engulfed the Wang Fuk Court residential complex for 43 hours from November 26, killing 168 people, the deadliest fire in Hong Kong since 1948.
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“If this fire triggered another political resistance campaign similar in scale to the anti-extradition bill movement, the Communist Party will definitely not dare carry out a massacre like last time,” he wrote, referring to a now-withdrawn proposal allowing fugitives to be transferred to mainland China.

He asserted that “Xi Jindong” – apparently a portmanteau of Chinese President Xi Jinping and the country’s founder Mao Zedong – had lost his grip on power, adding that Xi’s US counterpart Donald Trump could punish the central government if Beijing suppressed another large-scale protest in Hong Kong.

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Prosecutors argued the statement provoked hatred, contempt or disaffection towards the authorities.

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