Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, has described Hong Kong’s leadership as “lackeys” of a “fragile dictatorship” in Beijing who had “eviscerated freedoms” after ten activists were jailed for trying to flee the territory by boat. Of the 12 people who were arrested, ten were sentenced on Wednesday to between seven months and three years in prison for border crossing offences after being tried in Shenzhen, mainland China. The other two were returned to police in Hong Kong because there were minors. Their families have complained of little support from the Hong Kong government, which called the 12 activists “absconders” and said that it would not interfere with legal proceedings on the mainland. “Hong Kong was a thriving territory until the Chinese Communist Party

Source: The Times January 01, 2021 12:00 UTC