Hong Kong protests: Telegram group administrator pleads guilty to 9 incitement charges tied to violent 2019 clashes

Insurance agent Siu Cheung-lung provided subscribers to his messaging app channel with bomb-making instructions, urged them to attack police officers

The 33-year-old, whose followers bought HK$1.64 million worth of products he advertised, also called for violence against those from the city’s ‘blue ribbon’ camp

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Insurance agent Siu Cheung-lung had more than 21,000 subscribers to his Telegram channel, which called for violence against Hong Kong police and others. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 3:53pm, 29 Nov 2021Updated: 6:30pm, 29 Nov 2021

The administrator of a Telegram group has pleaded guilty to nine incitement charges for abetting attacks on Hong Kong police officers and instigating a violent demonstration at the height of the 2019 civil unrest.

Insurance agent Siu Cheung-lung was convicted at the District Court on Monday after he admitted publishing 1,197 provocative posts on the encrypted messaging app over a five-month period.

The court heard the 33-year-old defendant attracted 21,862 subscribers to his channel “The Cheating Master, Never Forget Why You Started” between October 7, 2019, and March 27 last year.

The Wan Chai Law Courts building, which houses the District Court, on Hong Kong Island. Photo: Warton Li

Group members also bought HK$1.64 million (US$210,000) in hygiene products from Siu after he claimed to be in financial trouble.

The charges Siu faced centred on 17 posts made between November 3 and 19, 2019, a period that featured some of the most violent clashes between protesters and police.

Prosecutor Jessie Sham Wing-yan said eight of those posts were aimed at abetting a riot at Chinese University on November 12, when Siu called on protesters to invade the school’s laboratories to produce explosives and ambush police officers using the home-made bombs.

In other messages, the defendant gave out instructions for making bombs that used petrol, thermites and chlorine gas, called for the mass obstruction of railways, and urged protesters to physically attack those who held opposing political views with pipes and corrosives.