Hong Kong protests: decoration worker, 64, jailed for more than 4 years for rioting and wounding at 2019 Yuen Long MTR attacks
- Ching Wai-ming, who was among white-clad mob that night, had assaulted three people in as many minutes, instructing accomplices to go after targets
- Violence at MTR station on night of July 21 marked one of the most divisive chapters in social unrest
A decoration worker in Hong Kong with past triad connections has been jailed for more than four years on rioting and wounding charges over a violent clash at Yuen Long MTR station that marked one of the most divisive episodes of the 2019 anti-government protests.
Ching Wai-ming, 64, was sentenced to 51 months behind bars at West Kowloon Court on Thursday for his “active” role in the chaos that night between July 21 and 22, 2019, during which a white-clad mob brandishing sticks and metal rods attacked protesters and commuters indiscriminately at the station.
The defendant was found to have assaulted three people in as many minutes and instructed his accomplices to go after their targets.
“The shock waves sent through society are evident in how the public was left in tumult,” Deputy District Judge Newman Wong Hing-wai said, adding it was “beyond doubt” the incident had opened a “chasm” in the city.
But Wong accepted the defence counsel’s “witty” submission that Ching was “a latecomer who left early”, and did not play a leading role in the attack.
The deputy judge said Ching deserved lesser time in jail as he had to undergo the ordeal behind bars again at an advanced age, adding many of his previous convictions dated back to more than two decades ago.
Hong Kong man, 64, found guilty of rioting, wounding in Yuen Long attack
The court heard the decoration worker was among the 100 men in white who stormed the station that night and injured at least 45 people in what the perpetrators asserted was an act of self-preservation against “invading” anti-government protesters.
A Hong Kong identity card holder living in neighbouring Shenzhen, Ching was seen in a white top and assembling with other assailants near the station that evening, just four hours after crossing the border via the Lok Ma Chau checkpoint.
He stormed the premises at around 11pm and assaulted at least three people with his fists and a rattan stick within three minutes.
The accused then instructed his comrades to proceed to the station’s platform to go after commuters inside a stranded train, before leaving the premises alongside other white-clad men at around 11.14pm.
Man crossed border to join 2019 Hong Kong railway station attack, court hears
Ching returned to Shenzhen via Lok Ma Chau at 12.11am the next day, but was detained in a Hong Kong jail the next month for keeping six petrol bombs near a police station in Tin Shui Wai.
The decoration worker was sentenced to 14 months in prison for possession of offensive weapons. He left Hong Kong again after serving time, before police identified him as a participant in the July 21 riot and placed him on a wanted list.
Ching was arrested in August 2021 for the present offence after entering the city through Shenzhen Bay Port.
Hong Kong activist behind 2019 march in Yuen Long jailed for 16 months
Wong convicted Ching in August this year of taking part in a riot and a lesser count of conspiracy to wound, after finding insufficient evidence to support the more serious charge of conspiracy to wound with intent as advocated by the prosecution.
The deputy judge sentenced Ching to 51 months’ jail for rioting and two years for conspiracy to wound, before ordering a concurrent sentence.
Ching is no stranger to the law, having appeared in the dock on 10 previous occasions. He had 12 earlier convictions, including one triad-related offence, two for unlawful assemblies and five concerning violence.
The decoration worker is the eighth person convicted in connection with the July 21 violence, with seven others found guilty and sentenced to up to seven years in jail by another judge last year.
Four of those previously sentenced will appear in the Court of Appeal in May next year seeking to clear their names.
