Chinese authorities arrested two men who possessed a children’s book that officials called “seditious”.
Police and customs officers arrested the men, aged between 38 and 50, on March 13 after they searched their homes and found multiple copies of the book, which describes sheep keeping wolves from the village. The wolves want to take over a village and eat the sheep, prompting the sheep to fight against them.
Authorities interpreted the book as referring to Hong Kong and Beijing. The officers relied on a colonial-era law to justify sending the men to jail, according to QZ.
Both men were released on bail but are due to report to police next month, the BBC reported. Police seized several copies of the books during their search.
TRUMP DEMANDS “RETRIBUTION” AGAINST CHINA FOR ROLE IN COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Hong Kong Senior Superintendent Steve Li, from the city’s new national security police unit, displays a children’s book that purportedly seeks to explain the city’s democracy movement, at a police press conference in Hong Kong on July 22, 2021 after five members of a Hong Kong pro-democracy union were arrested for sedition for publishing headlines. (Daniel Suen/AFP via Getty Images)
The book, one of three in a series titled Yangcun, caused a stir last year when a government-appointed judge ruled it constituted “seditious intent” and sentenced five speech therapists to 19 months in prison for publishing it.
The court stressed that the punishment was for the “damage or risk of damage to the minds of children” and the potential to sow seeds of “instability”, according to The Independent.
TRUMP JR. ACCUSES BIDEN OF USING TIKTOK AS A SCAPGOAT TO DISTRACT FROM FAMILY TIES WITH CHINA
Children’s books are photographed during a press conference after five people were arrested on suspicion of conspiring to publish seditious materials at the Hong Kong Police Headquarters on July 22, 2021, in Hong Kong, China. (Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)
“What the defendants did to children aged four and older was actually a brainwashing exercise with the aim of guiding very young children to accept their opinions and values,” the judge said.
This week’s arrests would be the first for mere possession of the book, which critics say represents a serious deterioration of freedoms in the country.
HOUSE LAWMAKERS FOCUS ON “UPPER CHINA” IN BIPARTISAN VISIT TO GUYANA
The contents of children’s books are displayed on a television screen during a news conference after five people were arrested on suspicion of conspiring to publish seditious materials at the Hong Kong Police Headquarters on July 22, 2021, in Hong Kong, in China. (Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)
Hong Kong remains a special administrative region of China with a “one country, two systems” arrangement with Beijing, but the rights afforded to the island’s citizens have slowly eroded since 2020 with the implementation of a national security law that aimed to crack down on widespread protests.
The use of an even more outdated law and the loose interpretation of “seditious” have shown how far Chinese officials will go in their efforts to limit dissent, according to prof. Johannes Chan, former professor of public law at the University of Hong Kong.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“If a cartoon in [a newspaper] considered seditious, any single reader who kept a copy of the paper could be guilty of the offense of possession,” Chan, a visiting professor at University College London, told The Guardian. “This could hardly be compatible with the guarantee for freedom of speech in the Basic Law or in the bill of rights”.
