Mainland PhD student ‘removed from Hong Kong’ after serving jail term for sedition

Zeng Yuxuan, a 23-year-old PhD student from the mainland, has been “removed from Hong Kong” after she finished her six months’ jail term for acting with seditious intent, the Security Bureau confirmed on Thursday. 

A spokesman for the bureau confirmed that Zeng “has been released from imprisonment, and has been removed from Hong Kong in accordance with section 19(1)(a) of the Immigration Ordinance (Cap. 115).” 

Zeng, a postgraduate law student at the Chinese University, was first apprehended by national security police after mourning Leung Kin-fai – who stabbed a cop and committed suicide in Causeway Bay on July 1, 2021 – on New Year’s Day. 

She was later charged with attempt to carry out acts with seditious intent for trying incite hatred towards the Central Government alongside mainland activist Zhou Fengsuo between May 8 and June 1. 

Back then, the court heard that police seized a package arriving from the US at Zeng’s home. Inside was a nine-meter-tall banner that displays the “Pillar of Shame” – a sculpture commemorating the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. 

The banner also displays words including “The Tiananmen Massacre”, “June 4th 1989” and “The old cannot kill the young forever”. 

Police also found a letter signed by the sculpture’s creator Jens Galschiøt, who mentioned that the banner will show that “We all remember Tiananmen.” 

Zeng’s phone record showed that she contacted Zhou on Instagram and said she would display the banner on June 4 to protest against police kidnapping the sculpture.