In September, Zeng Yuxuan, a 23-year-old mainland Chinese postgraduate law student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, pleaded guilty to sedition and was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for planning to display a banner depicting a sculpture by a Danish artist commemorating the Tiananmen crackdown. Zeng Yuxuan was due to be released in October having served most of her sentence in pretrial detention, but was deported to mainland China where she was believed to be held incommunicado. Her transfer was thought to be the first time someone from mainland China has been deported from Hong Kong after being convicted of sedition. In December, police arrested seven people and issued arrest warrants for two others who were living overseas for “inciting others not to vote, or to cast an invalid vote” in District Council elections. REPRESSION OF DISSENT Targeting of overseas critics of the Hong Kong authorities continued. In July, police issued arrest warrants for eight activists, including three former legislators, who were self-exiled in Australia, the UK and the USA. They were accused of violating the NSL and a reward of HKD 1 million (approximately USD 128,228) was offered for information leading to their arrest. In October, four UN experts expressed serious concerns about the issuing of the warrants and called for the NSL to be reviewed. In December, five more overseas Hong Kong activists were added to the wanted list with the same rewards offered. In November, 23-year-old student Yuen Ching-ting was sentenced to two months in prison for posting “seditious” messages on social media while she was studying at a university in Japan. Yuen Ching-ting, who pleaded guilty to posting 13 messages in support of Hong Kong independence, was arrested in March after returning to Hong Kong to renew her identity card. In December, prominent student activist Agnes Chow posted on Instagram an account of how she was required to travel to mainland China and participate in “patriotic” events and visits to have her passport returned in The State of the World’s Human Rights order to study in Canada. Agnes Chow was imprisoned in 2020 but remained under surveillance after she was released on bail in 2021 and her passport was confiscated. Following her arrival in Canada she said that she feared that she may never be able to return to Hong Kong and would be at risk of human rights violations if she did. LGBTI PEOPLE’S RIGHTS There were positive developments for LGBTI people’s rights resulting from court decisions on challenges against discriminatory policies and practices. In February, the Court of Final Appeals found that the government had breached the rights of two transgender people by rejecting their applications to amend their gender on their identity cards because they had not undergone full reassignment surgery. In August, in a case brought by a lesbian couple, the High Court legally recognized the non-gestational parent as the second female parent of their child. In another landmark ruling in September, the Court of Final Appeals declined to recognize same-sex marriage but ruled that the government had a constitutional duty to provide an alternative legal framework for same-sex relationships to be recognized. The Court set a timeline of two years for the rights of same-sex couples, including access to hospitals and inheritance, to be protected on equal terms with those of opposite-sex couples.9 In two other cases in October, the Court of Appeal declared discriminatory the government’s denial of same-sex married couples’ rights to rent and own public housing. It also ruled in favour of granting equal inheritance rights. 1. “China: Further information: Uyghur student convicted for promoting extremism: Kamile Wayit”, 4 July 2. “China: Heavy prison sentences for human rights activists ‘disgraceful’”, 10 April 3. “China: Jailed sentence for lawyer who reported being tortured ‘an outrage’”, 8 June 4. “China: #MeToo and labour activists facing ’baseless’ trial must be released”, 21 September 5. “China: After six years deprived of liberty, human rights lawyer finally sentenced”, 25 October 133