A Hong Kong court sentenced a man to 14 months in prison for wearing a T-shirt with protest slogans, marking the city’s first use of a new national security law to punish people accused of endangering the Chinese state.

Chu Kai-pong received the sentence Thursday at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts after he pleaded guilty earlier to committing an act with a seditious intention, local broadcaster Commercial Radio reported. The offense carries as long as 10 years in jail under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance passed in March.

That legislation, known as Article 23, bolstered the city’s security toolkit, after Beijing imposed a law in 2020 that’s been used to suppress dissent in the former British colony.

The 27-year-old was arrested in June for wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “Liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our times” A court previously ruled in a separate case that the display of those words could incite others to commit secession.

He also wore a yellow mask with the wording “FDNOL” — short for “five demands, not one less.” That phrase was used by protesters during anti-government demonstrations that rocked the financial hub in 2019, when participants demanded the withdrawal of a proposal that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China.

Chu was previously sentenced to three months in prison for wearing a T-shirt with the same slogan, under a colonial-era law that also criminalized sedition. The new Article 23 raised the maximum sentence from two years for first-time offenders to as much as a decade if the accused colluded with foreigners.

The 2019 unrest prompted Beijing to crack down on political opposition, with scores of pro-democracy activists now facing security charges that carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Among them is former tycoon Jimmy Lai, who will take the stand to defend himself in November over collusion charges, while 45 others such as former student leader Joshua Wong are waiting sentencing on subversion convictions.

Two former editors found guilty for publishing seditious articles will be sentenced also in November, in the first sedition case involving a media outlet since Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule.

  - Bloomberg