News from Civsy, based on human monitoring, generative AI tools and retrieval-augumented real time data searchBetween February 2023 and September 2025, Hong Kong street artist Chan King-fai was arrested and prosecuted three times for the same graffiti design. The image combined Chinese characters for "freedom" with dollar signs, spray-painted across Central, Sheung Wan, Kwai Chung and Sha Tin during 2023. Chan created the design in late 2022, telling the court it symbolized his desire for financial freedom rather than political protest. He was first arrested in February 2023 and received a one-year probation order that December after pleading guilty to 20 counts of criminal damage. In June 2025 he faced 12 additional counts for graffiti in Central and Sheung Wan, receiving a three-week jail sentence suspended for two years. On 6 September 2025, he appeared at West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts for four more counts, again receiving a three-week suspended sentence. Magistrate Andy Cheng noted the cases should have been consolidated, but police discovered the graffiti at different times, resulting in separate prosecutions that totaled 36 charges. Chan represented himself in court.
Contrasting prosecution patterns
Chan's graffiti, which he described as symbolizing financial rather than political freedom, was prosecuted as criminal damage rather than under sedition laws. Hong Kong's first imprisonments under the locally enacted Article 23 Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, which came into force on 23 March 2024, involved overtly political content and resulted in significantly harsher sentences. In September 2024, Chu Kai-pong received 14 months after pleading guilty to wearing a T-shirt reading "Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times" and a mask reading "FDNOL" (Five Demands, Not One Less) on a politically sensitive anniversary date. On the same day, Chung Man-kit was sentenced to 10 months after pleading guilty to bus-seat graffiti including "Liberate Hong Kong" and "Hong Kong independence, the only way out". Both were charged with acting with seditious intention under Article 23, which carries up to seven years' imprisonment. A third defendant, Au Kin-wai, received 14 months after pleading guilty to knowingly publishing seditious content, including social media posts with phrases like "Revolution is no crime, to rebel is justified".
Shifting enforcement landscape
Before the National Security Law was imposed on 30 June 2020, graffiti in Hong Kong was typically prosecuted as criminal damage, often resulting in suspended sentences or probation for first-time offenders. Iconic street calligraphy by the late Tsang Tsou-choi, known as the "King of Kowloon," was tolerated or selectively removed, and graffiti culture operated in a relatively predictable enforcement environment. The National Security Law and Article 23 changed the calculus for street artists. The Home Affairs Department's Central and Western District Office reported removing approximately 150 pieces of graffiti with "explicit political slogans" after 2019, though criteria for determining what counts as political remain opaque.
In July 2024, an 18-year-old was arrested for toilet graffiti containing words that "provoked hatred" against the government, facing sedition charges under national security legislation that carry up to seven years. In December 2025, a 38-year-old tattoo artist received two months for graffitiing "8964," a coded reference to the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, prosecuted as criminal damage rather than sedition.
"we don't know where the redline is, but what we know is art is not a crime".
Legal street art now requires pre-approval from government departments such as Leisure and Cultural Services, eliminating the anonymity and spontaneity that define graffiti culture. Murals approved before 2019 have been painted over after Home Affairs warnings about possible National Security Law violations, though officials rarely specify which provisions might apply. Hong Kong graffiti artist "Mr Wee" told researchers in early 2024 that "we don't know where the redline is, but what we know is art is not a crime". Chan's repeated prosecutions for identical graffiti discovered months apart suggest enforcement follows logistical rather than legal logic, multiplying charges for the same creative act.
References:
Hivos EUSEE Alert - "Hong Kong artist Chan King-fai receives suspended sentence for 'freedom' graffiti" (October 21, 2025)
The Tribune India - "Hong Kong artist sentenced again for Chinese 'freedom' graffiti" (September 11, 2025)
IANS Live - "Hong Kong artist gets suspended jail sentence again over 'freedom' graffiti" (January 29, 2026)
Global Voices Advox - "Hong Kong Article 23: Three jailed over a seditious T-shirt, bus graffiti, social media posts in six months" (September 22, 2024)
Hong Kong Baptist University Journalism - "Graffiti artists risk breaking National Security Law" (January 29, 2024)
Amnesty International - "Hong Kong: T-shirt sedition sentencing shows malice of new national security legislation" (September 19, 2024)
The New Indian Express - "Hong Kong arrests 18-year-old for toilet graffiti, faces seven years in prison" (July 22, 2025)
Time Out Hong Kong - "Historic graffiti by King of Kowloon resurfaces under Mong Kok bridge" (April 4, 2022)
South China Morning Post - "Once called vandalism, graffiti by Hong Kong's 'King of Kowloon' now inspires"
The New York Times - "This Is What Can Land You in Jail for Sedition in Hong Kong" (September 27, 2024)
The Straits Times - "Hong Kong jails third person for sedition under new law" (September 19, 2024)
Brian Kern Kong-tsung Gan (Substack) - "The Persecution of Hong Kongers for Commemorating the Tiananmen Massacre" (May 11, 2025)
Hong Kong Democracy Council (Twitter/X) - Post about 38-year-old sentenced to 2 months in prison (December 3, 2025)
Hong Kong's evolving redline for street art: Same graffiti, three prosecutions
Between 2023-2025, artist Chan King-fai was prosecuted three separate times, 36 charges total, for identical "freedom" graffiti he claims symbolized financial aspirations, not politics. He received suspended sentences.
Compare that to September 2024: Three people received 10-14 months in prison under Article 23 sedition laws for a T-shirt slogan, bus graffiti, and social media posts with overtly political messages.
The contrast reveals how content determines consequences in Hong Kong's post-2020 landscape:
Ambiguous symbols → criminal damage charges
Political slogans → sedition prosecutions (up to 7 years possible)
Artists face an opaque enforcement environment where "we don't know where the redline is," as one graffiti artist told researchers. Pre-2019 murals have been painted over after government warnings, and all legal street art now requires advance approval.
Chan's case shows how identical acts discovered at different times can multiply into dozens of charges—enforcement driven by logistics rather than legal logic.
Read the full analysis on Mimeta
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