On March 13, the officers of the National Security Department arrested two men for allegedly possessing the “Sheep Village” picture book, which was described as an “incitement publication.” The current Senior Superintendent, Steve Li Kwai-wah of the National Security Department, said in July 2021 that possessing a single publication would not lead to criminal liability.
The police never explained clearly how the arrestees broke the law, asking the public to self-censor and questioning whether possession of books such as “Apple Daily,” “1984,” and “Animal Farm” would also break the law.
Some commentators criticized the incident as similar to the incident of burning the Confucian classics and burying alive the Confucian scholars committed by the first Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang….