This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Hong Kong’s Legislative Council on Tuesday passed a strict national security law known as Article 23 that makes treason, insurrection and sabotage punishable by up to life in prison, and that will likely widen an ongoing crackdown on peaceful dissent.
All 89 legislators voted in favor of the Safeguarding National Security bill, which will come into force on Friday, after lining up to sing the praises of the legislation at a special session attended by Chief Executive John Lee.
Critics say the ruling Communist Party has a broad and vaguely defined interpretation of many of the crimes in the bill, and that “national security” charges are already being used to prosecute people for peaceful dissent and political opposition in the city.
The Council has lacked any political opposition since changes to the electoral rules, and many former pro-democracy politicians have fled a crackdown on public dissent under the 2020 National Security Law, while others are on trial for “subversion.”
The law targets five types of offenses. It can punish people for “treason,” “insurrection,” and “sabotage” with life in prison, while those found guilty of “espionage” can face up to 20 years. Those found to have committed crimes linked to “state secrets” and “sedition” face up to 10 years in prison.
The new law also gives new powers to the police and courts to extend pre-charge detention for those held on suspicion of endangering national security to up to 16 days and to restrict detainees’ meetings with their lawyers.
Under the law, the authorities will also have the power to revoke the passports of anyone who flees overseas and is considered an “absconder.”
The legislation is mandated by Article 23 of Hong Kong’s Basic Law, which has provided a constitutional framework for the city since the 1997 handover to Chinese rule.
It was recently rebooted after being shelved following mass popular protests against it in 2003.
Edited by Malcolm Foster and Luisetta Mudie.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Edward Lee for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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As Hong Kong authorities prepare to pass a second national security law, the British government has relaxed some of the immigration rules for people from the city seeking to emigrate to the United Kingdom amid a crackdown on dissent.
The Safeguarding National Security bill, currently before the Legislative Council, includes sentences of up to life imprisonment for treason, insurrection, sabotage and mutiny, and 20 years for espionage.
It can punish people 10 years for crimes linked to “state secrets” and “sedition,” and allow the passports of anyone who flees overseas to be revoked.
The legislation is mandatory under Article 23 of its Basic Law, which has provided a constitutional framework for the city since the 1997 handover to Chinese rule.
It was recently rebooted after being shelved following mass popular protests against it in 2003, and is expected to pass this week.
Critics say the ruling Communist Party has a broad and vaguely defined interpretation of many of the crimes in the bill, and that “national security” charges are already being used to prosecute people for peaceful dissent and political opposition in the city.
Relaxed rules
Now, the U.K. Home Office has relaxed the rules for holders of its British National Overseas, or BNO, passport who wish to apply for a visa.
The visa offers a pathway to resettlement and eventual citizenship, making it easier for them to obtain public assistance if they run out of money, smoothing out bureaucratic bottlenecks and allowing them to bring relatives and dependent adults with them with independent visa status.
In February, the United Kingdom loosened requirements for people wanting to emigrate from Hong Kong with their partner under the BNO route to citizenship. To date, at least 191,000 people have applied to the visa program, according to government figures released in November.
A girl waves farewell to friends as she departs for a permanent move to the U.K. at the Hong Kong airport, June 30, 2021. (Vincent Yu/AP) The moves, while not huge in scope, will likely smooth the path of many families to resettlement in the United Kingdom, an immigration consultant told RFA Cantonese.
An immigration consultant with the British advocacy group Hong Kong Aid who gave only his surname Chow for fear of reprisals said he has seen an uptick in inquiries about the BNO visa since the government announced it would fast-track the new national security law through the legislature.
“My sense is we have been getting a lot more inquiries from Hong Kong about applying for BNO visas and political asylum as the Article 23 [law] has been in process,” Chow said.
“We have been getting a call every couple of days since February,” he said. Public consultation on the law started on Jan. 30.
Chow said he didn’t believe that the rule changes alone were enough to prompt a surge in applications.
A Hong Kong resident who moved to the United Kingdom a few months ago and who gave only the surname Cheung welcomed the rule changes. Now she plans to apply to have her elderly, dependent mother join her.
“It’s definitely very beneficial, because I had been worried about this for a long time,” she said. “She’s very old, and this is about our family’s long-term future and career development. We all think the U.K. is a better place.”
Moves in Canada
Meanwhile, lawmakers in Canada are calling on the government to make sure that they continue to offer priority processing of applications from Hong Kongers wanting to emigrate to the country, and to take steps to ease bureaucratic bottlenecks for more than 100 applicants.
Parliamentarians Melissa Lantsman and Tom Kmiec said they are concerned about the effects of delays “as the human rights situation in Hong Kong continues to deteriorate and Hong Kongers look for a safe way to exit the city by immigrating to Canada.”
“We would like to clarify whether priority processing is still in place as the situation in Hong Kong continues to deteriorate,” they said in a letter to the immigration minister.
Aileen Calverley, co-founder and trustee of the London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch, said many Hong Kongers are being faced with delays in processing their applications to emigrate to Canada.
“It is important that the government uphold its commitment and ensure their applications are processed in a timely manner,” Calverley said in a statement.
Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Cheryl Tung for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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The Hong Kong government, poised to pass its stricter “Article 23” national security law next week, blasted criticism of the bill from rights experts who say it will undermine freedom of religion in the city.
The Safeguarding National Security bill, currently before the Legislative Council, includes sentences of up to life imprisonment for treason, insurrection, sabotage and mutiny, and 20 years for espionage. It can punish people 10 years for crimes linked to “state secrets” and “sedition,” and allow the passports of anyone who flees overseas to be revoked.
Critics say the ruling Communist Party has a broad and vaguely defined interpretation of many of the crimes in the bill, and that “national security crimes” are already being used to prosecute people for peaceful dissent and political opposition.
Hong Kong Justice Secretary Paul Lam warned last week that anyone who hears that another person has committed “treason” but not reported it could be jailed for up to 14 years, once the law takes effect.
This “has grave implications for the confidentiality of Confession in the Catholic Church and other Christian traditions,” according to a letter signed by 16 experts and published by Hong Kong Watch on March 13.
“The new law could force a priest to reveal what has been said in Confession, against his will and conscience and in total violation of the privacy of the individual confession,” the group said.
People attend a Catholic church service in Hong Kong on June 4, 2020. (Dale de la Rey/AFP) A Hong Kong government spokesman said Hong Kong Watch is an “anti-China organization,” and its members were “frontline destabilizing forces.”
He said ordinary citizens were in no danger of committing treason, which he defined as “levying war against China, or instigating a foreign country to invade China with force,” and called their letter a “blatant, shameless and barbaric intervention.”
Advocating for democracy is a crime
Under the “Article 23” legislation, any attempt to push for legislative changes or criticism of the authorities could be regarded as sedition, and any contact with overseas individuals or organizations could be prosecuted as courting foreign interference, the letter said.
Under another clause, “advocating for democracy and the restoration of civil liberties in Hong Kong, anywhere in the world, could now constitute a crime and result in the cancellation of one’s Hong Kong passport,” it said.
Pro-democracy activists shout slogans during a candlelight vigil to protest the national security law in Hong Kong on Feb. 25, 2003. (Vincent Yu/AP) The new law has been rebooted three decades after being shelved following mass protests against it in 2003 and fast-tracked through the legislature in mere days after Chinese officials said it should be completed “as soon as possible” at the National People’s Congress in Beijing last week.
It looks likely to be made law next week.
The experts said that the “vague provisions within the law … open the potential for politically-motivated prosecutions under illegitimate ‘national security’ grounds,” pointing to clauses allowing the extension of detention without charge and the prevention of contact between arrestees and their lawyers.
‘More like mainland China’
Taiwanese national security expert Shih Chien-yu said the legislation will have an indelible impact on Hong Kong, which was once promised the continuation of its traditional rights and freedoms for 50 years after the 1997 handover to Chinese rule.
“The Article 23 legislation basically will make Hong Kong even more like mainland China,” Shih told RFA Cantonese. “The penalties are very heavy, mostly more than three years.”
Shih predicted that many businesspeople will leave Hong Kong because of it.
Lawmakers completed their detailed review of the bill on Thursday, adding in a strengthened supervisory role for the Committee for Safeguarding National Security, which is itself under the direct supervision of the central government in Beijing.
London-based rights group Amnesty International called on the government to “step back from the brink” and halt the legislation. Hong Kong “is now taking repression to the next level,” the group’s China Director Sarah Brooks said in a March 8 statement.
“The apparent overarching purpose of Article 23 is to stifle any and all criticism of the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities and their policies, within the city and globally,” she said.
Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Gigi Lee, Alice Yam and Cheryl Tung for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Calls are growing for authorities in Hong Kong to release Lai Ke, a transgender activist from China who now faces repatriation after being jailed while transiting the city en route to Canada, her supporters and a rights group said in online statements.
Lai, who is also known as Xiran, was hauled in for questioning while transiting Hong Kong International Airport en route from Shanghai to Toronto in May 2023, and later handed a 15-month jail term for “forging” her travel documents at a secret trial with no lawyer present, according to her supporters.
As is Hong Kong’s policy for trans inmates, she served her sentence at the Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre, a psychiatric detention center, and was released early for good behavior on March 2.
But instead of being released, Lai was immediately transferred to the Castle Peak Bay Immigration Detention Centre, sparking fears among her supporters and rights groups that she will be sent back to China, according to the X account @FreeLaiKe.
If she is forcibly repatriated, Lai will be “at grave risk of persecution,” Amnesty International has warned.
“The Hong Kong authorities must urgently clarify Lai Ke’s pending immigration status,” Amnesty International’s China Director Sarah Brooks said in a statement dated March 1. “As she is due to be released after serving her sentence, authorities must free her without conditions and allow her to travel onwards to a destination feasible for her.”
“In any event, the authorities must allow Lai Ke to legally challenge any deportation order following her release after serving her sentence,” Brooks said.
Mistreated in detention
Lai’s supporters say that she had been a vocal advocate for trans rights back in China alongside her partner Cai Xia, who was detained by the Chinese authorities in June 2023 in connection with her activism and her transgender identity, and accused of “organizing obscene activities.”
The Lai Ke (Xiran) Global Concern Group, which has been actively posting about her situation on Twitter and Instagram, said Lai had also been mistreated while in detention in Hong Kong, saying guards deprived her of her hormone medication, put her in solitary for a week calling her an “alien,” and forced her to cut her hair short.
The group said Lai had suffered physically and psychologically after being deprived of her hormone replacement therapy for two months, despite having the medication in her luggage.
“Throughout her detention, Lai Ke repeatedly requested access to hormone medication, only to have these requests denied on various pretexts,” it said in a statement dated Feb. 27.
“As a result, Lai Ke was forced to cease hormone replacement therapy medication for nearly two months, leading to severe physical and psychological repercussions, including instances of self-harm,” it said.
Her parents weren’t informed of her whereabouts until July 19, 2023, and the authorities initially claimed that there was no record of Lai having entered Hong Kong, the group claimed in the statement, which RFA was unable to verify independently.
It accused the Hong Kong authorities of “complicity” in the Chinese government’s persecution of trans people.
Supporters of LGBTQ rights walk under a flag at the Rainbow Market in Hong Kong following the cancellation of the annual pride parade for the second year in a row due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nov. 13, 2021. (Lam Yik/Reuters) 
The group also posted a letter handwritten by Lai in classical Chinese, an archaic form of the written language used by premodern writers, in which she complains about her treatment.
It said earlier attempts by Lai to write about her experiences in the detention center were censored by detention center authorities.
‘Time is of the essence’
According to Amnesty International, Lai is vulnerable to repatriation under Hong Kong immigration law, because she isn’t a resident of the city.
“Time is of the essence to prevent Lai Ke from being unlawfully deported to mainland China, where she would be at grave risk of serious human rights violations – including arbitrary detention, unfair trial, and even torture and other ill-treatment – due to both her transgender identity and her activism,” Brooks said.
“To return her given these risks would be an abandonment of Hong Kong’s obligations under international law,” she said.
Amnesty International said it has documented systematic oppression and discrimination of transgender people in China, as well as large-scale censorship in recent years leading to the closure of online lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex groups and social media accounts.
It said police in China have repeatedly arrested, detained and imprisoned human rights defenders of all kinds using “unjustified, broadly defined and vaguely worded charges.”
Hong Kong Catholic priest and rights activist Franco Mella said that trans inmates are typically held in Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre, but that the final decision over whether to continue hormone treatment lies with the center’s doctor.
“Any medications need to be discussed with the doctor — who can approve them but can also not approve them,” Mella said. “It’s the doctor’s decision.”
He said it was unclear how long Lai might be held at the Castle Peak detention center.
“Once you go in there, there’s no way of knowing when you’ll be released,” he said.
Crackdowns on LGBTQ+ community
LGBTQ+ activism is all but extinct in China, where the ruling Chinese Communist Party under Xi Jinping has cracked down on anyone displaying the rainbow flag in public, members of China’s LGBTQ+ community told Radio Free Asia in interviews in January.
In August 2023, Chinese officials removed an LGBTQ+ anthem titled “Rainbow” by Taiwanese pop star A-Mei from her set list from a concert earlier this month in Beijing, while security guards forced fans turning up for the gig to remove clothing and other paraphernalia bearing the rainbow symbol before going in, according to media reports.
A month after that crackdown, authorities in the central Chinese city of Changsha removed the song “Womxnly” – which commemorates a Taiwanese teenager who was found dead in a school toilet after being bullied by classmates for his “feminine” appearance – from the set list of Taiwanese pop star Jolin Tsai, after it became an anthem for the island’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual and questioning community.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Chi Chun Lee for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Zhang Xiaoming, Beijing’s outspoken former representative in Hong Kong at the time of the 2019 protest movement, has been removed from his post at a political advisory body.
While state broadcaster CCTV reported that Zhang has been removed from the post of deputy secretary general of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, it was unclear whether he is accused of any wrongdoing.
State media continued on Monday to refer to Zhang as “comrade,” indicating that he remains a Communist Party member.
CCTV gave no reason for Zhang’s removal at the age of 61, four years short of the official retirement age of 65, and he remains a rank-and-file member of the Conference, appearing on the rostrum during Monday’s opening ceremony.
Several pro-China figures in Hong Kong declined to comment on Zhang’s departure when contacted by RFA Cantonese on Sunday.
However, political sources cited by the Singapore-based pro-China Lianhe Zaobao newspaper said Zhang could be on his way to another job, rather than being fired in some kind of disgrace.
China’s government has removed a number of ministerial-level officials from their posts in recent months without explanation, including former foreign minister Qin Gang and former defense minister Li Shangfu.
Hardliner
In Hong Kong, Zhang is largely remembered as a hardliner who flagged a number of repressive policies shortly before they were implemented. He was apparently sidelined in favor of Xia Baolong in 2020, possibly to take the fall for the 2019 protest movement.
In 2013, Zhang said a march demanding fully democratic elections proved that the freedoms guaranteed under the handover agreement were still intact.
Zhang Xiaoming, center, head of the city’s Beijing liaison, arrives for a luncheon with Hong Kong Legislative Council members and Beijing officials in Hong Kong on July 16, 2013. (Philippe Lopez/AFP) He made local headlines during the Occupy Central pro-democracy movement of 2014 when he seemed to minimize the importance of the civil disobedience campaign for universal suffrage, by saying: “The sun is still going to rise.”
In September 2015, Zhang ruffled feathers with an early warning that the powers of the city’s chief executive would always trump those of the legislature and judiciary and that the separation of powers “does not suit Hong Kong.”
Limits to free speech
By 2016 he was condemning the “fishball revolution” protests in Mong Kok as being “close to terrorism,” and warning that anyone who espoused independence for the city should be barred from running in elections — a policy that was later implemented by city officials.
He also warned in the same year that there were “limits” to the free speech that Hong Kong was promised under the terms of its 1997 handover to Chinese rule.
By 2017, Zhang had been promoted to head the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office in Beijing, replacing Wang Guangya in the job. He was therefore the most senior Chinese government official in charge of Hong Kong affairs when the city was rocked by the anti-extradition movement, which broadened to include calls for fully democratic elections.
In 2019, he characterized the anti-extradition movement as “chaos and violence,” saying it was an attempt to foment a “color revolution,” or regime change, in Hong Kong.
Despite being demoted to deputy director with the appointment of Xia Baolong as director in 2020, Zhang continued to speak loudly against opposition politicians, saying they were “anti-China, disruptive elements” who should be excluded from public office, heralding changes to election rules that eliminated pro-democracy candidates from both legislative and district-level elections.
“It is only natural to demand that those who govern Hong Kong must be patriots,” Zhang said, adding: “Those who oppose China in order to create chaos in Hong Kong need to get out.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Tim Lee for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Hong Kong security chief Chris Tang has lashed out at the London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch after it issued a statement signed by 86 groups saying that forthcoming security legislation would have “devastating consequences” for human rights in the city.
The new legislation, called Article 23, criminalizes treason, insurrection, the theft of state secrets and other national security offenses. It is billed by the government as a way to close “loopholes” in the already stringent 2020 National Security Law.
But Hong Kong Watch and the other groups said the definitions of such crimes were vague in the bill, and would criminalize people’s peaceful exercise of their human rights.
“The proposed law includes a number of procedural changes that will dramatically undermine the Hong Kong people’s due process and fair trial rights,” said joint statement signed by 86 organizations.
“The introduction of Article 23 will bring further devastating consequences for human rights beyond those brought by the National Security Law when it was imposed by Beijing in 2020,” said the statement, which called on governments to publicly oppose the law, and for those responsible to be sanctioned.
“The last time the authorities attempted to introduce Article 23 in 2003, over 500,000 Hong Kongers took to the streets in protests with the plans abandoned,” the statement said, adding:” But now they can no longer speak out against it.”
The bill is highly likely to be passed by the Legislative Council now that electoral rules have been changed to allow only “patriots” to run for election.
‘Slander and intimidation’
Tang, who has previously claimed that recent waves of mass popular pro-democracy movements in recent years were the work of “foreign forces” operating in Hong Kong, criticized Hong Kong Watch for using “gangster tactics.”
Tang told a news conference in Hong Kong on Monday that most of the groups that signed the letter, which include Freedom House, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, Hongkongers in Britain, Human Rights Watch and the Index on Censorship, were “anti-China organizations seeking to disrupt Hong Kong.”
Demonstrators in Hong Kong with tape over their mouths protest the city government’s anti-subversion bill, Feb. 14, 2003. (Anat Givon/AP) He accused “anti-China and anti-Hong Kong” organizations of “slander, intimidation … wrong, misleading and making something out of nothing,” after they criticized the planned law, which analysts have warned will broaden the definition of what is a “national security” matter still further.
“These comments are slander and intimidation by external forces who want to endanger our national security,” he said, brushing aside the possibility of further sanctions on Hong Kong officials.
“The more you sanction us, the more it appears that we’re doing the right thing,” Tang said, likening the law to putting in “doors and windows to prevent burglaries,” and accusing the groups who signed the statement of “gangster” tactics.
Tang accused Radio Free Asia of reporting what he described as “false” criticism that the new law would target media organizations. He called the media outlet a “foreign force” that was misleading the people of Hong Kong.
He said only those who “deliberately” set out to slander the government could be liable under the planned law.
RFA, funded by the U.S. Congress to provide independent news in countries that lack a free press, has not publicly responded to Tang’s comments.
Hong Kong’s Secretary for Justice Paul Lam, left, Chief Executive John Lee, center, and Secretary for Security Chris Tang attend a press conference on Article 23 in Hong Kong, Jan. 30, 2024. (Lam Yik/Reuters) Tang said the public response to the Article 23 legislation had been welcoming, and that claims that the new law would boost police powers to detain people at will were “attempts to intimidate the people of Hong Kong.”
“I believe that our friends in the media will not endanger national security,” he said, in response to concerns that media organizations could be targeted under the law for platforming views deemed a threat to national security.
Chief Executive John Lee said on Tuesday that his administration will seek to pass the new law as soon as possible.
“Our work on legislation under Article 23 of the Basic Law will be advanced at full speed,” Lee said. “The government will move forward, and I believe that the Legislative Council will fulfill their constitutional responsibilities in this regard as soon as possible.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Alice Yam for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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The popular Japanese dance group Avantgardey has ignited the wrath of Hong Kong people with a performance of a popular Chinese dance move.
Avantgardey, a finale performer for the Lunar New Year night parade event organized by the Hong Kong government, had posted photos and videos of the group’s activities across the city, including footage of the group performing the dance kemusan, also known as “subject 3” dance.The post was taken offline an hour after it was uploaded on Wednesday.
The subject 3 dance originated from China’s southwest Guangxi autonomous region, with a signature footwork where the ankle is turned outward to rest weight on the side of the foot, creating a loose-limbed form. The move is repeated throughout the routine with the dancer alternating their feet alongside exaggerated hand gestures. It has gone viral on both TikTok and its Chinese version Douyin.
The video turned many Hong Kong citizens off on the back of rapid sinicization embraced by the local authorities, as well as triggered a spate of criticisms online. Hongkongers in Japan pointed out that Hong Kong people hated China’s “vulgar culture” and the dance was a reflection of that.
The critics also pointed out that Japanese people see Hong Kong as China, which touches Hong Kong people’s raw nerve.
Hong Kong netizens’ responses were underlined with sarcasm, criticizing that “everything popular in mainland China is very cliché,” the subject 3 routine “lowers one’s values,” and in an apparent dig at Avantgardey, “the RMB [Chinese currency] is so fragrant,” tagged with the reminder, “please, this is Hong Kong!”
Cultural conflict
Sam Yip, a former Hong Kong district councilor and now a graduate student at the University of Tokyo, pointed out that Avantgardey had also made remarks that baffled Hong Kong people, such as wanting to cooperate with Jackie Chan. Such comments showed they are out of touch with Hong Kong, and did not consider the China-Hong Kong cultural conflict, which led to this incident.
“Jackie Chan’s popularity in Hong Kong is not great now. It is obvious that the girl group and their manager are out of touch with what kind of culture and idols Hong Kong people accept. They didn’t expect Hong Kong and Taiwanese people to be repulsed by ‘subject 3’.”
A night market in Taipei issued a public apology last month for causing “trouble” after receiving backlash over organizing a competition based on the “subject 3” dance. The event post online drew criticism centered around suspicions that the dance was being used as a propaganda ploy by the Chinese government to brainwash Taiwanese youths. The event went ahead at the end of January.
Yip added that even though there are anti-China sentiments in Japan, the Japanese people who view Hong Kong as China, are generally insensitive to Chinese cultural invasion.
Meanwhile, another Avantgardey New Year greeting video featuring Hong Kong metaphysician Mak Ling Ling with the “subject 3” dance tune in the background was not deleted. In an interview, Mak said as Avantgardey wanted to enter the Chinese market, she suggested using the tune as background music for the greeting video.
To regain lost ground, Avantgardey released on Thursday a video of the group dancing to legendary Hong Kong singer Sam Hui’s song, “Legend of the Sparrow Heroes.”
Avantgardey from Osaka, Japan was formed in 2022 and it is known for its unique dance style, neat dance steps and exaggerated expressions. The average age of the 19 members is 21 years old. They became famous overnight after participating in the “America’s Got Talent” show last year, where their performance has been viewed more than 5 million times on YouTube.
Translated with additional reporting by RFA Staff. Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Alice Yam for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Hong Kong will add thousands of surveillance cameras on the streets and could use facial recognition to track the movements of residents, sparking concerns of totalitarian monitoring of citizens’ every move amid an ongoing crackdown on public dissent.
Police Commissioner Raymond Siu said plans are already under way to install some 2,000 additional surveillance cameras in public places “to prevent crime, monitor public safety and public order,” government broadcaster RTHK reported, citing comments made by Siu on one of its talk shows.
That figure will likely just be the start, Siu said, adding that more cameras will likely need to be installed.
The move comes amid an ongoing crackdown on public protest, peaceful activism and freedom of speech in Hong Kong in the wake of the 2019 democracy movement. Thousands have been arrested on public order charges and hundreds under the 2020 National Security Law, which bans criticism of the authorities or references to the protests.
Hong Kong Police Commissioner Raymond Siu attends a press conference at police headquarters in Hong Kong, Feb. 6, 2024. (Li Zhihua/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images) As early as 2019, protesters were damaging and toppling controversial “smart lampposts” that had been newly installed in the city, saying their specification included facial recognition functions, although officials said at the time they hadn’t been activated.
More than 600 cameras will be installed as early as March, in addition to CCTV networks already installed in public housing estates and government cultural and leisure facilities, Siu said.
No need to worry
He said the use of facial recognition technology to track people caught by the cameras was also likely in future.
“We are still in the preparation phase, but we will not rule out the possibility [of using facial recognition] as technological advancements can definitely help us be more effective in law enforcement and other areas,” Siu said in comments also reported by the South China Morning Post newspaper.
“Citizens do not have to worry. Police will make use of these technologies to combat crimes, but we will do so lawfully,” he said.
There is also concern that a massive network of 5G networked bodycams increasingly worn by police officers in the city could result in a facial recognition system similar to China’s, according to opposition politicians, sparking fears that the city will soon be subject to totalitarian monitoring.
Riot police wear helmet cameras on China’s National Day in Hong Kong, Oct. 1, 2020. (Kin Cheung/AP) Exiled former pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui said the cameras were more likely to be used to target political suspects rather than street criminals, however.
“The Hong Kong police have been focused on preventing political crimes over the past four years,” Hui said, adding that he expects to see cameras installed at former protest hotspots like Victoria Park, Causeway Bay, the Legislative Council and government headquarters.
“They could also use them outside of court buildings when political cases are being heard to record the details of people attending sporadic and spontaneous protests, then using the information to settle scores later on,” he said. “This is the most worrying thing.”
Article 23
Just installing cameras in locations like the subway could scoop up vast amounts of information, given the density of Hong Kong’s population, said Alric Lee, Executive Director of the Japan Hong Kong Democracy Alliance.
He said the cameras, combined with a suite of new “national security” offenses in forthcoming Article 23 legislation, could enable police to keep tabs on people remotely.
“While the police normally don’t have the manpower to keep tabs on everyone, with a system like this they can use big data to identify key figures,” Lee said. “Cameras with facial recognition in MTR stations alone would collect data on a huge number of people.”
“Used in conjunction with the Article 23 legislation, it could become a new tool for prosecutions,” he said.
People gather at the Dahua Technology booth during the China Public Security Expo in Shenzhen, China, Oct. 29, 2019. The AI in cameras made by Dahua Technology appears to be explicitly aimed at quelling protests, says a U.S.-based surveillance research company that first reported the technology’s existence. (Andy Wong/AP) Taiwanese national security researcher Shih Chien-yu said large numbers of surveillance cameras in Hong Kong raise concerns that the city could become as heavily monitored as China’s northwestern Xinjiang region.
“Beijing knows that it hasn’t convinced many in Hong Kong, and people will worry about Xinjiangization,” Shih said. “These cameras can rotate through 360 degrees and the use of AI technology will then basically cover all groups of people and all kinds of activities.”
“There is a strong symbolic message here, which is to warn Hong Kongers to stop thinking about democracy, or about rising up, resisting or speaking out,” he said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Chen Zifei for RFA Mandarin.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Feeling snubbed, Chinese state media and Hong Kong politicians have lashed out at Argentine soccer superstar Lionel Messi for playing in a match in Tokyo three days after sitting out a much-anticipated game in Hong Kong with a groin injury.
“Hong Kong people hate Messi, Inter-Miami, and the black hand behind them, for the deliberate and calculated snub to Hong Kong,” senior Chinese government adviser and former Hong Kong lawmaker Regina Ip said via her X account, referring to Messi’s U.S. club.
“Messi should never be allowed to return to Hong Kong,” she posted. “His lies and hypocrisy are disgusting.”
The Communist Party-backed Wen Wei Po said in an editorial that Messi’s non-appearance was “premeditated manipulation,” asking if there was a “huge and mysterious mastermind” behind the incident.
The Ta Kung Pao, also backed by the party, went so far as to speculate that there may be a link between Inter Miami and the CIA. In a front-page article, it claimed that the father of the club’s founders Jorge and Jose Mas was Cuban exile Jorge Lincoln Mas Canosa, who “fled to Miami in 1960 and worked extensively with the CIA.”
Some people also claimed that Messi deliberately avoided shaking the hand of Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee after the match.
— LLF (@laligafrauds) February 5, 2024
A Chinese man flykicks Messi’s head off a poster. Don’t believe what the media say, Messi is NOT wanted in Hong Kong! pic.twitter.com/bKDHRWgY9CApology… to no avail
Messi apologized to fans in a post on the Chinese social media platform Weibo on Wednesday, saying he sat out the match due to a “swollen and painful” groin injury.
“Anyone who knows me knows that I always want to play… especially in these games where we travel so far and people are excited to see our games. Hopefully we can come back and play a game in Hong Kong,” he wrote in Chinese and Spanish.
But China’s nationalistic newspaper the Global Times, which has close ties to ruling Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily, said that wasn’t enough.
It wanted to know why he had managed to play for 30 minutes in Tokyo on Wednesday night, suggesting that a March fixture between China and Argentina could now be in jeopardy.
Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi, left, looks on from the bench during the friendly match between Hong Kong XI and Inter Miami in Hong Kong on Feb. 4, 2024. (Peter Parks/AFP) In a front page op-ed piece, the paper said it hoped for a “reasonable explanation” from Messi before he takes part in two scheduled fixtures for Argentina in China in March.
“The disappointment of the [Hong Kong] government and the fans is entirely understandable. The impact of this incident has far exceeded the realm of sports,” it said of the match, in which 38,000 fans turned up to see Messi play, with some booing when it became obvious that wouldn’t happen.
“Anyone who deviates from the original intention of this sport, regardless of their motive, will not achieve good results,” it said.
Chinese footballer Xu Zexin followed up with a Weibo post claiming that the Chinese Football Association had “suspended cooperation with the Argentinian Football Association” over the incident.
“It is understood that @Chinese_Football_Association has suspended relevant cooperation with the Argentine Football Association, including the Argentine national team,” Xu wrote.
“At the same time, the Chinese Football Association has deleted all news about Lionel Messi from its official website,” he said, adding that there had been several items on the site before.
However, a Google search for Messi’s Chinese name on the site turned up several articles about the player.
Xu also claimed in his post that “Argentina’s trip to China in March is likely to be canceled.”
Demanding explanations
Hong Kong officials have demanded an explanation from match organizers, who have since withdrawn an application for a government grant linked to the match, Lee, the Hong Kong chief, told reporters on Feb. 6.
Lee also appeared to suggest that the government wasn’t fully familiar with the full details of the contractual agreements for the match that were in force between promoters Tatler Asia and U.S.-based pro soccer team Inter Miami.
“While the organizer has … withdrawn the application for the subsidy for the sponsorship, they still have the responsibility to explain to members of the public, particularly those who have bought tickets to get into the stadium to watch the match,” Lee said.
The Hong Kong government’s Major Sporting Events Committee website touted Lionel Messi in its promotion of the match between Miami and Hong Kong. (Major Sporting Events Committee) “It is their responsibility … to answer to the disappointment of all the audience there, in particular, those young children who were there with full passion and hope.”
“We will keep on urging the organizer to explain to the public in detail what actually happened, what were the details of the agreement between them and the team,” Lee added.
Joseph Ngan, former assistant controller at Hong Kong’s i-CABLE News, told the RFA Cantonese financial talk show “Speak Freely” that the government had “mishandled” the arrangements for the match.
“This was to have been an event funded by [the government], we can see their negligence throughout the entire approval process, the way officials handled it,” Ngan said. “Especially now that [Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism] Kevin Yeung has broken the news that the government itself didn’t fully understand the terms of the contract between Tatler Asia and Inter Miami.”
“It’s ridiculous,” Ngan said, in a reference to earlier comments from Yeung to a Hong Kong radio station, and a report by broadcast CNBC alleging that the entire funding application was rushed, condensed from what is normally a six-month process to a few weeks.
45-minute commitment
According to Yeung, the organizers had committed to have Messi play for at least 45 minutes, or half of the 90-minute match, during the fixture, but that they had only submitted “preliminary details” of the contractual agreements between all parties during their application for government funding.
“The other party provided preliminary information but the details consisted of sensitive business information, so we didn’t need to know the details of every item,” Yeung said.
A junk bearing an image of Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi sails across Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour on Feb. 2, 2024. (Peter Parks/AFP) Hong Kong’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau said in a later statement that it was very disappointed that Messi could not play in Hong Kong due to injury, but pointed to his participation in a similar match against Japan’s Vissel Kobe in Tokyo on Wednesday
“Three days later, Messi was able to play actively and freely in Japan … the government hopes the organizers and teams can provide reasonable explanations,” the department said in comments reported by Reuters.
Comments on Reddit under the viral video of Messi sidling away as players lined up to receive post-match medals from Lee suggested he could have been making a political point in the wake of a widespread crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong.
But other comments pointed out that Lee was shaking the hands of players and handing out medals to those who took part in the match, and that it was natural for Messi not to be among them, as he didn’t actually play.
Hong Kong current affairs commentator Sang Pu said it was possible that Messi’s actions in Hong Kong were politically motivated, pointing to attempts in 2017 to send a signed photo of Messi to Liu Xia, wife of late Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, while she was under house arrest at the couple’s home in Beijing.
But he said Messi may have felt unable to make any public criticisms while on tour with Inter Miami.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by .This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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New national security legislation will make it harder for detained suspects to meet with their lawyers and could target journalists and media organizations for interviewing them, Hong Kong officials have revealed in recent comments aired by a pro-China broadcaster.
Suspects in national security cases, who are typically people who have opposed the government via their public speech or peaceful actions, could be seeking to stay in touch with “accomplices,” by requesting to see their lawyer, who might also be a member of their “group,” Secretary for Justice Paul Lam told TVB’s “Speak Clearly” talk show at the weekend.
“As a result, they could continue with activities that endanger national security under the guise of seeing a lawyer,” said Lam, whose government launched a public consultation on the new law, which the city is obliged to enact under Article 23 of its Basic Law, its mini-constitution since the 1997 handover to Chinese rule.
The Article 23 legislation was recently rebooted following a 20-year hiatus in the wake of mass popular protests, and is being billed by the government as a way to close “loopholes” in the already stringent 2020 National Security Law, which was imposed on the city by Beijing in response to the 2019 protest movement.
The Safeguarding National Security Ordinance – which will criminalize “treason,” “insurrection,” the theft of “state secrets,” “sabotage” and “external interference,” among other national security offenses – is highly likely to be passed by the Legislative Council now that electoral rules have been changed to allow only “patriots” to run for election.
Lam also warned of tougher penalties for media organizations that interview people wanted by the Hong Kong government.
“They could be seen as providing a platform and aiding and abetting them,” he warned, calling on the media to be “careful.”
Hong Kong democracy activist Agnes Chow, who is now on the city’s wanted list, speaks from Toronto during an online interview with AFP on Dec. 5, 2023. Secretary for Justice Lam has warned of tougher penalties for media organizations that interview people wanted by the government. (Su Xinqi/AFPTV/AFP) Hong Kong has already plummeted in press freedom and overall freedom indexes since launching a post-2019 crackdown on dissent, and has placed a number of high-profile journalists including Next Digital mogul Jimmy Lai on trial for “national security” offenses linked to newspaper articles.
The new legislation could also target people deemed to be using too confrontational a “tone” to criticize the government in public life, Secretary for Security Chris Tang told the show.
“You can criticize the government, but if you keep repeating yourself and spicing it up, using your tone of voice for example to deliberately stir up people’s emotions, that could be regarded as inciting hatred [of the authorities],” Tang warned, but said that would only happen in cases where there was “criminal intent.”
‘Intimidation on a huge scale’
Current affairs commentator Sang Pu, who is also a lawyer, said that such assurances can’t be trusted, however.
“The Hong Kong government, the national security police and the Department of Justice have very loose criteria for determining criminal intent,” Sang said. “Basically, there is criminal intent if they say there is.”
“A lot of people will come under that definition, which will be extended [under this legislation],” he said.
He said the new law could spell the end of independent political commentary about the city, even beyond its borders, as overseas commentators still have friends and family back home who could be put under greater pressure as a result of their comments.
“This is intimidation on a huge scale, and is totally designed to eliminate any voice that tries to provide oversight of the government.”
Secretary for Justice Paul Lam attends a ceremony to mark the beginning of the new legal year in Hong Kong on Jan. 16, 2023. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters) To Yiu-ming, a former assistant journalism professor at Hong Kong’s Baptist University, agreed, saying that officials are clearly targeting political commentators, exiled and wanted Hong Kong activists, media organizations and journalists.
“This is clearly about political law enforcement,” To said. “The Hong Kong government doesn’t want the voices of exiles and wanted activists to be heard back in Hong Kong.”
“It’s being done so as to allow law enforcement agencies to have the option, if needed, to cause trouble for certain reporters they don’t like and prevent them from doing their jobs,” he said.
Eric Lai, research fellow at the Asian Law Center at Georgetown University, said that while the consultation document isn’t a final draft, the details revealed so far suggest that the media is a major target of the law.
“The Article 23 legislation incorporates some elements of the [planned] fake news law into its text,” Lai said.
“According to the consultation document, if you interview people wanted [by the authorities], or publish some remarks that are considered to endanger national security, you could be prosecuted,” he said.
“The devil is in the details,” he said. “If all of these provisions are included [in the final draft], it will certainly have a huge impact on press freedom.”
‘More stringent’ than the mainland
Patrick Poon, human rights researcher currently at the University of Tokyo, said that even mainland Chinese law hasn’t banned overseas news organizations from interviewing its dissidents overseas.
“People inside China face the biggest pressures and the highest risks if they give interviews to foreign journalists,” Poon said. “[Now], it could be risky for foreign journalists to interview people in exile, which is even more stringent than some of the practices in mainland China.”
He said the potential restrictions on allowing meetings with a national security detainee’s lawyer is a violation of international law and human rights standards.
He said the Hong Kong authorities wouldn’t be able to guarantee a fair trial to suspects under such an arrangement.
State news agency Xinhua hit out at the criticism of the Article 23 legislation in a Feb. 3 commentary, describing critics of the law as “ants on a hotpot.”
“They’re falling over each other to attack and smear [this] legislation,” the article said. “People who love China and Hong Kong won’t feel the slightest bit worried … [but] will support its completion as soon as possible.”
It accused “anti-China and disruptive elements in Hong Kong” of “seriously undermining Hong Kong’s stability and endangering national security,” warning that they will face prosecution and prison as a result.
“These anti-China disruptors in Hong Kong do not want to be upright Chinese people, but want to be slave-dogs driven by the enemy,” the article said, warning that the new law will make them into “homeless dogs” without “foreign masters” to rely on.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Chen Zifei for RFA Mandarin, Tim Lee for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Taipei, February 1, 2024— A Hong Kong court found journalists Wong Ka-ho and Ma Kai-chung guilty of unlawfully entering the legislative council on July 1, 2019, during a protest where demonstrators stormed the parliament in opposition to an extradition bill that would have allowed authorities to send Hong Kong citizens to mainland China for trial, according to news reports.
Hong Kong authorities should drop the charges, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday, and allow journalists to report freely without fear.
At the time of the incident, Wong was reporting for a student publication at the City University of Hong Kong, while Ma worked as a reporter for the newspaper and online news website Passion Times.
The two were charged with rioting and unlawfully entering the legislative council along with 11 other co-defendants. Both Wong and Ma pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to Passion Times and a copy of the verdict reviewed by CPJ.
Authorities released the journalists on bail Thursday pending sentencing, according to those reports. They face a potential fine of 2,000 Hong Kong dollars (USD $255) and up to 3 months imprisonment, according to the city’s Legislative Council Ordinance.
“The verdict today contradicts the freedom of the press that Hong Kong authorities have repeatedly assured, and unfortunately, it could serve as a bellwether for future cases involving journalists covering significant events,” said Iris Hsu, CPJ’s China representative. “Journalists must be free to report on civil unrest without fear of being prosecuted.”
Hong Kong Journalists Association released a statement calling the verdict “unreasonable,” saying that it disregards the freedom of the press that is guaranteed by law.
CPJ was unable to confirm whether the journalists plan to appeal.
The Hong Kong Police Force did not immediately respond to CPJ’s email requesting comment.
China is the world’s worst jailer of journalists, according to CPJ’s annual prison census, with at least 44 journalists in prison for their work as of December 1, 2023.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Hong Kong on Tuesday revealed details of fresh national security legislation aimed at wiping out “undercurrents” of dissent and support for democracy among the city’s own population, as well as espionage by the CIA and British intelligence services, officials said.
More than 20 years after similar legislation was stalled following mass protests, the government introduced its Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, which will criminalize “treason,” “insurrection,” the theft of “state secrets,” “sabotage” and “external interference,” among other national security offenses.
“While the society as a whole may appear calm and very safe, we still have to watch out for potential sabotage and undercurrents that try to create trouble,” Chief Executive John Lee told a news conference launching a public consultation process on Tuesday.
“Some of the independent Hong Kong ideas are still … embedded in some people’s minds, and some foreign agents may still be active in Hong Kong, and they may be conducting their activities in a deceptive way,” he said.
“Everyone knows that there are Western countries that target our country’s security development and also target China for personal political reasons,” Lee said, adding that “foreign agents and Hong Kong independence are still lurking in Hong Kong.”
While the city is still in the throes of a crackdown on dissent sparked by the imposition of Beijing’s National Security Law in 2020, it has a duty under its own Basic Law to enact its own national security legislation, which has been shelved since 2003.
Riot in Hong Kong police detain a protester during a demonstration against Beijing’s national security legislation, May 24, 2020. (Vincent Yu/AP)
Legal experts said many of the concepts, such as what constitutes “treason” or a “state secret” are vague, but that they basically mirror similar concepts in China’s own National Security Law.
Eric Lai, a researcher at the Asian Law Center at Georgetown University said the draft law essentially transfers a number of concepts previously only used in a Chinese legal context to Hong Kong.
“The Hong Kong government has officially incorporated mainland China’s National Security Law and its overall national security concepts into local law,” Li told RFA.
“The content about counterintelligence crimes is in line with the mainland’s counter-intelligence law, and the definition of a state secret is in line with that of the mainland,” he said.
More danger than protection
Benedict Rogers, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of the London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch, said Beijing is continuing to “blur the lines” between the legal systems of mainland China and Hong Kong.
“This legislation would be a further death knell to Hong Kong’s fundamental freedoms and human rights which are guaranteed under international law,” he said in a statement on the group’s website.
“Article 23 [legislation] would not protect, but gravely endanger, Hong Kongers, including those who now live outside Hong Kong, in the UK, US, Canada and across the EU,” Rogers warned, calling on the British government to impose sanctions on John Lee.
“The law … has the potential to harm millions of Hong Kongers in the city and abroad,” he said.
Georgetown’s Eric Lai also noted that information relating to “economic and social development” will be regarded as a state secret under the new law, not just confidential government information. Authorities in China have recently targeted foreign consultancies and alleged spies under a newly amended Counterespionage Law that has been criticized by foreign investors.
He said that the law, which looks almost certain to be passed amid a lack of political opposition in the Legislative Council, will likely affect business confidence in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee, center, Secretary for Justice Paul Lam, left, and Secretary for Security Chris Tang hold a press conference at government headquarters in Hong Kong on Jan. 30, 2024. (Peter Parks/AFP)
Edward Chin, a senior hedge fund manager in Hong Kong, warned that the business community may “vote with their feet.”
“[They might be] looking for locations with a reasonable business environment and sound rule of law, as opposed to common law with Chinese characteristics, which is what they’ve turned Hong Kong’s original system into,” Chin told the RFA Cantonese talk show “Financial Freedom.”
“I think everyone has a bottom line, and I think there is a good chance of foreign capital divesting again,” he said.
Po Kong Ngan, former assistant controller at i-CABLE News, told the show that the consultation document mentions a number of “computer” crimes, which could encompass even such actions as leaving a comment on YouTube or Facebook.
“Will they be prosecuted or targeted for this?” Ngan said, citing a potential scenario in which the government gets nervous over large numbers of critical comments on YouTube or Facebook, which it is unable to have taken down.
“I think these organizations will be very worried about the safety of their employees in Hong Kong.”
‘External forces’
Meanwhile, Eric Lai said the law in particular lists activities by foreign political entities, including human rights groups and non-government organizations, as “interference,” without defining what “external forces” actually means.
The effect will be to cut the city off from ties with international organizations and groups, he said.
Chief Executive Lee said the law was a necessary “defensive” measure, however.
“The new law aims to create a stable and safe environment so that when people attack us, we will be protected,” he told reporters. “This is a law to tell people not to attack us. It is, in a way, a defensive law. I hope people will see the law and know that they may try somewhere else rather than Hong Kong.”
Rwei-ren Wu, an associate research fellow and history professor at Taiwan’s Academia Sinica, said the law doesn’t appear to be very necessary at all, however.
“It’s a bit like taking off your pants to fart, if I may use a crude expression,” Wu told RFA. “Isn’t the current legislation tight enough?”
Wu said the Chinese Communist Party feels it has to clamp down even harder on any potential threats to its rule, as it feels threatened by the current economic downturn.
“They are getting more and more suspicious, and have to control everything,” he said. “I don’t think Beijing cares very much about what happens to Hong Kong, but it needs Hong Kong to maintain some kind of role outside of China.”
A public consultation period on the new law will run until Feb. 28, while the government has said it aims to pass the legislation before the legislature’s summer recess.
Exiled former pro-democracy lawmaker and lawyer Ted Hui said there are many “dangerous areas” for people who support democracy in Hong Kong, citing the retroactive use of the existing National Security Law to prosecute people.
“There are dangerous areas, for example, treason, and there are gray areas,” Hui told RFA. “For example, Taiwan is a fairly sensitive issue, because many Hong Kongers support Taiwan, but the current document doesn’t talk about retroactive effect.”
“If war or conflict breaks out in the Taiwan Strait, will people who once visited Taiwan to observe the elections or expressed support for Taiwan in the past be regarded as having committed treason?” he said. “It could be very easy to fall into such a trap.”
He said that while the 2003 draft legislation referred to “enemy” forces, the current draft refers instead to “foreign forces,” a much vaguer term.
“The scope has expanded a great deal,” Hui said. “People like me who engage in overseas lobbying, groups set up by emigre Hong Kongers around the world, could all be termed foreign forces.”
“Hong Kong groups have organized many activities and many Hong Kong people participated,” he said. “It’s possible that all of that will become illegal.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Gigi Lee and Alice Yam for RFA Cantonese, Chen Zifei and Amelia Loi for RFA Mandarin.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Muslims at Hong Kong’s biggest Kowloon Mosque raised the Chinese national flag in formal ceremonies in July and October this year, to mark the city’s 1997 handover to China and China’s Oct. 1 National Day.
The move has prompted shock and disappointment among some believers, who see it as a challenge to the Islamic doctrine of the supremacy of God, yet few feel safe enough to speak out for fear of political reprisals or community pressure, according to a Hong Kong Muslim who spoke to Radio Free Asia on condition of anonymity.
The ceremonies come as the ruling Chinese Communist Party steps up control over religious venues across China, requiring them to support the leadership of the Communist Party of China and leader Xi Jinping’s plans for the “sinicization” of religious activity.
Muslim leaders in Hong Kong have spoken to RFA Cantonese of “a developing relationship” with Chinese officials over the past 18 months, who have “suggested” they begin ceremonial displays of patriotism like flag-raising ceremonies.
The ceremonies have been fairly high-profile affairs, attended by community leaders and imams, officials from Beijing’s Central Liaison Office in Hong Kong, as well as high-ranking police and local government officials.
At a recent ceremony filmed by RFA, the officials stood impassively as mosque-goers performed the ceremonial movements designed to show the highest respect to the flag, then sang the Chinese national anthem, while plainclothes police observed from the sidelines.
Representatives of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government, Hong Kong government officials, and major Islamic leaders took a group photo in front of the national flag in the Kowloon Mosque. Credit: Tianji An anonymous Hong Kong Muslim said some believers are very unhappy with the move, which they say undermines the crucial Islamic principle that God is supreme, forcing them to choose between their religion and political “correctness” under the atheist ruling Chinese Communist Party.
“Allah is the only highest principle there is,” said the woman, who gave only the pseudonym Miriam for fear of pressure from within her own community and of prosecution under a draconian security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing.
“I don’t understand how people can see room for compromise here and try to argue that it’s not an issue,” she said. “I am truly and utterly shocked by this. It’s unthinkable.”
Miriam said she was “deeply disappointed” in particular by the attendance of the local imam.
‘The flag of an atheist country’
The organizers said the events, which come after a number of gatherings between Muslim community leaders and Chinese officials, are indeed a nod to Beijing’s “sinicization of religion” program, and are likely to continue.
“Before we didn’t have the idea to raise a flag,” Hong Kong Muslim community leader Saeed Uddin said. “Then, during the last one-and-a-half years, our relationship developed.”
The Chinese national flag flies in front of the Kowloon Mosque. Credit: Screenshot from RFA video “There was a suggestion, ‘why not have [flag-raising],’” he said. “I think this is not a bad idea, to let people be more patriotic to China. They enjoy it. It’s no problem.”
Yet, asked about dissenting voices among Hong Kong Muslims, he admitted to differences of opinion within the community.
“We have to respect the differences of opinion,” Saeed Uddin said. But he added: “We will try to convince them.”
“There was a suggestion, ‘Why not have [flag-raising],’” says Hong Kong Muslim community leader Saeed Uddin. “I think this is not a bad idea, to let people be more patriotic to China. They enjoy it. It’s no problem.” Credit: Tianji While Muslims must necessarily co-exist with secular power, they are expected to keep a certain distance, never lose sight of the supremacy of God in their actions, and avoid idolatry at all costs.
Non-Islamic images and human likenesses are avoided, particularly in sacred places like mosques.
For Miriam, the Chinese flag represents a totalitarian and atheist state that sees its own power as supreme, and should never be seen in a mosque.
“There’s no issue with having the flag of a Muslim country in a mosque, because that country already recognizes no higher authority than God,” she said. “The country itself will be founded on Islamic precepts.”
“But I’ve never seen the flag of an atheist country blatantly on display in a mosque,” she said. “Perhaps they’re using people’s lack of understanding of Islam to force this on them.”
The Kowloon Mosque is seen in Hong Kong’s tourism district Tsim Sha Tsui, Oct. 21, 2019. Credit: Ammar Awad/Reuters Rizwan Ullah, honorary adviser to the Islamic Community Fund of Hong Kong, supports Beijing’s attempts to boost patriotism in the community.
“We’re not raising the Chinese flag or singing the national anthem at a time of prayer,” he told RFA Cantonese in a recent interview. “So it has no effect on our beliefs, or our customs.”
“History will show that this has been a correct first step,” he said, using phrasing similar to that of Chinese officials.
‘Two things can coexist’
China’s “sinicization of religion” policy, which has led churches in mainland China to display portraits of Communist Party leader Xi Jinping and prompted local officials to forcibly demolish domes, minarets and other architectural features in mosques around the country, sometimes in the face of mass protests.
The Communist Party now requires all religious believers to love their country as well as their religion, and claims that patriotism is a part of Islam.
Riswan Ullah agreed with this view.
“I don’t see a conflict. I pray five times a day,” he said. “I raise the flag at different times of the day.”
“I don’t see why being a patriot somehow makes me a bad Muslim – It’s not a zero sum equation: the two things can coexist,” he said.
“I don’t see why being a patriot somehow makes me a bad Muslim – It’s not a zero sum equation: the two things can coexist,” says Riswan Ullah. Credit: Tianji But for Hong Kong’s Muslims, loving one’s country – China – also means loving its atheist ruling Communist Party, which bars its own members from any form of religious belief.
“A religion like Islam of course requires a very high degree of devotion,” James D. Frankel expert on Chinese Islamic Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong said.
“There’s no-one more powerful than the Creator, from the perspective of believers.”
“Any claim to be more powerful than the highest power of the universe is going to cause some questions,” Frankel said.
“When [officials] say ‘love your country, love your religion,’ loving your country comes before loving your religion [in that slogan].”
Miriam believes that Hong Kong’s Muslim leaders have gotten it badly wrong, and she fears their stance could mislead many others into thinking that there is no fundamental conflict.
‘They have co-opted our voices’
Many Hong Kong Muslims are unhappy with their leaders’ actions, yet are unwilling to speak out due to pressure to conform from within their own community, as well as the threat of prosecution under the National Security Law, she told RFA.
“Just because we don’t speak out doesn’t mean that everything they do is right,” she said.
“This is actually a very small community, and once people know your name, they will easily be able to find out where you live, whose son or daughter you are, who your family is – it’s an unspoken rule.”
Devotees descend from the prayer room after prayers on the first day of Ramadan at the Kowloon Mosque in Hong Kong, March 23, 2023. Credit: Louise Delmotte/AP Miriam said she has seen the community’s tendency to self-censor before, when Hong Kong police fired a water cannon at the Kowloon Mosque during the 2019 protest movement.
“When the mosque was hit by a water cannon in 2019, a lot of young Muslims were very critical, taking to Facebook and Instagram to make comments in English,” Miriam said.
“But in less than a week they had all disappeared. They had all been warned off commenting.”
She said community leaders seem to have taken it upon themselves to cozy up to Beijing, regardless of what the rest of the community thinks.
“These people all come from within the establishment, and they have co-opted our voices, not just in worldly matters, but also in terms of our religious identity, which is something that should not be compromised, while claiming to represent us,” Miriam said.
“We have no choice but to put up with a string of misinterpretations and blasphemies from these people, like helpless onlookers,” she said.
“I can predict that in future, they’ll be the ones oppressing us, the weaker ones in the community, as our so-called representatives.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Matt Reed.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Lee Yat Yin for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Calls are growing for the British government to take action to protect Hong Kongers both in the United Kingdom and in their city of origin, following the arrest of 20 British visa applicants last week.
Exiled activists, some of whom have arrest warrants and bounties on their heads, have spoken out in recent interviews over ongoing violent attacks on them by supporters or agents of the Chinese state.
“It is not safe to go out in the U.K.,” Finn Lau, whose name appears on a wanted list of eight prominent overseas activists issued by Hong Kong’s national security police earlier this year, and who was attacked near his London home in 2020.
“I usually take an Air Tag [tracker device] with me to let trusted people know whether I’m safe,” he said, adding that he also carries a strobe torch and a rape alarm as a deterrent to potential attackers.
Since Beijing imposed a national security law banning public opposition and dissent on the city, blaming “hostile foreign forces” for the protests, hundreds of thousands have left Hong Kong, at least 144,000 of them via the British National Overseas visa scheme, which offers a pathway to citizenship to holders of the British National Overseas passport.
China has hit out at the visa program as “interference in its internal affairs.”
Many Hong Kongers in the United Kingdom have spoken recently about threats to their personal safety and acts of violence by Beijing supporters and officials alike.
Lau called on local police forces to liaise more with local exile groups to step up measures to protect Hong Kongers.
“Police in different regions in the U.K. could hold forums or closed-door meetings to communicate with local British Hong Kong organizations, to learn about the various attacks or infiltration, including personal experiences, which would help them formulate a policy to improve Britain’s serious infiltration problem,” Lau said.
Targeted for withdrawing pensions
Hong Kong Watch, a London-based rights group, said the authorities are also targeting people even before they’re able to leave for overseas – when they try to cash out of their pensions.
The city’s Independent Commission Against Corruption said last week it had arrested 20 individuals related to Hong Kongers who were seeking to withdraw their Mandatory Pension Fund from Hong Kong, claiming they had said they were moving to mainland China.
Pro-Beijing protesters confront Hong Kong exiles at a rally in London’s Chinatown, Nov. 27, 2021. Credit: RFA It is possible that they were trying to get around an effective freeze on emigrating Hong Kongers cashing out their pension pots from the compulsory scheme, which is administered by a number of banks and insurance companies.
“This is a direct retaliatory action by the Chinese Government against the introduction of the British National Overseas Visa and other lifeboat schemes, and is a direct breach of Hong Kong’s Basic Law which guarantees freedom of movement of capital in and out of the city,” the group’s Director of Policy and Advocacy Sam Goodman said in a statement on Oct. 13.
“These arrests bring back into focus the ongoing scandal of the Hong Kong Government and Mandatory Provident Fund providers such as HSBC, Manulife, and Sun Life, denying tens of thousands of Hong Kongers access to their pension savings,” Goodman said.
Former pro-democracy district councilor Daniel Kwok, who now lives in the United Kingdom, said he has been followed, and had his photo taken by unknown individuals while helping organize public activities related to Hong Kong.
He said he still feels safe there, however.
“Will our human rights-related activities or Hong Kong-related activities be monitored by the Chinese Communist Party? This is inevitable in cities in Taiwan, Japan, Europe, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom,” he said.
“But for ordinary Hong Kong people who emigrate to the United Kingdom, the risk is not so high compared with for those who take part in social and political activism, so they don’t need to worry too much,” Kwok said. “Overall, it’s relatively safe.”
‘Ghosts’
In an Oct. 17 report, The Guardian newspaper cited several emigre Hong Kongers in the country as saying that they feel unsafe, and are constantly on the watch for “ghosts” – people seeking to infiltrate their groups and activities to funnel information back to Beijing.
The Hong Kongers quoted said they felt “ignored and unprotected” by the British government.
A former 2019 protester who gave only the pseudonym Rumi told The Guardian: “I am exhausted. I’ve lived with these online personal attacks for the past two years. My girlfriend left me and my family is angry about me. But I just want to tell the truth and get justice.”
He said police back home are still harassing his parents, much like their questioning and raids on the homes of Hong Kong-based relatives of the eight wanted activists.
“People wait outside my parent’s home [in Hong Kong] and watch them, sometimes even knocking on their door to threaten them. ‘Ask your son to watch out for what he said. We know who you are and where you live,’ one said to them,” the paper quoted him as saying.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Cheryl Tung for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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The Danish sculptor whose “Pillar of Shame” statue commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen massacre was seized by Hong Kong authorities said police in the city are harassing the relatives of people who work with him overseas.
Jens Galschiøt also said that some European artists and politicians are wary of traveling to the city under the current crackdown on dissent.
Galschiøt has been trying to retrieve his artwork since it was removed from the University of Hong Kong in December 2021 and seized by Hong Kong national security police in May, said he would like to go to the city to get it back, but that this is currently “impossible.”
“I really want to go to Hong Kong to meet some of my friends there, but I don’t think it’s possible,” he said, adding that he has – like U.S. photographer Matthew Connors – previously been denied entry to the city, and that the Hong Kong government’s stance towards him is “extremely aggressive.”
Hong Kong security chief Chris Tang has declined to confirm whether media reports that there is a warrant out for Galschiøt’s arrest are true or not.
But he warned in August that artistic creations like the “Pillar of Shame” can sometimes be a “pretext” for those seeking to “endanger national security.”
‘Mainland China has taken over’
Speaking on a trip to democratic Taiwan, Galschiøt said the authorities seem to have decided he is out to make trouble, despite the fact that the sculpture was made a quarter of a century ago.
“They attack me the whole time … and they attack the people I work together with in Europe,” he said. “They say I am just making art to disturb [things] there, and they don’t think at all that we put this sculpture [there] 25 years ago.”
“It’s a really, really strange situation … that kind of shows the changes in in Hong Kong and this show that mainland China has taken over also in the court system, and the whole system,” he said, in a reference to an ongoing crackdown on public criticism of the authorities under the 2020 National Security Law.
Activists hold candles beside the “Pillar of Shame,” mourning those who died during the June 4 military crackdown on the pro-democracy movement at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, inside the campus of the University of Hong Kong, May 2, 2021. Credit: Tyrone Siu/Reuters In December 2021, authorities at the government-run University of Hong Kong removed the “Pillar of Shame” and placed it under guarded storage, saying they had taken “legal advice” regarding potential risks for the university under the new law.
Days later, authorities at the Chinese University of Hong Kong took down a 6.4-meter bronze replica of the “Goddess of Democracy” figure used in the Tiananmen Square protests, while Lingnan University removed or painted over two public art works commemorating the victims of the massacre.
Vigils banned
Annual vigils commemorating the 1989 massacre of unarmed civilians by the People’s Liberation Army have also been banned, with their organizers behind bars.
Galschiøt said things in Hong Kong “couldn’t be worse.”
“I have a lot of people who they’re starting now to disturb their family,” he said. “The people I work together with in Europe, were talking to me and I talked to the press, then they take the people in Hong Kong and ask the family the father, the brother, and say, ‘Oh, do you know what your brother is doing in Europe?’”
“This is their way of doing it in Hong Kong at the moment. I’m quite surprised. I think it’s going really really quickly and too quickly,” he said, blaming Beijing’s insistence on “smashing” the democracy movement with the national security law.
Workers remove a part of the “Pillar of Shame” sculpture at the University of Hong Kong, Dec. 23, 2021. Credit: Tyrone Siu/Reuters He said he knows people who are wary of traveling to Hong Kong at all, where the national security law applies to words and actions committed anywhere in the world, and by people of any nationality.
“There are a lot of people in Europe who have canceled their trip to Hong Kong and are afraid to go there,” Galschiøt said. “Both in the Chinese diaspora but also a lot of the European people are saying okay, we don’t go to Hong Kong – it’s too dangerous for us to go there.”
“I know some people from the parliament in Denmark. They can’t go to Hong Kong because they’re afraid of getting arrested,” he said.
The Chinese and Hong Kong governments have blamed recent waves of mass protest in Hong Kong on incitement by “hostile foreign forces” seeking to foment a “color revolution” – or democratic regime change – in the city.
In August, Chris Tang blamed the mass protest campaign in 2012 by students – some of them still in secondary school – against patriotic education in Hong Kong’s schools, the 2014 Occupy Central movement for fully democratic elections, the 2016 “fishball revolution” in Mong Kok and the 2019 movement against extradition to mainland China on the actions of “foreign forces.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Chen Zifei for RFA Mandarin, Jojo Man for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Taiwanese businessman Lee Meng-chu, who disappeared in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen in August 2019 at the height of the Hong Kong protest movement, says he was initially detained for carrying a card that read “Go Hong Kong!” – a common protest slogan at the time.
Lee’s possession of the slogan, along with photos he snapped from his hotel of armed police gathering nearby, was taken as evidence that he was “a Taiwan independence activist” trying to foment a “color revolution” – a populist uprising with foreign support – in the former British colony, he told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview.
Lee, also known as Morrison Lee, has previously described himself as a political hostage targeted due to anger in Beijing over Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s vocal support for the Hong Kong protest movement, and her government’s criticism of the Hong Kong authorities’ response.
He was released last year at the end of his one-year, 10-month jail term for “espionage” but held under restrictions for several more months before eventually being allowed to leave for Japan in July.
He recently arrived back in Taiwan after 1,475 days away, and feels he now has an in-depth understanding of why millions of people took to Hong Kong’s streets to protest the erosion of their freedoms in 2019.
“On my first day in the detention center I understood why the people of Hong Kong want to have nothing to do with the black hole that is the mainland Chinese judicial system,” Lee, who at one point appeared on Chinese state television making a heavily scripted “confession,” told Radio Free Asia.
Landed during protests
When he flew to Hong Kong, he hadn’t expected to land in the middle of one of the biggest and most protracted campaigns of mass popular resistance the city had ever seen – sparked by attempts by then Chief Executive Carrie Lam to change the law to allow the extradition of alleged “criminal suspects” to face trial in mainland Chinese courts.
“The anti-extradition protests were under way, and when I read the headlines after getting off the plane, I saw that 1.75 million people had been to a mass rally in Victoria Park.”
“So I went along there for half an hour to take a look that evening,” Lee said.
In 2019, Lee Meng-chu snapped photos from his Shenzhen hotel of Chinese armed police gathering nearby. Credit: Provided by Lee Meng-chu The following day, he made a business trip to Shenzhen, staying overnight and having breakfast in his hotel the next day.
“I noticed there was a gathering of armed police in a stadium … just as they were reporting the [protests] in Hong Kong, and so I took a few pictures with my phone,” he said. “That’s all I did.”
Then, as he tried to clear the immigration checkpoint to get back into Hong Kong, his nightmare began.
Customs officials searched him and found a card bearing the slogan “Go Hong Kong!” and the photos of the armed police on his phone.
“The moment they saw the card, they yelled ‘What’s this?’” Lee said. “Three customs officers came over immediately, and one of them said ‘color revolution’.”
“It turns out that under the Chinese Communist Party system, this was a breach of state secrets, so I was smeared as a Taiwanese spy, a backbone of the Taiwan independence movement, and as an anti-China force come to disrupt Hong Kong,” he said.
“I still find it so baffling to this day.”
Forced confession
After his arrest, Lee was forced to “confess to his crimes” on state television.
“It was [arranged by] some people sent by the ministry of state security in Beijing,” he said. “They started banging on the table from the start and yelled at me that I had to cooperate, that I would get a lenient punishment if I did.”
“I remember recording it seven or eight times from start to finish,” Lee said. “When they weren’t happy [with the way I did it] they would tell me and direct me to say what they wanted.”
At the time the video clip was broadcast, a police officer from the Guangdong provincial state security police was quoted as saying that Lee’s behavior was “highly typical of Taiwanese independence forces intervening in Hong Kong’s affairs.”
Lee Meng-chu was released last year at the end of his one-year-10-month jail term for “espionage” but was held under restrictions for several more months before eventually being allowed to leave for Japan in July. He recently arrived back in Taiwan. Credit: RFA Lee said the whole charge against him was “ridiculous.”
“I think they shot their arrow, then painted the target afterwards,” he said. “They grabbed a random passer-by and tried to turn them into a Taiwan independence activist colluding with Hong Kong independence activists.”
“Former [Hong Kong] Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa said the Hong Kong protests were instigated by external forces from Taiwan and the United States … so maybe that was the context,” Lee said.
“I’m guessing that they had orders from the central government [in Beijing] to arrest two or three Taiwanese nationals.”
He said foreign governments need to stay united to make sure their nationals don’t continue to be used as political hostages.
“Only when the governments of various democratic countries unite to establish an international hostage rescue platform and pool their leverage will they be able to negotiate with the Chinese Communist Party,” Lee said.
“Only then will they be able to rescue such hostages, and let them go home and be reunited with their families,” he said.
He called on Taiwan’s 23 million people to protect the “treasure” that is their freedom and democracy.
“Only people who have lost their freedom know how precious it is – like the air we breathe,” Lee said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Jojo Man for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Taiwanese businessman Lee Meng-chu, who disappeared in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen in August 2019 at the height of the Hong Kong protest movement, says he was initially detained for carrying a card that read “Go Hong Kong!” – a common protest slogan at the time.
Lee’s possession of the slogan, along with photos he snapped from his hotel of armed police gathering nearby, was taken as evidence that he was “a Taiwan independence activist” trying to foment a “color revolution” – a populist uprising with foreign support – in the former British colony, he told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview.
Lee, also known as Morrison Lee, has previously described himself as a political hostage targeted due to anger in Beijing over Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s vocal support for the Hong Kong protest movement, and her government’s criticism of the Hong Kong authorities’ response.
He was released last year at the end of his one-year, 10-month jail term for “espionage” but held under restrictions for several more months before eventually being allowed to leave for Japan in July.
He recently arrived back in Taiwan after 1,475 days away, and feels he now has an in-depth understanding of why millions of people took to Hong Kong’s streets to protest the erosion of their freedoms in 2019.
“On my first day in the detention center I understood why the people of Hong Kong want to have nothing to do with the black hole that is the mainland Chinese judicial system,” Lee, who at one point appeared on Chinese state television making a heavily scripted “confession,” told Radio Free Asia.
Landed during protests
When he flew to Hong Kong, he hadn’t expected to land in the middle of one of the biggest and most protracted campaigns of mass popular resistance the city had ever seen – sparked by attempts by then Chief Executive Carrie Lam to change the law to allow the extradition of alleged “criminal suspects” to face trial in mainland Chinese courts.
“The anti-extradition protests were under way, and when I read the headlines after getting off the plane, I saw that 1.75 million people had been to a mass rally in Victoria Park.”
“So I went along there for half an hour to take a look that evening,” Lee said.
In 2019, Lee Meng-chu snapped photos from his Shenzhen hotel of Chinese armed police gathering nearby. Credit: Provided by Lee Meng-chu The following day, he made a business trip to Shenzhen, staying overnight and having breakfast in his hotel the next day.
“I noticed there was a gathering of armed police in a stadium … just as they were reporting the [protests] in Hong Kong, and so I took a few pictures with my phone,” he said. “That’s all I did.”
Then, as he tried to clear the immigration checkpoint to get back into Hong Kong, his nightmare began.
Customs officials searched him and found a card bearing the slogan “Go Hong Kong!” and the photos of the armed police on his phone.
“The moment they saw the card, they yelled ‘What’s this?’” Lee said. “Three customs officers came over immediately, and one of them said ‘color revolution’.”
“It turns out that under the Chinese Communist Party system, this was a breach of state secrets, so I was smeared as a Taiwanese spy, a backbone of the Taiwan independence movement, and as an anti-China force come to disrupt Hong Kong,” he said.
“I still find it so baffling to this day.”
Forced confession
After his arrest, Lee was forced to “confess to his crimes” on state television.
“It was [arranged by] some people sent by the ministry of state security in Beijing,” he said. “They started banging on the table from the start and yelled at me that I had to cooperate, that I would get a lenient punishment if I did.”
“I remember recording it seven or eight times from start to finish,” Lee said. “When they weren’t happy [with the way I did it] they would tell me and direct me to say what they wanted.”
At the time the video clip was broadcast, a police officer from the Guangdong provincial state security police was quoted as saying that Lee’s behavior was “highly typical of Taiwanese independence forces intervening in Hong Kong’s affairs.”
Lee Meng-chu was released last year at the end of his one-year-10-month jail term for “espionage” but was held under restrictions for several more months before eventually being allowed to leave for Japan in July. He recently arrived back in Taiwan. Credit: RFA Lee said the whole charge against him was “ridiculous.”
“I think they shot their arrow, then painted the target afterwards,” he said. “They grabbed a random passer-by and tried to turn them into a Taiwan independence activist colluding with Hong Kong independence activists.”
“Former [Hong Kong] Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa said the Hong Kong protests were instigated by external forces from Taiwan and the United States … so maybe that was the context,” Lee said.
“I’m guessing that they had orders from the central government [in Beijing] to arrest two or three Taiwanese nationals.”
He said foreign governments need to stay united to make sure their nationals don’t continue to be used as political hostages.
“Only when the governments of various democratic countries unite to establish an international hostage rescue platform and pool their leverage will they be able to negotiate with the Chinese Communist Party,” Lee said.
“Only then will they be able to rescue such hostages, and let them go home and be reunited with their families,” he said.
He called on Taiwan’s 23 million people to protect the “treasure” that is their freedom and democracy.
“Only people who have lost their freedom know how precious it is – like the air we breathe,” Lee said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Jojo Man for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Taiwanese businessman Lee Meng-chu, who disappeared in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen in August 2019 at the height of the Hong Kong protest movement, says he was initially detained for carrying a card that read “Go Hong Kong!” – a common protest slogan at the time.
Lee’s possession of the slogan, along with photos he snapped from his hotel of armed police gathering nearby, was taken as evidence that he was “a Taiwan independence activist” trying to foment a “color revolution” – a populist uprising with foreign support – in the former British colony, he told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview.
Lee, also known as Morrison Lee, has previously described himself as a political hostage targeted due to anger in Beijing over Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s vocal support for the Hong Kong protest movement, and her government’s criticism of the Hong Kong authorities’ response.
He was released last year at the end of his one-year, 10-month jail term for “espionage” but held under restrictions for several more months before eventually being allowed to leave for Japan in July.
He recently arrived back in Taiwan after 1,475 days away, and feels he now has an in-depth understanding of why millions of people took to Hong Kong’s streets to protest the erosion of their freedoms in 2019.
“On my first day in the detention center I understood why the people of Hong Kong want to have nothing to do with the black hole that is the mainland Chinese judicial system,” Lee, who at one point appeared on Chinese state television making a heavily scripted “confession,” told Radio Free Asia.
Landed during protests
When he flew to Hong Kong, he hadn’t expected to land in the middle of one of the biggest and most protracted campaigns of mass popular resistance the city had ever seen – sparked by attempts by then Chief Executive Carrie Lam to change the law to allow the extradition of alleged “criminal suspects” to face trial in mainland Chinese courts.
“The anti-extradition protests were under way, and when I read the headlines after getting off the plane, I saw that 1.75 million people had been to a mass rally in Victoria Park.”
“So I went along there for half an hour to take a look that evening,” Lee said.
In 2019, Lee Meng-chu snapped photos from his Shenzhen hotel of Chinese armed police gathering nearby. Credit: Provided by Lee Meng-chu The following day, he made a business trip to Shenzhen, staying overnight and having breakfast in his hotel the next day.
“I noticed there was a gathering of armed police in a stadium … just as they were reporting the [protests] in Hong Kong, and so I took a few pictures with my phone,” he said. “That’s all I did.”
Then, as he tried to clear the immigration checkpoint to get back into Hong Kong, his nightmare began.
Customs officials searched him and found a card bearing the slogan “Go Hong Kong!” and the photos of the armed police on his phone.
“The moment they saw the card, they yelled ‘What’s this?’” Lee said. “Three customs officers came over immediately, and one of them said ‘color revolution’.”
“It turns out that under the Chinese Communist Party system, this was a breach of state secrets, so I was smeared as a Taiwanese spy, a backbone of the Taiwan independence movement, and as an anti-China force come to disrupt Hong Kong,” he said.
“I still find it so baffling to this day.”
Forced confession
After his arrest, Lee was forced to “confess to his crimes” on state television.
“It was [arranged by] some people sent by the ministry of state security in Beijing,” he said. “They started banging on the table from the start and yelled at me that I had to cooperate, that I would get a lenient punishment if I did.”
“I remember recording it seven or eight times from start to finish,” Lee said. “When they weren’t happy [with the way I did it] they would tell me and direct me to say what they wanted.”
At the time the video clip was broadcast, a police officer from the Guangdong provincial state security police was quoted as saying that Lee’s behavior was “highly typical of Taiwanese independence forces intervening in Hong Kong’s affairs.”
Lee Meng-chu was released last year at the end of his one-year-10-month jail term for “espionage” but was held under restrictions for several more months before eventually being allowed to leave for Japan in July. He recently arrived back in Taiwan. Credit: RFA Lee said the whole charge against him was “ridiculous.”
“I think they shot their arrow, then painted the target afterwards,” he said. “They grabbed a random passer-by and tried to turn them into a Taiwan independence activist colluding with Hong Kong independence activists.”
“Former [Hong Kong] Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa said the Hong Kong protests were instigated by external forces from Taiwan and the United States … so maybe that was the context,” Lee said.
“I’m guessing that they had orders from the central government [in Beijing] to arrest two or three Taiwanese nationals.”
He said foreign governments need to stay united to make sure their nationals don’t continue to be used as political hostages.
“Only when the governments of various democratic countries unite to establish an international hostage rescue platform and pool their leverage will they be able to negotiate with the Chinese Communist Party,” Lee said.
“Only then will they be able to rescue such hostages, and let them go home and be reunited with their families,” he said.
He called on Taiwan’s 23 million people to protect the “treasure” that is their freedom and democracy.
“Only people who have lost their freedom know how precious it is – like the air we breathe,” Lee said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Jojo Man for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Taiwanese businessman Lee Meng-chu, who disappeared in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen in August 2019 at the height of the Hong Kong protest movement, says he was initially detained for carrying a card that read “Go Hong Kong!” – a common protest slogan at the time.
Lee’s possession of the slogan, along with photos he snapped from his hotel of armed police gathering nearby, was taken as evidence that he was “a Taiwan independence activist” trying to foment a “color revolution” – a populist uprising with foreign support – in the former British colony, he told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview.
Lee, also known as Morrison Lee, has previously described himself as a political hostage targeted due to anger in Beijing over Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s vocal support for the Hong Kong protest movement, and her government’s criticism of the Hong Kong authorities’ response.
He was released last year at the end of his one-year, 10-month jail term for “espionage” but held under restrictions for several more months before eventually being allowed to leave for Japan in July.
He recently arrived back in Taiwan after 1,475 days away, and feels he now has an in-depth understanding of why millions of people took to Hong Kong’s streets to protest the erosion of their freedoms in 2019.
“On my first day in the detention center I understood why the people of Hong Kong want to have nothing to do with the black hole that is the mainland Chinese judicial system,” Lee, who at one point appeared on Chinese state television making a heavily scripted “confession,” told Radio Free Asia.
Landed during protests
When he flew to Hong Kong, he hadn’t expected to land in the middle of one of the biggest and most protracted campaigns of mass popular resistance the city had ever seen – sparked by attempts by then Chief Executive Carrie Lam to change the law to allow the extradition of alleged “criminal suspects” to face trial in mainland Chinese courts.
“The anti-extradition protests were under way, and when I read the headlines after getting off the plane, I saw that 1.75 million people had been to a mass rally in Victoria Park.”
“So I went along there for half an hour to take a look that evening,” Lee said.
In 2019, Lee Meng-chu snapped photos from his Shenzhen hotel of Chinese armed police gathering nearby. Credit: Provided by Lee Meng-chu The following day, he made a business trip to Shenzhen, staying overnight and having breakfast in his hotel the next day.
“I noticed there was a gathering of armed police in a stadium … just as they were reporting the [protests] in Hong Kong, and so I took a few pictures with my phone,” he said. “That’s all I did.”
Then, as he tried to clear the immigration checkpoint to get back into Hong Kong, his nightmare began.
Customs officials searched him and found a card bearing the slogan “Go Hong Kong!” and the photos of the armed police on his phone.
“The moment they saw the card, they yelled ‘What’s this?’” Lee said. “Three customs officers came over immediately, and one of them said ‘color revolution’.”
“It turns out that under the Chinese Communist Party system, this was a breach of state secrets, so I was smeared as a Taiwanese spy, a backbone of the Taiwan independence movement, and as an anti-China force come to disrupt Hong Kong,” he said.
“I still find it so baffling to this day.”
Forced confession
After his arrest, Lee was forced to “confess to his crimes” on state television.
“It was [arranged by] some people sent by the ministry of state security in Beijing,” he said. “They started banging on the table from the start and yelled at me that I had to cooperate, that I would get a lenient punishment if I did.”
“I remember recording it seven or eight times from start to finish,” Lee said. “When they weren’t happy [with the way I did it] they would tell me and direct me to say what they wanted.”
At the time the video clip was broadcast, a police officer from the Guangdong provincial state security police was quoted as saying that Lee’s behavior was “highly typical of Taiwanese independence forces intervening in Hong Kong’s affairs.”
Lee Meng-chu was released last year at the end of his one-year-10-month jail term for “espionage” but was held under restrictions for several more months before eventually being allowed to leave for Japan in July. He recently arrived back in Taiwan. Credit: RFA Lee said the whole charge against him was “ridiculous.”
“I think they shot their arrow, then painted the target afterwards,” he said. “They grabbed a random passer-by and tried to turn them into a Taiwan independence activist colluding with Hong Kong independence activists.”
“Former [Hong Kong] Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa said the Hong Kong protests were instigated by external forces from Taiwan and the United States … so maybe that was the context,” Lee said.
“I’m guessing that they had orders from the central government [in Beijing] to arrest two or three Taiwanese nationals.”
He said foreign governments need to stay united to make sure their nationals don’t continue to be used as political hostages.
“Only when the governments of various democratic countries unite to establish an international hostage rescue platform and pool their leverage will they be able to negotiate with the Chinese Communist Party,” Lee said.
“Only then will they be able to rescue such hostages, and let them go home and be reunited with their families,” he said.
He called on Taiwan’s 23 million people to protect the “treasure” that is their freedom and democracy.
“Only people who have lost their freedom know how precious it is – like the air we breathe,” Lee said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Jojo Man for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Hong Kong national security police on Thursday arrested 10 people for “collusion with foreign forces” and “inciting riot” over a now-defunct fund set up to help those targeted for involvement in the 2019 protest movement.
“The National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force today … arrested four men and six women, aged between 26 and 43, in various districts for suspected ‘conspiracy to collude with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security,’ … and inciting riot,” the police said in a statement on the government’s website.
“The arrested persons were suspected of conspiracy to collude with the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund to receive donations from various overseas organizations to support people who have fled overseas or organizations which called for sanctions against Hong Kong,” the statement said.
The arrests come after the arrests of Cardinal Joseph Zen and other trustees of the now-disbanded Fund prompted an international outcry in May 2022.
Police searched the arrestees’ homes and offices with court warrants, seizing documents and electronic communication devices, it said, adding that the 10 are being held “for further enquiries.”
“The possibility of further arrests is not ruled out,” it said, warning the general public “not to defy” the national security law.
Hong Kong police typically don’t name arrestees, but Reuters identified one of the 10 as pro-democracy activist Bobo Yip, who was photographed waving at journalists as she was taken away.
From left, retired archbishop of Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen, barrister Margaret Ng, professor Hui Po-keung and singer Denise Ho attend a press conference to announce the closure of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, in Hong Kong, Aug.18, 2021. Credit: HK01 via AP
The London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch said the arrests were a “new low” in an ongoing crackdown on dissent under the national security law, which was imposed on the city by Beijing in the wake of the 2019 protests.
“Today’s arrests mark a new low in the deterioration of Hong Kong’s rights and freedoms,” the group’s research and policy advisor Anouk Wear said in a statement.
“It was already an overly broad and political interpretation of the law, including the National Security Law, to arrest and fine the trustees and secretary of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund last year,” Wear said.
In May 2022, police arrested five former trustees of the fund – retired Catholic bishop and Cardinal Joseph Zen, ex-lawmakers Margaret Ng and Cyd Ho, Cantopop singer Denise Ho and cultural studies scholar Hui Po-keung – on suspicion of “conspiring to collude with foreign forces.”
While they were never charged with the offense, the five were later found guilty of failing to register the fund – which offered financial, legal and psychological help to people arrested during the 2019 protest movement – and were each fined H.K.$4,000.
“The arrest of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund’s staff for alleged collusion and rioting is an absurd criminalization of providing legal and humanitarian aid,” Wear said.
“This is an attempt by the Hong Kong government to rewrite history and frame all association with the protest movement as criminal, which is deeply damaging to rule of law and civil society.”
Zen, whose passport had been confiscated following his arrest as a condition of his bail, was allowed to retrieve it to attend the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI in January, handing it back again on his return.
Zen was among six Hong Kongers nominated for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize in February.
Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Simon Lee for RFA Cantonese.
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A court in Hong Kong on Friday rejected the government’s bid to impose an injunction on performances of and references to “Glory to Hong Kong,” the banned anthem of the 2019 protest movement, citing a “chilling effect” on freedom of expression.
The government had wanted the court to grant the ban on broadcasting or distributing the song or its lyrics, which the government says advocate “independence” for the city, and which has been mistakenly played at international sporting events instead of the Chinese anthem, “March of the Volunteers.”
But High Court Judge Anthony Chan said he couldn’t see how an injunction, which the government wanted to include online platforms, would help.
“I am unable to see a solid basis for believing that the invocation of the civil jurisdiction can assist in the enforcement of the law in question,” Chan said in the ruling.
The anthem was regularly sung by crowds of unarmed protesters during the 2019 protest movement, which ranged from peaceful demonstrations for full democracy to intermittent, pitched battles between “front-line” protesters and armed riot police, and was banned in 2020 as Beijing imposed a draconian national security law on the city.
When the government announced last month it was seeking an injunction, downloads of the song spiked on international streaming platforms before it was removed from several platforms.
The song calls for freedom and democracy rather than independence, but was nonetheless deemed in breach of the law due to its “separatist” intent, officials and police officers said at the start of an ongoing citywide crackdown on public dissent and peaceful political activism.
The song is still frequently sung by pro-democracy activists outside of Hong Kong.
‘Chilling effect’
In a decision seen as a partial reprieve for dwindling freedom of expression in the city, the court also took into account the potential “chilling effect” an injunction would have on freedom of expression and its effect on “innocent third parties.”
The judgment went on to say that contempt proceedings for breach of an injunction would involve proving the relevant criminal offense and would therefore not be easy to enforce. There was also a risk of “double jeopardy,” in which a person could potentially be prosecuted for overlapping offenses under the National Security Law and for breach of the injunction, it said.
Dozens of people sing “Glory to Hong Kong” outside the main railway station in Taipei, Taiwan, on June 6, 2023, to mark the fourth anniversary of the start of the 2019 mass protest movement. Credit: Zhong Guangzheng
The government had argued that the injunction was necessary to prevent people disseminating the song anonymously, and to prevent its use at public events “which can arouse certain emotions and incite people to secession, endangering national security.”
Hong Kong’s leader John Lee said his administration would be “studying the matter and following up.”
“The Special Administrative Region government has a duty to effectively prevent, stop and punish actions and activities that endanger national security,” Lee told journalists in Kuala Lumpur on Friday. “I have asked the Department of Justice to study the verdict actively and follow up as soon as possible.”
He said anyone who calls the song “the true national anthem of Hong Kong” is breaking the National Anthem Law banning insults to China’s national anthem.
“The threat of endangering national security can come suddenly, so we must take effective measures to prevent it,” he said.
Law bans insults to PRC anthem
Hong Kong passed a national anthem law in June 2020 banning ‘insults’ to the Chinese national anthem after Hong Kong soccer fans repeatedly booed, yelled Cantonese obscenities or turned their backs when it was played at matches.
In November, Hong Kong police announced a criminal investigation into the playing of “Glory to Hong Kong” at a rugby match in South Korea.
“I welcome this ruling, which is very reasonable,” Ronson Chan, chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, told media outside the High Court in Hong Kong on Friday, July 28, 2023. Credit: Isaac Lawrence/AFP
Hong Kong Journalists’ Association president Ronson Chan welcomed the court’s ruling.
“I welcome this ruling, which is very reasonable,” Chan said. “I agree that the relevant matters are already covered by criminal law, so there is no need for an injunction.”
“I’d like to thank the judge for pointing out … the potential for a chilling effect in the exercise of such powers,” he said.
“If we want to tell good stories about Hong Kong, I don’t think further restrictions are a good idea,” Chan said.
The government has repeatedly said that it respects freedoms protected by the city’s constitution, “but freedom of speech is not absolute.”
“The application pursues the legitimate aim of safeguarding national security and is necessary, reasonable, legitimate, and consistent with the Bill of Rights,” it said in a statement about the injunction application last month.
Press freedom groups have warned that the government has “gutted” freedom of expression in the city, amid an ongoing cull of “politically sensitive” books from the shelves of public libraries.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Ng Ting Hong and Gigi Lee for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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A Hong Kong court on Thursday imposed a three-month jail term on a man for insulting China’s national anthem after he paired footage of a Hong Kong athlete winning a medal with audio of the banned protest song, “Glory to Hong Kong,” and posted the clip to YouTube.
Cheng Wing-chun, a 27-year-old photographer, became the first person to be convicted of insulting the national anthem of the People’s Republic of China under a new law banning disrespect to the anthem – called “March of the Volunteers” – in the city when he was found guilty by Magistrate Minnie Wat at Eastern Magistrate’s Court on July 5.
Cheng was accused of creating and uploading a video clip of Hong Kong fencer Edgar Cheung winning a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in July 2021 in which the soundtrack of China’s national anthem had been replaced with the banned protest anthem used widely in the 2019 protest movement in the city.
He was also accused of “desecrating the national flag.”
Handing down a three-month jail term on Thursday, Wat told the court that Cheng had edited the footage in a way that made it seem as if people were applauding it.
‘Glory to Hong Kong’
Wat dismissed Cheng’s claim that he didn’t understand the meaning of the song, saying he had once worked for a political party, and had taken part in demonstrations during the 2019 protest movement.
Cheng’s clip had also attracted comments mentioning “Hong Kong independence” and calling “Glory to Hong Kong” the city’s national anthem, she said.
“Not only did the defendant’s behavior disrespect the athlete who won the medal — it also encouraged others to commit acts damaging to national dignity,” Wat told the sentencing hearing.
Hong Kong soccer fans turn their backs as China’s national anthem is played in South Korea’s Busan Asiad stadium, Dec. 18, 2019. Credit: Jung Yeon-je/AFP She said the sentence should serve as a warning to others not to imitate Cheng’s actions. The defense had argued for leniency due to the fact that the video had merely replaced the national anthem, and hadn’t insulted it in any way.
Hong Kong passed a law in 2020 making it illegal to insult China’s national anthem on pain of up to three years’ imprisonment, following a series of incidents in which Hong Kong soccer fans booed their own anthem.
In November 2022, Hong Kong police launched a criminal investigation into the playing of “Glory to Hong Kong” at a rugby match in South Korea instead of the Chinese national anthem. A similar gaffe took place days later at a weightlifting competition in Dubai.
E-sports player banned
Cheng’s jailing came as the authorities banned a top e-sports player from competing in the Asian Games after he used the word “Glory” in an online team title.
Lam Kei-lung was issued with a three-year ban after a recent tournament with mainland Chinese players in which he called himself “Eazy D.L. 光復,” a reference to a banned slogan from the 2019 protest movement that is typically rendered in English as “Free Hong Kong,” or “Liberate Hong Kong,” but it is more fully translated as “restore Hong Kong to its former glory.”
The slogan is so taboo under an ongoing crackdown on dissent in the city that motorcyclist Tong Ying-kit was jailed in July 2021 for nine years for “terrorism” and inciting “secession” after he flew the slogan from his bike during a street protest, the first person to be sentenced under the national security law that took effect from July 1, 2020.
“The Association announces that player Lam Kei-lung is disqualified from participating in the Asian Games due to the use of sensitive words in his gaming name,” the Asian E-Sports Association said in a July 17 statement on its Facebook page, adding that the ban would extend through July 16, 2026.
An e-sports player who gave only the nickname Shanguang said the three-year penalty would likely end Lam’s career in what is a very fast-moving area of online competition.
“The value of a gamer comes from the fact that they keep playing in different competitions, and people are expecting to see them play,” Shanguang said.
‘Completely irrational’
The 19th Asian Games in September will include e-sports as an official event for the first time, and Hong Kong will send 35 players to take part.
Current affairs commentator and sociologist Chung Kim-wah said the ban was about the sports association showing loyalty to Beijing.
“We’ve gotten to the point where these institutions act in completely irrational ways in order to show loyalty to Beijing,” Chung said. “They would be better off coming up with a list of sensitive words that you can’t use.”
“There aren’t any regulations about which words you can use.”
The gaming world is seen as potentially subversive by the authorities because young people played such a key role in the street resistance movement of 2019, current affairs commentator Yu Fei said.
In 2020, an esports player was removed from a Hong Kong gaming tournament after he shouted “Free Hong Kong, revolution now!” during an interview after a game.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Ng Ting Hong and Jojo Man for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Hong Kong police on Thursday took away for questioning several family members of exiled pro-democracy activists wanted for “collusion with foreign forces” for campaigning against an ongoing crackdown on dissent in the city.
Police raided the home of trade unionist Mung Siu-tat’s brother, taking him, his wife and their son for questioning on suspicion of “assisting fugitives to continue to engage in acts that endanger national security,” a police spokesperson told Radio Free Asia.
Police also took away the parents, brother and sister-in-law of exiled former pro-democracy lawmaker Dennis Kwok and questioned them on suspicion of the same offense, the South China Morning Post and Standard newspapers reported.
No arrests were made, and all of the activists’ family members were released after questioning, the reports said.
Eight bounties
The raids came after similar action against the family members of exiled former pro-democracy lawmaker Nathan Law, who is also on a wanted list of eight prominent overseas activists.
On July 3, national security police issued arrest warrants and offered bounties for U.K.-based Mung, Kwok, Law and five other exiled campaigners, saying they are wanted in connection with “serious crimes” under Hong Kong’s national security law.
U.K.-based Finn Lau, Australia-based Ted Hui and Kevin Yam and U.S.-based Anna Kwok and Elmer Yuen are also on the wanted list, with bounties of HK$1 million (US$127,700) offered for information that might lead to an arrest.
A police spokesperson confirmed to Radio Free Asia that Mung’s three relatives were questioned for “assisting fugitives,” but declined to say why Kwok’s relatives were questioned.
“This operation is still ongoing, and further law enforcement action, including arrests, cannot be ruled out,” the spokesman said.
Instilling fear
Current affairs commentator Sang Pu said the raids, which have targeted 10 family members of the eight wanted activists to date, seemed calculated to create an atmosphere of fear.
“If there is evidence, then make an arrest,” Sang said. “But what do they mean by taking people away for hours of interrogation without any evidence, then letting them go?”
“Is this a bid to … create panic by banging on doors first thing in the morning?”
People walk past the police notices for pro-democracy activists at Wah Fu Estate in Hong Kong on Thursday, July 20, 2023. Credit: Bertha Wang/AFP Elmer Yuen’s son Derek and daughter-in-law Eunice Yung – a pro-China lawmaker – haven’t been interrogated yet.
Yong made a high-profile announcement last August that she was cutting off ties with Yuen, calling him to return to Hong Kong and turn himself in.
Derek Yuen said in a recent media interview that they had spoken briefly with Elmer Yuen during a recent trip overseas, but had avoided any financial transactions with him.
Sang said it was telling that the couple – whose pro-China credentials are fairly solid – haven’t been questioned yet.
The London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch said the raids are the “latest escalation” in the crackdown on opposition figures.
“This is a drastic escalation since the arrest warrants and bounties against the eight activists and the threats against Nathan’s family, which were already outrageous and completely unacceptable,” the group’s chief executive Benedict Rogers said.
“The Hong Kong government is openly and increasingly threatening activists abroad, in an attempt to silence them and spread fear among the community,” Rogers said in a statement on the group’s website.
“This situation is increasingly similar to that in mainland China, and we are seeing Hong Kong plummet to this level in terms of human rights, particularly civil and political rights,” he said, calling on governments to protect the rights and freedoms of activists in exile.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Gigi Lee for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Hong Kong police on Tuesday questioned the family of exiled former pro-democracy lawmaker Nathan Law, who the city’s leader has vowed to “pursue for life” under a national security law criminalizing public criticism of the authorities.
“Today, the Hong Kong national security police went to the apartments of Nathan Law’s parents and brother and took them away for questioning,” advocacy group Hong Kong Watch said in a statement on its website. “They were later released without arrest.”
The move came after national security police last week issued arrest warrants and bounties for eight prominent Hong Kong activists living in exile, accusing them of “collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security.”
Law, who now lives in the United Kingdom, announced in 2020 that he had cut ties with his family back in Hong Kong in a bid to protect them.
But police raided his parents’ home early Tuesday morning, taking away his parents and brother and questioning them about whether they had provided him with any financial support, or whether they were his “agents” in Hong Kong, according to multiple media reports.
“At around 6.00 a.m. today (July 11), the national security department [of the Hong Kong police force] searched two units in Yat Tung Estate, Tung Chung, where Nathan Law’s parents and elder brother live, and took [the three of them] away to take their statements,” the pro-Beijing Sing Tao Daily reported.
Police wanted to know if they had been providing financial assistance to Law or had acted on his behalf in Hong Kong, it said.
“After the three had made their statements, they were allowed to leave the police station,” the report said, versions of which also appeared on iCable News and in the South China Morning Post.
Bounties on their heads
The July 3 warrants also listed former pro-democracy lawmakers Ted Hui, now in Australia, U.K.-based Dennis Kwok, U.S.-based activist and political lobbyist Anna Kwok and Australia-based legal scholar Kevin Yam among the wanted.
U.K.-based activists Finn Lau and Mung Siu-tat and U.S.-based businessman Elmer Yuen are also on the wanted list.
Authorities have offered bounties of HK$1 million (US$127,700) for information that might lead to an arrest or a successful prosecution.
Those named face a slew of charges including “collusion with foreign powers” and “inciting subversion and secession” under a law imposed on Hong Kong by the Communist Party in the wake of the 2019 protest movement that effectively bans public dissent and peaceful political opposition.
Hong Kong police on Monday, July 3, 2023, issued arrest warrants and offered bounties for eight activists and former lawmakers who have fled the city. They are [clockwise from top left] Kevin Yam, Elmer Yuen, Anna Kwok, Dennis Kwok, Nathan Law, Finn Lau, Mung Siu-tat and Ted Hui. Credit: Screenshot from Reuters video The warrants were quickly followed by five more arrests of former associates of Law and the now-disbanded pro-democracy party Demosisto that he co-founded in the wake of the 2014 Umbrella Movement, who were accused of using the “Punish MEE” pro-democracy crowd-funding app to bankroll overseas activists.
The escalating crackdown has sparked international criticism of the authorities’ ongoing attempts at “long-arm” law enforcement overseas.
Hong Kong’s three-year-old national security law bans public criticism of the authorities as “incitement of hatred,” and applies to speech or acts committed by people of any nationality, anywhere in the world.
More targeted
Meanwhile, Secretary for Justice Paul Lam has lodged complaints to the Hong Kong Bar Association and The Law Society of Hong Kong against two others on the “wanted” list: former lawmaker Dennis Kwok and solicitor Kevin Yam, for “professional misconduct,” Hong Kong Watch said, adding that both could have their licenses to practice law in Hong Kong suspended.
“This is a drastic escalation since last week’s arrest warrants and bounties against the eight activists, which were already outrageous and completely unacceptable,” the group’s Chief Executive Benedict Rogers said.
The group called on British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly to summon the Chinese ambassador and ask him to explain why the authorities are targeting the families of Hong Kongers under the protection of the United Kingdom. Law has been granted political refugee status.
“The Hong Kong government is openly threatening activists abroad, in an attempt to silence them and spread fear among the community,” the statement said.
It said the threats against Law’s family showed that the situation in Hong Kong is increasingly similar to that of mainland China, and that any difference between the two systems of governance has been totally dismantled.
‘Rats crossing the street’
Chief Executive John Lee on Tuesday repeated his vow to “hunt down” Law and the other activists for the rest of their lives.
“I have said many times that we will hunt them down for the rest of their lives, and that we will use every means in our power to do so, including going after anyone providing them with financial or other kinds of assistance,” Lee told reporters on Tuesday.
“We will also go after the forces behind the scenes, who may even be controlling them,” he said, without elaborating on who those forces might be.
He likened the exiled activists to “rats crossing the street,” to be shunned unless anyone has information leading to their arrest or prosecution, in which case a reward could be offered.
Former Security Secretary Regina Ip earlier told reporters that she believed that while “normal” family contact with overseas activists wasn’t an issue, anyone sending funds to overseas activists who then used the money to lobby overseas parliaments to sanction Hong Kong “or other violations of the national security law,” could face prosecution.
More than 260 people have been arrested under the national security law, including dozens of former opposition lawmakers and political activists and senior journalists including pro-democracy media magnate Jimmy Lai, who is a British citizen.
An estimated 10,000 have been prosecuted for “rioting” or public order offenses in the wake of the 2019 protest movement, which Beijing views as an attempt by “hostile foreign forces” to foment a “color revolution” in Hong Kong.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Simon Lee for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Hong Kong’s “last elected district councilors” have called on the international community to withdraw recognition for the city’s legislature after it voted to slash the number of directly elected district council seats.
The city’s legislature – which has been packed with pro-Beijing members since changes to the electoral system that saw chief executive John Lee “win” an election in which he was the only candidate – voted unanimously last week to slash the number of directly elected seats on District Council from 452 to just 88.
The move comes amid an ongoing crackdown on public dissent and political opposition in Hong Kong, and after millions of voters in Hong Kong delivered a stunning rebuke to Beijing and their own government with a landslide victory for pro-democracy candidates across the city’s 18 district councils at the height of the 2019 protest movement.
Lee welcomed the changes to the District Council election rules, which will also ensure that pro-democracy candidates won’t be able to run in the next election.
“We must … completely exclude those anti-China and destabilizing forces from the District Councils,” Lee said in a July 8 statement. “This legislative exercise [will] ensure that the District Councils are firmly in the hands of patriots.”
Lee said the government is looking for candidates who are “capable, experienced, with relevant skill sets suited to the needs of the districts, and patriotic,” although the government has yet to set a date for the district election.
Under the new rules, which took effect on Monday, candidates will have to pass a national security background check and secure at least three nominations from several committees loyal to the ruling Chinese Communist Party in Beijing.
More than 20 former District Council members in exile have called on the international community to withdraw official recognition of Hong Kong’s Legislative and District Councils, which no longer “legally represent the people of Hong Kong.”
Elections for show
The joint letter authored by former Shek Tong Tsui district councilor Sam Yip, who fled the ongoing crackdown to live in Japan, said that the latest legislation has sounded the death knell for any kind of democracy in Hong Kong.
“Under the framework of the Hong Kong government’s so-called ‘patriots governing Hong Kong’ policy, candidates must show their loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party before they can run for election,” Yip said. “[They have to] go to these pro-government people to get nominated.”
Former Legislative Council member and former District Council member Ted Hui, who is among eight prominent overseas activists wanted by national security police for “collusion with foreign forces,” said he, Yip and the other signatories to the letter were “the last democratically elected district councilors.”
“Maybe we would never get through the government’s review process … but the public opinion we represented still exists,” Hui said. “We may scatter all over the world, but we still want to serve the people of Hong Kong.”
Former Hong Kong district councilor Sam Yip, who fled the crackdown in the city to live in Japan, initiated the letter calling for the international community to withdraw recognition for the city’s legislature. Credit: Provided by Ye Jinlong, undated photo
Daniel Kwok, a former Hong Kong district councilor now living in the United Kingdom, said the whole electoral system in Hong Kong is now just there for show.
“You have to pass the qualification review [examining your loyalty to Beijing] and a political review process,” Kwok said. “It’s a high threshold.”
“The motivation is clear — it’s to cling to the principle that only patriots can rule Hong Kong, and eliminate any of the voices of the so-called ‘anti-China chaotic elements’ in Hong Kong,” he said.
2020 National Security Law
Kwok said it’s important to amplify these changes to the rest of the world.
“Many Western democracies may not have a timely understanding of the situation,” he said. “Nobody has yet formally discussed the changes to the electoral rules for the Legislative Council and District Council at the United Nations Human Rights Council.”
“We have to keep on speaking out and keep the issue alive in the international community,” he said.
A pro-China lawmaker watches a video on a phone showing the 1945 Yalta Conference during the third reading of a bill that will overhaul district council elections in Hong Kong, July 6, 2023. Credit: Louise Delmotte/AP
The European Union said in a July 6 statement that the changes go against China’s commitment to democratic representation under the terms of the 1997 handover.
“This severely weakens the ability of the people of Hong Kong to choose representatives overlooking district affairs,” it said, noting that the decision follows the imposition of a draconian national security law on Hong Kong from July 2020.
“These developments raise serious questions about the state of fundamental freedoms, democracy and political pluralism in Hong Kong that were supposed to remain protected until at least 2047 under the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984 and China’s international commitments,” it said.
The Hong Kong government “vehemently rejected” the EU statement and said the bloc was “interfering in Hong Kong matters, which are purely China’s internal affairs.”
It said there was no mention of democratically elected district councilors in the handover treaty or Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law.
It said the elected component under the new rules would still be larger than it was under British rule during the 1980s.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Paul Eckert.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Gao Feng for RFA Mandarin.
