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Category: kong

  • Hong Kong seizes assets of exiled former lawmaker, citing ‘national security’

    A court in Hong Kong has seized the assets of exiled former pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui, claiming they were “obtained from committing offenses endangering national security.”

    Hui’s assets–funds totaling more than US$300,000–were frozen by court order on Feb. 17 after an application by the city’s Department of Justice, the government said in a statement on Tuesday.

    Hui had transferred this amount to his wife and mother prior to leaving the country in 2020, while he was out on bail.

    The move comes amid an ongoing crackdown by Beijing on public dissent in Hong Kong under two security laws.

    The statement said Hui had committed “numerous heinous crimes,” including “conspiring with foreign politicians in 2020 to forge documents and deceive the court with false information in order to obtain the court’s permission to leave Hong Kong while he was on bail,” and added that he had “jumped bail and absconded overseas.”

    But Hui is also accused of committing offenses “endangering national security” overseas, the statement said, adding that he stands accused of “inciting secession” and “inciting subversion of state power,” as well as “colluding with foreign or external forces to endanger national security.”

    Hui said the confiscation order was “absurd and a blatant violation of my human rights,” and a form of political retaliation amid the crackdown.

    According to the government, Hui had transferred nearly $2.5 million Hong Kong dollars (US$321,500) in personal assets as gifts to his mother and wife before he skipped bail.

    Under Hong Kong law, if a defendant benefits from committing an offense endangering national security and makes a gift at any time from six years before the date of prosecution onwards, the property held by the recipient of the gift may be regarded as the defendant’s property and confiscated, the spokesman said.

    Laws against dissent

    Since Beijing imposed the two national security laws banning public opposition and dissent in the city and blamed “hostile foreign forces” for the resulting protests, hundreds of thousands have voted with their feet amid plummeting human rights rankings, shrinking press freedom and widespread government propaganda in schools.

    Some fled to the United Kingdom on the British National Overseas, or BNO, visa program. Others have made their homes anew in the United States, Canada, Australia and Germany.

    Many are continuing their activism and lobbying activists, yet they struggle with exile in some way, worrying about loved ones back home while facing threats to their personal safety from supporters of Beijing overseas

    Hong Kong’s leaders have vowed to pursue activists in exile for life.

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    Hui said in a post to his Facebook page that the money he had given to his mother and wife had been intended as living expenses in his absence.

    “That works out at 10,000 Hong Kong dollars (US$1,286) a month over the six years since I left Hong Kong,” Hui said. “Some people might not even think that’s very much.”

    “The people of Hong Kong can see all too clearly what is happening, and they’ll be sure to take their money overseas.”

    He told RFA Mandarin in a later interview: “Luckily, my parents sold their home in Hong Kong a few years ago and transferred the proceeds elsewhere.”

    ‘No Money left in Hong Kong is safe.’

    He said the authorities had already frozen his bank accounts in Hong Kong after he fled the city amid a crackdown on dissent and political opposition.

    “What they confiscated on this occasion was our only asset left in Hong Kong,” he said. “This has shown us that our concerns were reasonable.”

    “A regime that violates human rights will do anything, and no money left in Hong Kong is safe,” Hui said.

    The government has also hit back at criticisms of the move.

    “The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has noted the unfounded smear and malicious attacks online regarding the actions taken by the Court in accordance with the law,” the statement said. “The HKSAR Government strongly condemned and opposed this.”

    The authorities “will do everything possible and use all legal means to pursue and combat criminals who endanger national security,” he said.

    Current affairs commentator Sang Pu said the authorities’ claim that Hui’s writings on Patreon had somehow paid for the money given to his wife and mother were ridiculous.

    “Now this precedent has been set, as long as they can attach a ‘national security’ label to it, everyone’s assets and personal freedom are under threat,” Sang said.

    Taiwan-based Hong Kong activist Fu Tong said the move on Hui’s assets is very worrying for Hong Kongers in exile.

    “I’m worried because their methods are escalating,” Fu said. “Anyone who continues to speak out overseas will find they can go after people you care about back in Hong Kong, to silence you.”

    But he said he would continue to protest and advocate for the return of Hong Kong’s former freedoms.

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Eugene Whong.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Alice Yam for RFA Cantonese, Chen Zifei for RFA Mandarin.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hong Kong pollster to end public opinion research amid crackdown

    For decades, Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute, or HKPORI, tracked public attitudes on sensitive political topics that revealed a public perception of disappearing press freedom and poor popularity scores for the city’s leaders.

    But after its premises were searched and the family members of a former director were questioned by police, it has decided to halt all research activities and review its situation.

    The decision is the latest fallout from a crackdown by Beijing on public dissent in Hong Kong under two security laws.

    “HKPORI will suspend all its self-funded research activities indefinitely, including its regular tracking surveys conducted since 1992, and all feature studies recently introduced,” the institute said in a statement on its website.

    The pollster said it will “undergo a transformation or even close down.”

    “HKPORI has always been law-abiding, but in the current environment, it has to pause its promotion of scientific polling,” the statement said.

    The announcement came a few weeks after police took away and questioned the wife and son of U.K.-based pollster and outspoken political commentator Chung Kim-wah, who has a HK$1 million (US$128,500) bounty on his head.

    Chung Kim-wah, deputy chief executive of Hong Kong's Public Opinion Research Institute, during an interview, August 2020.
    Chung Kim-wah, deputy chief executive of Hong Kong’s Public Opinion Research Institute, during an interview, August 2020.
    (RFA)

    President and CEO Robert Chung said “interested parties” are welcome to take over the institute, adding that he plans to “promote professional development around the world” until his current term ends after 2026.

    “The research team hopes there will be another opportunity to resume its work,” the statement said, adding that the Institute will “announce its final decision when the time is right.”

    Accused of incitement

    Chung, 64, a former researcher for the HKPORI and co-host of the weekly talk show “Voices Like Bells” for RFA Cantonese, left for the United Kingdom in April 2022 after being questioned amid a city-wide crackdown on public dissent and political opposition to the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

    He is accused — alongside Carmen Lau, Tony Chung, Joseph Tay and Chloe Cheung — of “incitement to secession” after he “advocated independence” on social media and repeatedly called on foreign governments to impose sanctions on Beijing over the crackdown, according to a police announcement.

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    U.K.-based Hong Kong political scholar Benson Wong said the move was a huge loss to the people of Hong Kong.

    “The biggest loss for the people of Hong Kong that of a professional, neutral and scientific polling organization that once played the role of doctor to the political, economic and social aspects of life in Hong Kong,” Wong told RFA Cantonese in a recent interview.

    “If all of that is going to disappear, I think it will do catastrophic damage to Hong Kong’s … political development,” he said.

    Public opinion research viewed as a threat

    Wong said the move is likely linked to the authorities’ view of public opinion research as a threat.

    He said Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office director Xia Baolong and Beijing’s Central Liaison Office director Zheng Yanxiong don’t seem to want to know what Hong Kong public opinion is.

    Police announced a warrant for Chung Kim-wah’s arrest and a HK$1 million (US$128,400) bounty on his head in December, making him one of 19 overseas activists wanted by the Hong Kong government.

    Since Beijing imposed two national security laws banning public opposition and dissent in the city, blaming “hostile foreign forces” for the protests, hundreds of thousands have voted with their feet amid plummeting human rights rankings, shrinking press freedom and widespread government propaganda in schools.

    Some fled to the United Kingdom on the British National Overseas, or BNO, visa program. Others have made their homes anew in the United States, Canada, Australia and Germany.

    Current affairs commentator Sang Pu said the move would have a “chilling” effect on the rest of society.

    “Public opinion surveys are … are a very important weather-vane,” Sang said. “If those can’t even be done any more, then it blurs the boundaries between what is regarded as political and non-political, or what are seen as sensitive and non-sensitive [topics].”

    “I think this is going to have a chilling effect on a lot more people, and that nobody will dare to do public opinion surveys any more,” he said.

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Yam Chi Yau for RFA Cantonese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Trump’s China tariffs include Hong Kong, ending city’s separate status

    New tariffs ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump on imports from China will also apply to goods from Hong Kong, according to a U.S. government document, indicating that Washington has erased the city’s status as a separate trading entity.

    “Products of China and Hong Kong [other than exempted categories] and other than products for personal use included in accompanied baggage of persons arriving in the United States, shall be subject to an additional 10% ad valorem rate of duty,” according to Department of Homeland Security implementation guidelines for Trump’s Feb. 1, 2025 Executive Order.

    The order imposes duties on imported goods “to address the synthetic opioid supply chain in the People’s Republic of China.”

    The document cites a July 17, 2020, Executive Order from the previous Trump administration, which states that China’s ongoing political crackdown in the city represents “an unusual and extraordinary threat” because it “fundamentally undermine[s] Hong Kong’s autonomy.”

    “It shall be the policy of the United States to suspend or eliminate different and preferential treatment for Hong Kong to the extent permitted by law and in the national security, foreign policy, and economic interest of the United States,” the order states, citing Hong Kong’s 2020 National Security Law.

    Employees check rain boots for export at a shoe factory in Lianyungang, China, March 13, 2024.
    Employees check rain boots for export at a shoe factory in Lianyungang, China, March 13, 2024.
    (AFP)

    “Under this law, the people of Hong Kong may face life in prison for what China considers to be acts of secession or subversion of state power—which may include acts like last year’s widespread anti-government protests,” the Order said, citing the lack of trial by jury and the possibility of secret prosecutions.

    The new tariffs apply to all goods, even those with a value of less than US$800, but with exemptions for humanitarian and aid supplies.

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    Experts said the move is likely a bid by the U.S. government to stop Chinese companies from evading tariffs by sending goods to Hong Kong and claiming that they originated there.

    “The message is very clear,” Sunny Cheung, fellow for China studies at the Jamestown Foundation, told RFA Cantonese in a recent interview. “Hong Kong has always been China’s main transshipment port and unaffected by tariffs on Chinese goods.”

    “Now, Hong Kong is being included [in those tariffs], which can be seen as an attempt to plug a loophole and send a tougher message,” Cheung said. “It will have a greater deterrent effect on China.”

    Shipping containers at a port in Hong Kong, March 2, 2022.
    Shipping containers at a port in Hong Kong, March 2, 2022.
    (DALE DE LA REY, Dale de la Rey/AFP)

    He said the Trump administration is keenly aware of indirect ways in which China gets what it wants, citing the recent concern in Washington over the acquisition of key strategic port facilities along the Panama Canal by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing’s CK Hutchison.

    Cheung said currently the tariffs only apply to goods produced in China or Hong Kong, and had stopped short of applying to goods shipped through Hong Kong.

    “That would be a more nuclear-level attack,” Cheung said.

    While the balance of trade has fluctuated over the years, the United States has always been in the top 10 markets for goods exported from Hong Kong, which topped US$5.9 billion for the whole of last year.

    Meanwhile the Hong Kong Post said packages and parcels to the United States were suspended with effect from Feb. 5, although services for postal items containing documents only will be unaffected.

    “As advised by the postal administration of the United States, Hongkong Post shall not dispatch any postal items containing goods destined to the United States with immediate effect, unless a “formal entry” has been completely and accurately filed with the United States Customs and Border Protection in accordance with United States law,” the postal service said in a statement.

    It said postal items containing goods which entered into the United States on or after Feb. 4, 2025, will be returned to Hong Kong.

    A “formal entry” must be made via a customs broker, and requires necessary import documents and payment of duties, it said.

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Ha Syut for RFA Cantonese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Scam park victim returns to Hong Kong after Thai rescue

    A woman has returned to Hong Kong after being rescued from a Myanmar scam park by the Thai authorities, as family members petitioned the Thai Consulate for help for those who remain, according to campaigners, local media reports and the city government.

    “A Hong Kong resident, who had been detained for illegal work in Myanmar and was recently rescued, has departed Thailand for Hong Kong this afternoon with members of the [government’s] dedicated task force,” the city’s Security Bureau said in a statement on Feb. 4.

    Soon after the rescue, authorities in Thailand cut power to five locations along its border with Myanmar, in its most decisive action ever against transnational crime syndicates accused of massive fraud and forced labor.

    The areas all host online scam centers that have proliferated in lawless corners of Southeast Asia since the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, when many casinos turned to online fraud operations, often staffed by unsuspecting job seekers lured by false offers of work, to make up for lost gamblers.

    Last month, Hong Kong authorities sent a task force to Thailand in a bid to rescue scam park victims, citing a “resurgence” in criminal activity targeting the city’s residents.

    The move followed the high-profile rescue of Chinese TV actor Wang Xing from the notorious KK Park scam facility in Myawaddy, near the border with Thailand.

    Former Hong Kong district councilor Andy Yu and family members of scam park victims petition the Thai Consulate in Hong Kong, Feb. 3, 2025.
    Former Hong Kong district councilor Andy Yu and family members of scam park victims petition the Thai Consulate in Hong Kong, Feb. 3, 2025.
    (Channel C HK)

    Local media showed photos of the 31-year-old woman being taken across the river from Myawaddy and having her passport and other details checked by Thai officials.

    According to Thai media reports, the woman was rescued after the Thai Narcotics Control Bureau dispatched the Royal Thai Army and Police to get her across the border from Myawaddy to Phop Phra county in Thailand’s Tak Province.

    Hong Kong’s news site HK01.com reported that no ransom had been paid.

    In good condition

    Hong Kong security officials “met with the Hong Kong resident in Bangkok this morning and [were] delighted to find that she was in good mental and physical condition,” the Security Bureau said.

    “She expressed gratitude for the active coordination and liaison of the dedicated task force with relevant units of the Thai authorities, as well as for the assistance of different parties that enabled her to return to Hong Kong shortly after her rescue to reunite with her family as soon as possible,” it said.

    The woman arrived in Hong Kong on Feb. 4 despite concerns that her passport had a triangular section cut out of it, possibly rendering it invalid.

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    The statement thanked Chinese Foreign Ministry officials based in Hong Kong, Chinese diplomatic missions in Myanmar and Thailand, as well as the Royal Thai Consulate-General in Hong Kong, for their help with the rescue operation.

    “The dedicated task force is continuing to actively follow up on the remaining nine request-for-assistance cases of Hong Kong residents who have yet to return, striving for their return to Hong Kong as soon as possible,” it said.

    Former district councilor Andy Yu told RFA Cantonese that he and other campaigners visited the Thai consulate in Hong Kong on Monday to petition for help with the rescue of seven Hong Kongers whose family members have sought his help in recent months.

    Yu, who said he didn’t represent the 31-year-old woman rescued on Sunday, said the Thai Vice-Consul had promised that his government would “do its best” to ensure the remaining Hong Kongers are rescued too.

    “The deputy consul came to meet with us,” Yu said. “We told him the contents of the letter, including the latest situation of the seven people seeking help and about a new case.”

    “He said … that they are maintaining contact with the Hong Kong police, that they will … do their best to rescue the remaining people, and that … they can play a coordinating role,” he said. “If necessary, they can get in contact with the Myanmar Consulate in Hong Kong, and can act as an intermediary.”

    Currently, there are eight Hong Kongers trapped in scam parks in Myanmar, and one in a similar facility in Cambodia, Yu said.

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Wei Sze and Alice Yam for RFA Cantonese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Books banned in Hong Kong crackdown find new home in democratic Taiwan

    Libraries in democratic Taiwan are stocking books removed from the shelves by authorities in Hong Kong, who are waging a war on politically “sensitive” content amid an ongoing crackdown on public dissent, a recent investigation by RFA Cantonese revealed.

    Hong Kong’s bookstores once drew Chinese-language bibliophiles from far and wide in pursuit of some of the city’s most off-beat, salacious and politically radical writings, coupled with cute or alternative takes on art and culture.

    But even before the 2020 National Security Law ushered in a crackdown on public criticism of the authorities, the Chinese government had been positioning itself to take control of the city’s main publishing imprints and bookstore chains, squeezing out dozens of independent stores as it did so.

    As the political crackdown gathered momentum, libraries also made lists of books likely to run afoul of the new law, and pulled them from the shelves.

    But Taiwan’s libraries now stock tens of thousands of banned books, possibly driven in part by demand from Hong Kongers living in exile there.

    A recent search of the library catalog by RFA Cantonese, and interviews with experts, suggest that democratic Taiwan continues to act as a protective outlet for Hong Kong’s Cantonese culture, despite the ongoing crackdown.

    A catalog search of the National Taiwan Library, Taipei City Library and Academia Sinica Library for 144 books that have been removed from libraries in Hong Kong, according to local media reports, found that 107 of the titles is now available in one of these libraries.

    Among the banned titles on offer are We Were Chosen by the Times and Every Umbrella, compilations of interviews with non-prominent participants in the 2014 Umbrella Movement for fully democratic elections, now removed from the Hong Kong Central Library.

    Farewell to Cynicism: the Crisis of Liberalism in Hong Kong, Parallel Space and Time I : An International Perspective Based on Locality, and Hong Kong, a Restless Homeland, a history of the city from a local perspective, once-lauded titles freely available in Hong Kong, have also found new homes in Taiwan, the catalog showed.

    Readers can also choose among 17 business-related titles penned by jailed pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai, now stocked at the National Taiwan Library, Taipei City Library and Academia Sinica Library.

    The Taipei City Library also houses the most extensive collection of books about the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, the 2019 Hong Kong protests and the Umbrella Movement.

    Public demand

    Hong Kong historian Eric Tsui told RFA Cantonese he was surprised to see some of his banned books on the shelves of libraries in Taiwan.

    “The fact that you can find these books in public libraries in Taiwan, suggests that the Taiwanese public cares about Hong Kong, and that public libraries are stocking these books due to public demand,” Tsui said.

    Taipei City Library Director Hung Shih-chang said the library has added an average of 1,500 to 2,000 Hong Kong publications a year in recent years.

    Taiwanese sociologist Jieh-min Wu in an undated photo.
    Taiwanese sociologist Jieh-min Wu in an undated photo.
    (RFA)

    “Hong Kong books are mainly obtained through exchange and donations, particularly donations,” Hung told RFA Cantonese in a recent interview.

    Public demand and purchases are definitely also a factor.

    “If the public requests Hong Kong publications that aren’t available in Taiwan, we will purchase them,” Hung said. “There may be people who have moved from Hong Kong to Taipei in recent years who want to read some books published in Hong Kong, so they may make some recommendations, and then the numbers go up a bit.”

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    “One of the most important purposes of a public library is to provide information to our readers freely and to ensure fair access to all kinds of information,” he said, adding that censorship in democratic Taiwan is “very unlikely” to happen.

    “We will try our best to meet the needs of diverse interests in the collection and provision of library materials.”

    In this case, a service that was once provided to Hong Kongers in their own city has effectively moved offshore.

    Promoting national thought

    “The mission of every national public library should be to collect all the works of local citizens and become a resource for national thought, so that citizens of a place can share [ideas] with each other,” Tsui said.

    “Now, because of the China factor, you are afraid of offending China and deprive Hong Kongers of their public property,” he said.

    Taiwanese sociologist Jieh-min Wu said Taiwan still has memories of its recent, authoritarian past.

    “A lot of books were banned during the authoritarian period [here], just as they are in Hong Kong today,” Wu said.

    “Libraries removed books from the shelves, but they didn’t have a list of banned books. They just quietly removed them.”

    “From my research perspective, Hong Kong is going through a similar period to martial law [in Taiwan, which ended in July 1987]; a time where there are very strict controls on political topics,” Wu told RFA Cantonese in a recent interview.

    He said pro-democracy organizations in exile played an important role in “preserving information and then transmitting it back” home during the authoritarian rule of the Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo.

    Taiwan began a transition to democracy following the death of President Chiang Ching-kuo, in January 1988, starting with direct elections to the legislature in the early 1990s and culminating in the first direct election of the island’s president, Lee Teng-hui, in 1996.

    While China insists on eventual “unification” with Taiwan — by armed invasion if necessary — the majority of Taiwan’s 23 million people have no wish to give up their democratic way of life to submit to Communist Party rule.

    China has threatened the death penalty for supporters of Taiwan independence, while Taipei says Beijing has no jurisdiction over the actions of its citizens.

    A recent public opinion poll from the Institute for National Defense and Security Research showed that 67.8% of respondents were willing to fight to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion.

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Eugene Whong


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Alice Yam for RFA Cantonese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Jumping dragons and spinning unicyclists as Hong Kong rings in the Year of the Snake


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Jumping dragons and spinning unicyclists as Hong Kong rings in the Year of the Snake


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hong Kong police question more members of pollster’s family

    Hong Kong national security police have taken away three family members of U.K.-based pollster and outspoken political commentator Chung Kim-wah, who has a bounty on his head amid a crackdown on dissent under two security laws.

    Chung, 64, is a former deputy head of the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute and co-host of the weekly talk show “Voices Like Bells” for RFA Cantonese.

    He left for the United Kingdom in April 2022 after being questioned amid a city-wide crackdown on public dissent and political opposition to the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

    Officers took two of Chung’s brothers and a sister from their homes on Wednesday morning.

    Chung’s second brother was taken to Tsuen Wan Police Station for questioning, his third sister to Central Police Station, and his fourth brother to Castle Peak Police station.

    Chung is accused — alongside Carmen Lau, Tony Chung, Joseph Tay and Chloe Cheung — of “incitement to secession” after he “advocated independence” on social media and repeatedly called on foreign governments to impose sanctions on Beijing over the crackdown, according to a police announcement.

    He told Radio Free Asia that the questioning of his family members came as “no surprise,” but said they had nothing to do with his professional activities.

    “My brothers and sisters are all adults, so why should they be held responsible for what I do?” Chung told RFA Cantonese in an interview on Jan. 22. “They live in Hong Kong, and I’m in the U.K., so I never tell them anything.”

    U.K.-based Hong Kong pollster Chung Kim-wah, who has a bounty on his head, in an undated file photo.
    U.K.-based Hong Kong pollster Chung Kim-wah, who has a bounty on his head, in an undated file photo.
    (RFA)

    Chung said the move was likely an attempt to intimidate people carrying out independent public opinion research, which often involves negative views of the government.

    “It seems that they don’t want to face up to public opinion, so they’re doing this to scare us, and ‘deal with’ the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute,” he said. “It’s kind of tedious.”

    ‘Long-arm’ law enforcement

    Exiled Hong Kong democracy activists have called for an international effort to combat the threat of Beijing’s “long-arm” law enforcement beyond its borders, saying recent bounties on the heads of 19 people are deliberately intended to create a “chilling effect” on activists everywhere.

    The move came after police questioned Chung’s wife and son and former colleague Robert Chung earlier this month, as part of a “national security police investigation.”

    Chung announced he had left the city on April 24, 2022, to “live for a while in the U.K.”

    In a Facebook post announcing his departure, Chung said he didn’t want to “desert” his home city, but “had no other option.”

    He ran afoul of the authorities early in December 2021, ahead of the first-ever elections for the Legislative Council to exclude pro-democracy candidates in a system that ensures only “patriots” loyal to Beijing can stand.

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    Chung was hauled in for questioning after pro-Beijing figures criticized him for including a question in a survey about whether voters intended to cast blank ballots in the election, which critics said could amount to “incitement” to subvert the voting system under the national security law.

    Nineteen people now have HK$1 million (US$130,000) bounties on their heads following two previous announcements in July and December 2023.

    ‘Seditious intention’

    Meanwhile, national security police said they had also arrested a 36-year-old man in Eastern District on Jan. 21 on suspicion of “knowingly publishing publications that had a seditious intent,” a charge under the Safeguarding National Security Law, known as Article 23.

    The content of the publications had “provoked hatred towards the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Hong Kong Police Force and the Judiciary, as well as called for sanctions against government officials and inciting violence,” police said in a statement dated Jan. 22.

    “Police remind members of the public that “knowingly publishing publications that had a seditious intention” is a serious crime,” the statement said, warning that offenders could face jail terms of seven years on their first conviction.

    “Members of the public are urged not to defy the law,” it said.

    More than 10,000 people have been arrested and at least 2,800 prosecuted in a citywide crackdown in the wake of the 2019 protest movement, mostly under public order charges.

    Nearly 300 have been arrested under 2020 National Security Law, according to the online magazine ChinaFile.

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Lee Heung Yeung and Matthew Leung for RFA Cantonese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hong Kong pink dolphin numbers dwindle to a handful

    Hong Kong’s iconic pink dolphins have dwindled to just a handful in the waters off northern Lantau Island in recent years, with concerns for the animals’ future since the city’s international airport added a third runway, researchers told RFA Mandarin.

    The endangered animals, a local variant of the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin, a species also known as the Chinese white dolphin, were once chosen as the mascot for Hong Kong’s 1997 handover to Chinese rule, Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Project researcher Viena Mak said in a recent interview.

    But their numbers have plummeted in the past decade, researchers say, despite a brief rebound during the COVID-19 travel restrictions that started in 2020.

    Before the construction of the airport at Chek Lap Kok, the waters around Hong Kong’s outlying Lantau Island were teeming with marine life, with 188 pink dolphins counted in 2003, 102 of which were off North Lantau, where the airport now lies.

    A security guard stands on the tarmac of the completed third runway at Chek Lap Kok airport, Hong Kong, Sept. 7, 2021.
    A security guard stands on the tarmac of the completed third runway at Chek Lap Kok airport, Hong Kong, Sept. 7, 2021.
    (Peter Parks/AFP)

    Now, researchers estimate that just three or four pink dolphins still live in the area.

    Even more worryingly, just 10 days after the city’s US$18.5 billion third runway became operational, a pink dolphin was found beached and dead nearby, Mak said.

    “It was a mother who had just given birth,” she said. “We had been observing it at sea in October and were able to take pictures of the mother and the baby.”

    Mak said she feared the infant wouldn’t survive, as they usually need a mother’s care until they are one or two years old, and can forage independently for food.

    Vulnerable species

    The Chinese white dolphin is on the Red List of Endangered Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, where it is listed as vulnerable.

    Their habitat was greatly disturbed by the massive land reclamation that took place in the waters off northern Lantau Island to build Hong Kong’s International Airport at Chek Lap Kok, and sightings of the dolphins have become extremely rare in that part of the city’s coastal waters, according to the Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Project, which has been monitoring them since before the handover.

    In the first year of the airport’s expansion in 2016, just 11 dolphins were recorded north of Lantau. By the time the third runway was completed in 2020, researchers could only find three, although four were spotted last year, Mak said.

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    One of them has been named “Snowy,” although she’s known in official records simply as NL104.

    “That means she’s the 104th pink dolphin to be identified in the waters off Lantau,” Mak said. “She has had three births, one of which was in October 2011. We also saw her with her baby in 2015.”

    Government figures back up the Conservation Project’s findings.

    People take a commercial tour boat to look for
    People take a commercial tour boat to look for “pink dolphins” in the waters off the coast of Hong Kong, Sept. 20, 2020.
    (May James/AFP)

    Hong Kong was home to just 34 pink dolphins in 2023, down from 47 in 2017, according to a survey by the city’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation.

    “Large declines in dolphin abundance were detected over the past two decades in both Northeast Lantau and Northwest Lantau survey areas, and noticeable decline was also detected in West Lantau waters but has stabilized in recent years,” the report said.

    Increase in casualties

    Dolphins are increasingly showing up as casualties following increased activity in the area, Mak said, although the reason isn’t entirely clear.

    Five dolphins were beached in 2016, rising to eight in 2018, and 11 in 2020, although there has been a slight fall since then.

    “We’re not exactly sure what happened to these dolphins, and why they were found beached in Hong Kong, but it is a cause for concern,” Mak said. “Numbers at sea fell during the same period that the numbers found beached increased.”

    A Cathay Pacific Cargo plane takes off at Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok International Airport, April 24, 2020.
    A Cathay Pacific Cargo plane takes off at Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok International Airport, April 24, 2020.
    (ANTHONY WALLACE, Anthony Wallace/AFP)

    Some of the dolphins have moved elsewhere, she said.

    “We found that shortly after the third runway project started, they moved to different places, from the waters of North Lantau to West Lantau and Southwest Lantau,” Mak told RFA Mandarin. “Now that the project is completed, they don’t go back there often.”

    “It’s no longer the paradise it used to be … and some of the older dolphins know this very well,” she said.

    Move brings risks

    The move to unfamiliar waters brings with it greater survival pressures, as the animals come into contact with other human activities like shipping, high-speed ferries and fishing. Once in their new habitat, they then compete with the other dolphins for food.

    Part of the problem is that the runway was built around 1 kilometer (.6 miles) from marine coastal protection areas where the dolphins used to raise their young, and in between two conservation areas, effectively cutting off the route for animals that “commuted” between them, Mak said.

    A
    A “pink dolphin” swims in the waters off the coast of Hong Kong, Sept. 20, 2020.
    (May James/AFP)

    Mak also cites the building of the massive Hong Kong-Zhuai-Macau Bridge as an example of a land reclamation project that has impinged on the dolphins’ ability to survive.

    She said researchers haven’t seen a dolphin in the area of that project in nine years, despite the creation of a marine “reserve” for them, in the form of the North Lantau Coastal Park, once the project was completed.

    “You can see from their website how big the reserve is, and what conservation measures have been put in place,” Mak said. “But none of it has worked … because the dolphins just don’t go there.”

    Mak suspects that the marine reserve is just cosmetic; a bid by the government to convince people that the dolphins will return after the damage has been done.

    “It’s too late now,” she said. “The damage is too severe.”

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Mai Xiaotian for RFA Mandarin.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Chinese police detain artist who supported democracy in Hong Kong

    Chinese authorities in Xi’an have detained Fei Xiaosheng, a prominent musician and performance artist who had publicly supported the Hong Kong democracy movement, his friends and fellow artists told RFA Mandarin.

    Xi’an police caught up with Fei, 55, on Tuesday, and are now holding him the Beilin Detention Center, according to associates who knew him as part of the Songzhuang Artists’ Village scene of dissident and fringe artists in Beijing.

    His detention comes as the ruling Communist Party continues to crack down on artists and other creative workers whose work or views are seen as potentially subversive.

    Authorities are also holding Gao Zhen, one of the Gao Brothers artistic duo, on suspicion of ‘insulting revolutionary heroes and martyrs,’ after seizing satirical artworks depicting Chairman Mao from his home studio.

    “I was shocked to hear that Songzhuang musician and artist Fei Xiaosheng has been detained,” fellow artist Du Yinghong, who now lives in Thailand, said in a social media post on Wednesday.

    “Two years ago, we contacted each other a number of times, and he said he envied me [living outside of China],” he wrote. “A few days ago, we had a video call, and I found out he had applied for a passport, gone to Serbia, yet somehow returned to the cage that is our country.”

    “He said he planned to leave again soon, and told me to add his European number, but then we heard the bad news that he’d been arrested,” Du wrote.

    Devout Christian

    Du later told RFA Mandarin that Fei is being held in Xi’an’s Beilin Detention Center, but that the authorities have yet to issue any official notification of his detention.

    “This is part of their cultural cleansing operation, and a settling of scores,” he said, adding that Fei had likely been targeted for his public support for the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

    “Fei Xiaosheng is a devout Christian who once expressed solidarity and support for Hong Kong, and was detained for more than 40 days for this,” Du said.

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    Du said the artist had a strong sense of social justice, and followed current affairs closely. He was expelled by state security police from Songzhuang Artists’ Village in 2020.

    “He used to organize music festivals and performance art festivals in Songzhuang,” Du said, adding that police had burned Fei’s old passport.

    “He had returned to China [from Serbia] for work, and was just about to leave China again,” he said.

    ‘China is finished’

    Writer He Sanpo, who like many Chinese writers now lives in Thailand, said he was saddened to hear of Fei’s detention, but not surprised.

    “But people who are really engaged in making art know that China is finished,” He said. “In today’s China, if you have a conscience and dare to speak a few truths, you will have committed some crime.”

    “The only thing you can do is to escape from it.”

    Fei’s detention came as Gao Zhen’s trial is expected to start.

    Gao’s friends told RFA Mandarin in recent interviews that his case will be heard at the Xianghe County People’s Court in the northern province of Hebei next week, possibly Monday.

    Gao’s lawyer has been warned not to make public any details of the case, they said.

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • HSBC’s refusal to appear at UK Parliament hearing on Hong Kong was a mistake

    The closing weeks of 2024 brought troubling news from Hong Kong, from the jailing of 45 democracy activists to a guilty verdict for seven people charged with “rioting” for trying to stop a violent thug attack.

    Away from the headlines, an equally insidious form of repression is playing out: the problem of more than 120,000 recent Hong Kong exiles who have been cut off from their retirement savings since 2021.

    Hong Kong Watch has found that Hong Kongers were being denied access to over £3 billion (US$3.8 billion) of money they paid into the city’s retirement scheme, known as the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF).

    On Dec. 19 in London, Hong Kong Watch joined the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hong Kong and Stand with Hong Kong in a hearing on the withholding of Hong Kongers’ MPF savings in the British Parliament.

    The MPF is a compulsory retirement savings scheme for the people of Hong Kong. Under the legal guidelines which govern MPF savings, Hong Kongers are entitled to withdraw their money in full once they complete a declaration form stating that they have permanently departed from Hong Kong.

    However, after Hong Kong authorities announced in in January 2021 that they no longer recognized the British National (Overseas) (BNO) passport as a valid form of identity , an estimated 126,500 Hong Kongers have been blocked from accessing their MPF savings.

    People walk past a branch of HSBC bank in Hong Kong, March 16, 2022.
    People walk past a branch of HSBC bank in Hong Kong, March 16, 2022.
    (Kin Cheung/AP)

    The British Parliament heard that this number is likely higher, as the mere awareness of an overwhelming number of cases being rejected discourages Hong Kongers from applying for withdrawal.

    The three Hong Kongers who testified this month also emphasized that the Hong Kong government’s non-recognition of the BNO passport has no basis in law, as there have been no legal changes made to the MPF Trust Deed.

    As of the end of June, the total value of all MPF schemes was a little over £122 billion.

    Taking the average MPF account size of £26,000, and multiplying it by the number of BNO visa holders at 127,000, there is over £3.25 billion worth of MPF assets that Hong Kongers are currently being denied access to as of Sept. 30.

    Bank no-shows

    The London-headquartered MPF trustee banks, HSBC and Standard Chartered, which manage £37 billion and £758 million worth of MPF savings respectively, were invited to testify at the hearing.

    However, despite a personal request from Blair McDougall, the chair of the APPG on Hong Kong and host of the hearing, HSBC rejected the request to appear before Parliament and Standard Chartered failed to respond.

    Their refusal and silence speaks louder than words.

    Specifically, in their response to the APPG on Hong Kong and to 13 Parliamentarians who inquired about how the HSBC restructure will affect MPF claimants, HSBC claims that they are legally bound by Hong Kong legislation in their non-recognition of the BNO passport as proof of identity.

    Yet the non-recognition of the BNO passport is not legally binding but a tactic of transnational repression against those who have fled from the quickly deteriorating human rights environment in Hong Kong.

    The BNO passport is also a UK government-issued identity document, which the UK government should immediately make clear to the UK-headquartered MPF trustees.

    In addition to the non-recognition of the BNO passport, MPF trustees have denied access to MPF savings for accounts which are “under investigation” by the Hong Kong government.

    This is applicable for accounts connected to the Hong Kongers who were issued arrest warrants with HK$1 million bounties for participating in pro-democracy activities in 2023.

    This further demonstrates that the blocking of MPF savings is a form of financial transnational repression.

    Suffering, lost opportunities

    The Hong Kongers who testified at the hearing included Chloe Lo, a single mother who shared, “Last winter, I could barely pay my heating bill and my child and I experienced the coldest winter of our lives.”

    This could have been avoided if she had access to the £57,000 in her MPF account.

    The other Hong Kongers said that accessing their MPF savings would allow them to pursue further education in the UK and to invest in British businesses.

    Their testimonies coincided with a letter sent directly to HSBC last week from nearly 400 Hong Kongers in the UK, urging the financial institution to immediately release the savings that rightfully belong to them.

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    HSBC is mistaken in refusing to appear before Parliament, as their refusal only demonstrates HSBC’s complicity in the financial transnational repression of the Hong Kong government.

    One Hong Konger who testified and whose MPF account has depreciated by 5% in 2024 alone said, “It is obvious that HSBC is arbitrarily holding our savings to roll up the assets and squeeze the administration cost and capital gains from the investment.”

    Following the hearing, the Parliament is keen to continue raising this issue, and to press the UK government to issue guidance to and have conversations with HSBC and Standard Chartered about the validity of the BNO passport.

    This is not just a matter for the Hong Kong authorities but also for the UK ones who issue BNO passports and are responsible for the more than 180,000 Hong Kongers who now call Britain home.

    To conclude the hearing, chair McDougall said that we often talk about the cost of human rights violations against individuals around the world but how in this case, there is an actual number on that cost.

    He also said that both HSBC and Standard Chartered “still have questions to answer, even if they are not willing to open themselves to scrutiny.”

    This could not be more spot on, and this is not the end of HSBC and Standard Chartered being invited to appear before Parliament.

    Megan Khoo is policy director at the international NGO Hong Kong Watch. Khoo, based in London, has served in communications roles at foreign policy non-profit organizations in London and Washington, D.C.. The views expressed here do not reflect the position of Radio Free Asia.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Megan Khoo.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hong Kong offers bounties for 6 more democrats

    The Hong Kong government announced on Tuesday rewards of HK$1 million (US$130,000) for help in arresting six more pro-democracy campaigners, accusing them of violating a national security law and working to undermine the territory with calls for sanctions against lawmakers and independence from China.

    Carmen Lau, Tony Chung, Chung Kim-wah, Joseph Tay and Chloe Cheung were accused of incitement to secession in a notice posted on the Hong Kong Police Force website.

    The police also accused journalist Victor Ho, 69, of subversion for calling a referendum over the proposed formation of a parliament-in-exile to push for Hong Kong’s independence from China.

    All of the six live abroad.

    “Today was the last working day before our year-end holiday at HKDC and I just learned that I am now a wanted Hong Konger with a HK$1 million bounty for national security offences,” former Hong Kong district councillor and current Hong Kong Democracy Council member Carmen Lau, 29, posted on social media platform X.

    “I have always considered serving Hong Kongers and fighting for our freedom and democracy my lifelong obligation since the day I was elected as a district councillor,” she added. “I swear to put our fight for Hong Kong before anything else, even before myself.”

    Lau called on governments including the U.K., where she lives, the U.S. and the E.U. to impose sanctions on Hong Kong “human rights perpetrators” without naming anyone.

    Hong Kong Security Secretary Chris Tang said the six had endangered national security through their speeches and social media posts and by lobbying foreign governments to sanction Hong Kong officials. He told a news conference the six “had little conscience.”

    “Illegal acts will be prosecuted and punished no matter how far away they are,” Tang said.

    Nineteen people now have HK$1 million bounties on their heads following two previous announcements in July and December 2023. Authorities plan to cancel the passports of seven of the activists on the wanted list, including ex-lawmakers Ted Hui and Dennis Kwok, Hong Kong media reported.

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    Hong Kong was a British colony from 1841 to 1997, when it was returned to Chinese rule under a “one country, two systems” agreement. The Sino-British Joint Declaration said the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region would maintain a degree of autonomy from China for 50 years, maintaining the rights and freedoms set out in the Basic Law.

    In 2019, thousands of Hong Kong people took to the streets to protest against what they saw as the erosion of democracy, prompting a crackdown by the government. The following year Beijing imposed a national security legislation that included new crimes like “collusion with foreign forces” and subversion.

    In April, the city passed its own version of China’s national security law, known as Article 23, adding several new offenses, including treason, sabotage, and espionage and allowing police to hold suspects for up to 16 days without charge. Sedition was also added and its scope expanded to include “inciting hatred” against the Chinese Communist Party.

    The United States and Britain have condemned what they see as the erosion of the freedoms and rights that Hong Kong was promised when it returned to Chinese rule.

    The city government and Beijing reject the accusations saying stability is needed to safeguard the Asian financial hub’s economic success.

    Edited by Mike Firn.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hong Kong mulls AI police drones amid rise in public surveillance

    Authorities in Hong Kong are stepping up surveillance of the city’s 7 million residents with plans to deploy automated police drones, artificial intelligence and thousands of new cameras in public places, including taxis, according to recent government announcements.

    The police are currently installing an additional 2,000 surveillance cameras in public places including the controversial smart lampposts targeted by protesters in 2019, Senior Superintendent of Police for Operations Leung Ming-leung told a meeting of the Independent Police Complaints Council on Dec. 17.

    By 2027, an additional 7,000 cameras will be installed to monitor “crime black-spots,” with a pilot scheme already rolled out in Mong Kok, which saw mass pro-democracy protests and gatherings in 2014 and 2019, as well as the “Fishball Revolution” of 2016.

    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 protest movement.

    Thousands have been arrested on public order charges and hundreds under two national security laws, which ban criticism of the authorities or references to the protests.

    Taxis drive along a street in Hong Kong, Dec. 19, 2024.
    Taxis drive along a street in Hong Kong, Dec. 19, 2024.
    (Wei Sze/RFA)

    “At places where there is a higher footfall, we would install the CCTV with a view to preserving public order and public safety,” Leung said.

    Police will also install “public address systems” to boost communication with the public, he added.

    Facial recognition

    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.

    Police Commissioner Raymond Siu said in February that use of facial recognition technology to track people caught by the cameras was likely in future.

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    Leung told the Council that footage captured by CCTV has helped solve 97 cases so far this year, including assaults and murders, but it is currently not intended for use in traffic violations like running a red light.

    He said the authorities used surveillance cameras to estimate the size of crowds in the Lan Kwai Fong bar district at Halloween, “to help with manpower deployment.”

    Automated drone patrols

    Secretary for Security Chris Tang told lawmakers police are currently looking at bringing in automated drone patrols along default routes across Hong Kong, with images analyzed by AI for policing purposes.

    “This can lead to greater operational effectiveness and higher work quality,” Tang said, adding that the program would comply with current safety and privacy laws.

    Hong Kong’s police force is already equipped with a range of different drones and monitoring instruments, and are already increasingly being used by police, customs and immigration for investigation purposes, Tang told the Legislative Council on Dec. 11.

    Police also use drones to conduct high-rise patrols at crime black spots, he said.

    “For instance, mounted thermography and infrared detection systems are used to detect the presence of suspicious persons lingering or hiding at remotely located places or at difficult terrains,” Tang told lawmakers.

    Surveillance cameras on a Hong Kong street, November 2024.
    Surveillance cameras on a Hong Kong street, November 2024.
    (Wei Sze/RFA)

    Meanwhile, the Transport Advisory Committee has said it plans to amend the law to mandate in-vehicle and dashboard cameras and GPS systems in all taxis.

    “The camera system proposal … will better safeguard the interests of taxi drivers and passengers in cases of disputes and enhance driving safety for taxis,” Committee Chairman Stephen Cheung said in a statement on Dec. 17.

    “These two measures will be conducive to enhancing the overall quality and image of taxi services,” he said.

    ‘It’s overkill’

    Not everyone thought the additional cameras would make them safer, however.

    “I don’t think it will,” a passerby who gave only the surname Lai for fear of reprisals told Radio Free Asia on Thursday. “On the contrary, if the streets are being monitored, there will be no privacy.”

    “I really think it’s overkill.”

    A taxi driver who gave only the surname Wong for fear of reprisals said: “I don’t really agree with it, because of the privacy issues.”

    “Who gets to see it? It could be misused, or used as a political tool by the government,” he said. “I’m very worried about that.”

    A passerby who gave only the surname Chan told RFA in an earlier interview that he had doubts about the true purpose of the surveillance cameras because there isn’t much street crime in Hong Kong.

    “There really aren’t that many thieves,” he said. “But it’ll mean that if we have something we want to speak out about in future, or to oppose, we won’t be able to.”

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Wei Sze, Luk Nam Choi and Edward Li for RFA Cantonese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hong Kong mulls AI police drones amid rise in public surveillance

    Authorities in Hong Kong are stepping up surveillance of the city’s 7 million residents with plans to deploy automated police drones, artificial intelligence and thousands of new cameras in public places, including taxis, according to recent government announcements.

    The police are currently installing an additional 2,000 surveillance cameras in public places including the controversial smart lampposts targeted by protesters in 2019, Senior Superintendent of Police for Operations Leung Ming-leung told a meeting of the Independent Police Complaints Council on Dec. 17.

    By 2027, an additional 7,000 cameras will be installed to monitor “crime black-spots,” with a pilot scheme already rolled out in Mong Kok, which saw mass pro-democracy protests and gatherings in 2014 and 2019, as well as the “Fishball Revolution” of 2016.

    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 protest movement.

    Thousands have been arrested on public order charges and hundreds under two national security laws, which ban criticism of the authorities or references to the protests.

    Taxis drive along a street in Hong Kong, Dec. 19, 2024.
    Taxis drive along a street in Hong Kong, Dec. 19, 2024.
    (Wei Sze/RFA)

    “At places where there is a higher footfall, we would install the CCTV with a view to preserving public order and public safety,” Leung said.

    Police will also install “public address systems” to boost communication with the public, he added.

    Facial recognition

    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.

    Police Commissioner Raymond Siu said in February that use of facial recognition technology to track people caught by the cameras was likely in future.

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    Leung told the Council that footage captured by CCTV has helped solve 97 cases so far this year, including assaults and murders, but it is currently not intended for use in traffic violations like running a red light.

    He said the authorities used surveillance cameras to estimate the size of crowds in the Lan Kwai Fong bar district at Halloween, “to help with manpower deployment.”

    Automated drone patrols

    Secretary for Security Chris Tang told lawmakers police are currently looking at bringing in automated drone patrols along default routes across Hong Kong, with images analyzed by AI for policing purposes.

    “This can lead to greater operational effectiveness and higher work quality,” Tang said, adding that the program would comply with current safety and privacy laws.

    Hong Kong’s police force is already equipped with a range of different drones and monitoring instruments, and are already increasingly being used by police, customs and immigration for investigation purposes, Tang told the Legislative Council on Dec. 11.

    Police also use drones to conduct high-rise patrols at crime black spots, he said.

    “For instance, mounted thermography and infrared detection systems are used to detect the presence of suspicious persons lingering or hiding at remotely located places or at difficult terrains,” Tang told lawmakers.

    Surveillance cameras on a Hong Kong street, November 2024.
    Surveillance cameras on a Hong Kong street, November 2024.
    (Wei Sze/RFA)

    Meanwhile, the Transport Advisory Committee has said it plans to amend the law to mandate in-vehicle and dashboard cameras and GPS systems in all taxis.

    “The camera system proposal … will better safeguard the interests of taxi drivers and passengers in cases of disputes and enhance driving safety for taxis,” Committee Chairman Stephen Cheung said in a statement on Dec. 17.

    “These two measures will be conducive to enhancing the overall quality and image of taxi services,” he said.

    ‘It’s overkill’

    Not everyone thought the additional cameras would make them safer, however.

    “I don’t think it will,” a passerby who gave only the surname Lai for fear of reprisals told Radio Free Asia on Thursday. “On the contrary, if the streets are being monitored, there will be no privacy.”

    “I really think it’s overkill.”

    A taxi driver who gave only the surname Wong for fear of reprisals said: “I don’t really agree with it, because of the privacy issues.”

    “Who gets to see it? It could be misused, or used as a political tool by the government,” he said. “I’m very worried about that.”

    A passerby who gave only the surname Chan told RFA in an earlier interview that he had doubts about the true purpose of the surveillance cameras because there isn’t much street crime in Hong Kong.

    “There really aren’t that many thieves,” he said. “But it’ll mean that if we have something we want to speak out about in future, or to oppose, we won’t be able to.”

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Wei Sze, Luk Nam Choi and Edward Li for RFA Cantonese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hong Kong verdict against Yuen Long attack victims prompts widespread criticism

    The verdict by a Hong Kong court has generated widespread criticism after it found seven people — including former lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting — guilty of “rioting” when they tried to stop white-clad men wielding sticks from attacking passengers at a subway station in 2019.

    Exiled former pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui, who like Lam is a member of the Democratic Party, accusing authorities of “rewriting history.”

    “It’s a false accusation and part of a totally fabricated version of history that Hong Kong people don’t recognize,” Hui told RFA Cantonese after the verdict was announced on Dec. 12.

    “How does the court see the people of Hong Kong?” he asked. “How can they act like they live in two separate worlds?”

    The District Court found Lam and six others guilty of “taking part in a riot” by as dozens of thugs in white T-shirts rained blows down on the heads of unarmed passengers — including their own — using rattan canes and wooden poles at Yuen Long station on July 21, 2019.

    Lam, one of the defendants in the subversion trial of 47 activists for holding a democratic primary, is also currently serving a 6-years-and-9-month prison sentence for “conspiracy to subvert state power.”

    Victim Galileo, a V, displays scarring and seven stitches following the July 21, 2019 attacks at Yuen Long MTR station in Hong Kong.
    Victim Galileo, a V, displays scarring and seven stitches following the July 21, 2019 attacks at Yuen Long MTR station in Hong Kong.

    While the defense argued that the men were defending themselves against the thugs, the prosecution said they had “provoked” the attacks and used social media to incite people to turn up and defend against the men.

    Letters of thanks

    The verdict came despite Lam and former District Councilor Sin Cheuk-lam having received letters from the Hong Kong Police thanking them for their role in the incident.

    Sentencing in the trial, which began in October 2023, is expected on Feb. 27, with mitigation hearings set for Jan. 22.

    A conviction for rioting carries a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment, although the District Court is limited to handing out sentences of no more than seven years.

    Issuing his verdict on Dec. 12, Judge Stanley Chan said he didn’t believe that Lam had using his standing as a Legislative Councilor to mediate the conflict or monitor the police response, and accused him of trying to take advantage of the situation for his own political benefit.

    Felt numb

    A victim of the attacks who is now overseas and gave only the pseudonym Galileo for fear of reprisals said he felt numb when he heard Thursday’s verdict, as he had felt the result to be inevitable amid an ongoing crackdown on public dissent in Hong Kong.

    “I used a fire extinguisher and sprayed water [during the attacks],” Galileo said, adding that he and journalist Gwyneth Ho were “beaten several times.”

    Wearing a cycle helmet, Galileo, a pseudonym, left, tries to protect Stand journalist Gwyneth Ho, right, during attacks by thugs at Yuen Long MTR, July 21, 2019 in Hong Kong.
    Wearing a cycle helmet, Galileo, a pseudonym, left, tries to protect Stand journalist Gwyneth Ho, right, during attacks by thugs at Yuen Long MTR, July 21, 2019 in Hong Kong.

    “I was panicky and scared, and my instinct was to protect myself and others,” he said.

    According to Galileo, Lam’s actions likely protected others from also being attacked.

    “I felt that his presence made everyone feel calmer, because he was a member of the Legislative Council at the time,” he said of Lam’s role in the incident. “He kept saying the police were coming, and everyone believed him, so they waited, but the police never came.”

    Police were inundated with emergency calls from the start of the attacks, according to multiple contemporary reports, but didn’t move in until 39 minutes after the attacks began.

    In a recent book about the protests, former Washington Post Hong Kong correspondent Shibani Mahtani and The Atlantic writer Timothy McLaughlin wrote that the Hong Kong authorities knew about the attacks in advance.

    Members of Hong Kong’s criminal underworld “triad” organizations had been discussing the planned attack for days on a WhatsApp group that was being monitored by a detective sergeant from the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau, the book said.

    Chased and beaten

    According to multiple accounts from the time, Lam first went to Mei Foo MTR station to warn people not to travel north to Yuen Long, after dozens of white-clad thugs were spotted assembling at a nearby chicken market.

    When live footage of beatings started to emerge, Lam called the local community police sergeant and asked him to dispatch officers to the scene as soon as possible, before setting off himself for Yuen Long to monitor the situation in person.

    On arrival, he warned some of the attackers not to “do anything,” and told people he had called the police. Eventually, the attackers charged, and Lam and others were chased and beaten all the way onto a train.

    One of the people shown in that early social media footage was chef Calvin So, who displayed red welts across his back following beatings by the white-clad attackers.

    So told RFA Cantonese on Friday: “The guys in white were really beating people, and injured some people … I don’t understand because Lam Cheuk-ting’s side were spraying water at them and telling people to leave.”

    He described the verdict as “ridiculous,” adding: “But ridiculous things happen every day in Hong Kong nowadays.”

    Erosion of judicial independence

    In a recent report on the erosion of Hong Kong judicial independence amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent that followed the 2019 protests, law experts at Georgetown University said the city’s courts now have to “tread carefully” now that the ruling Chinese Communist Party has explicitly rejected the liberal values the legal system was built on.

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    Nowadays, Hong Kong’s once-independent courts tend to find along pro-Beijing lines, particularly in politically sensitive cases, according to the December 2024 report, which focused on the impact of a High Court injunction against the banned protest anthem “Glory to Hong Kong.”

    “In our view, at least some judges are issuing pro-regime verdicts in order to advance their careers,” said the report, authored by Eric Lai, Lokman Tsui and Thomas Kellogg.

    “The government’s aggressive implementation of the National Security Law has sent a clear signal to individual judges that their professional advancement depends on toeing the government’s ideological line, and delivering a steady stream of guilty verdicts.”

    Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Luk Nam Choi and Edward Li for RFA Cantonese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Has the EU decided to cancel favorable trade treatment for Hong Kong?

    A claim emerged in Chinese-language reports that the European Union decided to cancel favorable tariff policies towards Hong Kong.

    But the claim is misleading. The reports cited an EU resolution that is a non-binding request designed to draw attention to the latest issues in Hong Kong. As of Dec. 13, the bloc had not revoked the city’s favorable customs treatment.

    The claim was shared in a report published by the Taiwanese media outlet NewTalk News on Dec. 5, 2024.

    “The European Parliament has recently passed a resolution to revoke the EU’s special tariff treatment for Hong Kong,” the report reads in part.

    The report cited a post on X uploaded by “News Investigation” that reads: “The European Parliament has recently passed a resolution requesting the European Union to revoke favorable tariff treatment for Hong Kong. The US$500 billion in annual Chinese exports to the EU which pass through Hong Kong will no longer enjoy ultra-low tariffs.”

    Online media claimed that the EU decided to cancel favorable tariffs previously enjoyed by Hong Kong.
    Online media claimed that the EU decided to cancel favorable tariffs previously enjoyed by Hong Kong.

    The EU has historically granted Hong Kong favorable customs treatment, recognizing its status as a separate customs territory distinct from mainland China. This arrangement facilitated trade by simplifying customs procedures and reducing tariffs, thereby promoting economic exchange between the EU and Hong Kong.

    The claim about the EU revoking Hong Kong’s favorable customs treatment is false.

    EU resolution on Hong Kong

    Keyword searches found a resolution regarding Hong Kong passed by the EU on Nov. 28, 2024 here.

    “Calls on the EEAS [European External Action Service] and the Member States to warn China that its actions in HK will have consequences for EU-China relations; calls on the Council … to revoke HK’s favourable customs treatment and review the status of the HK Economic Trade Office in Brussels,” the resolution reads in part.

    The European Parliament adopts three types of resolutions, including non-legislative ones, which offer greater flexibility by allowing the parliament to address any topic it deems relevant. These resolutions are non-binding. The recent resolution on Hong Kong falls under this category.

    While such resolutions express the parliament’s views, they do not impose any obligation on other EU institutions to act on their calls. Instead, the primary purpose of these resolutions is to draw the attention of other European institutions to specific issues.

    The EU’s resolution was in response to a Hong Kong court jailing 45 democracy supporters for up to 10 years.

    In all, 47 Hong Kong opposition politicians and pro-democracy activists were charged with “conspiracy to commit subversion” under the city’s 2020 National Security Law for taking part in a democratic primary in the summer of 2020. Two were acquitted.

    Amid growing calls for further sanctions on Hong Kong and the expansion of lifeboat visa schemes for those fleeing the ongoing political crackdown in the city, the governments of the U.S., U.K. and Australia, and the United Nations slammed the sentencing.

    The EU resolution on Hong Kong, passed with 473 votes in favor, 23 against and 98 abstentions, calls on the city to immediately release the jailed activists as well as pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai.

    Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Taejun Kang.

    Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) was established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. We publish fact-checks, media-watches and in-depth reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of current affairs and public issues. If you like our content, you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Zhuang Jing for Asia Fact Check Lab.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Has the EU decided to cancel favorable trade treatment for Hong Kong?

    A claim emerged in Chinese-language reports that the European Union decided to cancel favorable tariff policies towards Hong Kong.

    But the claim is misleading. The reports cited an EU resolution that is a non-binding request designed to draw attention to the latest issues in Hong Kong. As of Dec. 13, the bloc had not revoked the city’s favorable customs treatment.

    The claim was shared in a report published by the Taiwanese media outlet NewTalk News on Dec. 5, 2024.

    “The European Parliament has recently passed a resolution to revoke the EU’s special tariff treatment for Hong Kong,” the report reads in part.

    The report cited a post on X uploaded by “News Investigation” that reads: “The European Parliament has recently passed a resolution requesting the European Union to revoke favorable tariff treatment for Hong Kong. The US$500 billion in annual Chinese exports to the EU which pass through Hong Kong will no longer enjoy ultra-low tariffs.”

    Online media claimed that the EU decided to cancel favorable tariffs previously enjoyed by Hong Kong.
    Online media claimed that the EU decided to cancel favorable tariffs previously enjoyed by Hong Kong.

    The EU has historically granted Hong Kong favorable customs treatment, recognizing its status as a separate customs territory distinct from mainland China. This arrangement facilitated trade by simplifying customs procedures and reducing tariffs, thereby promoting economic exchange between the EU and Hong Kong.

    The claim about the EU revoking Hong Kong’s favorable customs treatment is false.

    EU resolution on Hong Kong

    Keyword searches found a resolution regarding Hong Kong passed by the EU on Nov. 28, 2024 here.

    “Calls on the EEAS [European External Action Service] and the Member States to warn China that its actions in HK will have consequences for EU-China relations; calls on the Council … to revoke HK’s favourable customs treatment and review the status of the HK Economic Trade Office in Brussels,” the resolution reads in part.

    The European Parliament adopts three types of resolutions, including non-legislative ones, which offer greater flexibility by allowing the parliament to address any topic it deems relevant. These resolutions are non-binding. The recent resolution on Hong Kong falls under this category.

    While such resolutions express the parliament’s views, they do not impose any obligation on other EU institutions to act on their calls. Instead, the primary purpose of these resolutions is to draw the attention of other European institutions to specific issues.

    The EU’s resolution was in response to a Hong Kong court jailing 45 democracy supporters for up to 10 years.

    In all, 47 Hong Kong opposition politicians and pro-democracy activists were charged with “conspiracy to commit subversion” under the city’s 2020 National Security Law for taking part in a democratic primary in the summer of 2020. Two were acquitted.

    Amid growing calls for further sanctions on Hong Kong and the expansion of lifeboat visa schemes for those fleeing the ongoing political crackdown in the city, the governments of the U.S., U.K. and Australia, and the United Nations slammed the sentencing.

    The EU resolution on Hong Kong, passed with 473 votes in favor, 23 against and 98 abstentions, calls on the city to immediately release the jailed activists as well as pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai.

    Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Taejun Kang.

    Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) was established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. We publish fact-checks, media-watches and in-depth reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of current affairs and public issues. If you like our content, you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Zhuang Jing for Asia Fact Check Lab.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hong Kong court convicts seven for rioting after 2019 mob attack | Radio Free Asia (RFA)


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hong Kong court convicts seven for rioting after 2019 mob attack | Radio Free Asia (RFA)


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hong Kong officials learn neighborhood surveillance from China

    Hong Kong is sending district councilors and other local officials to mainland China to learn how the ruling Chinese Communist Party uses local networks of volunteers to monitor the population and target potential unrest before it happens.

    China’s “red armband” brigade of state-sanctioned busybodies have been dubbed the biggest intelligence network on the planet by social media users, and have supplied information that has also led police to crack major organized crime, according to state media.

    Neighborhood committees in China have long been tasked with monitoring the activities of ordinary people in urban areas, while its grid management system turbo-charges the capacity of officials even in rural areas to monitor what local people are doing, saying and thinking.

    These local forms of surveillance and social control are known in Chinese political jargon as the “Fengqiao Experience.”

    Now, it looks as if Hong Kong will be adopting similar measures, according to the city’s Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs, Alice Mak, who confirmed that 18 local officials had already been to the eastern province of Zhejiang to study the system.

    “Through classroom study and on-the-spot understanding of the practical methods of the Fengqiao Experience … district councilors understand that regional governance requires strengthening communication with citizens, understanding their emergencies, difficulties and worries, as well as the early detection and resolution of citizens’ problems,” Mak told the Legislative Council on Wednesday.

    She said the Fengqiao Experience will be implemented in Hong Kong by newly introduced “care teams,” and that further training is in the pipeline.

    Former pro-democracy District Councilor Cheung Man-lung.
    Former pro-democracy District Councilor Cheung Man-lung.

    In July 2021, China empowered local officials at township, village and neighborhood level to enforce the law, as well as operating a vastly extended “grid management” system of social control in rural and urban areas alike.

    According to directives sent out in 2018, the grid system carves up neighborhoods into a grid pattern with 15-20 households per square, with each grid given a dedicated monitor who reports back on residents’ affairs to local committees.

    Hong Kong’s care teams are also expected to help the authorities inform the public, as well as reporting the views of the public to the government, according to a 2022 document announcing their deployment.

    Detecting grievances

    Current affairs commentator Johnny Lau said the ongoing crackdown on public dissent under two national security laws isn’t enough for the authorities, who want to nip any signs of potential unrest in the bud.

    “The authorities are taking the big-picture view that there will be a lot of public grievances given the current economic problems,” Lau told RFA Cantonese in a recent interview. “It’s clear that more grassroots work will have to be done to prevent any outbreak of such grievances.”

    He said the District Councils, which now contain only members judged “patriotic” following recent changes in the electoral system, will be the mainstay of the new approach, with the care teams staying in touch with local residents in neighborhoods.

    But he said there are also plenty of technological options for keeping an eye on what people are up to.

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    Former pro-democracy District Councilor Cheung Man-lung said the care teams won’t necessarily be effective if people don’t trust them, however.

    “Community work is always based on public trust in those in positions of responsibility,” Cheung said. “If people don’t trust them, then there’ll be a lot of problems [with this approach].”

    Cheung said he hasn’t seen much of his local care team, despite the bursting of a water main in his neighborhood recently.

    Chief Executive John Lee, who was “elected” unopposed following changes to the electoral rules in 2022, first announced the establishment of care teams in his October policy address of that year, saying they would “take part in community-building” across Hong Kong’s 18 districts.

    The government would carve up districts into sub-districts, and seek to engage local organizations and groups, including young people and ethnic minorities to take part in community building, he said.

    The first care teams, chosen for their patriotism and willingness to follow the government’s lead, were deployed in Tsuen Wan and Southern districts in 2023.

    The government changed the rules governing District Council election after the 2019 poll resulted in a landslide victory for pro-democracy candidates that was widely seen as a ringing public endorsement for the pro-democracy movement despite months of disruption and clashes.

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Wei Sze and Dawn Yu for RFA Cantonese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Chinese women buy up sanitary products in Hong Kong amid safety fears

    Mainland Chinese shoppers are once more converging on stores in Hong Kong, but this time, they’re not in search of infant formula, clean cooking oil or Yakult probiotic drinks.

    They’re buying up large quantities of sanitary towels and other feminine care items, spurred by reports of contaminated and discolored cotton filling in similar products made just across the border in mainland China and sold in Chinese stores.

    “The quality’s more acceptable,” a resident of neighboring Guangzhou city shopping for sanitary products at one store in Hong Kong told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview. “I’m not so worried about using them because there are guaranteed standards.”

    “I wish Chinese state-owned enterprises and regulatory authorities would follow up on safety issues around Chinese sanitary towels,” said the woman, who gave only the surname Zhang for fear of reprisals.

    “I don’t buy them there anymore,” a woman who gave only the pseudonym Chen told RFA. “I only buy them here.”

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    More than 340 million women aged 15 to 49 use sanitary napkins in China, with sales of such products worth around 98 billion yuan, or US$13.4 billion.

    Yet many mainland Chinese women don’t trust feminine care products that are made in China.

    Chinese companies have been embroiled in a string of public health scandals affecting foodstuffs in recent years, including other incidents involving Sudan Red in foods, melamine-tainted milk, used “gutter” cooking oil and cadmium-tainted rice.

    Skimping on quality

    Women have been taking to social media in recent weeks to report quality issues in sanitary products made in mainland China, including reports of substandard cotton filling that has been recycled from questionable sources, is discolored or contaminated.

    A social media video last month showed one raw material supplier telling a blogger that the recycled material being sold as filling for sanitary towel manufacturers “came from diapers.”

    Another blogger cut open a Sanwu brand product on camera, finding “inexplicable black blobs and foreign objects” in the filling, including a human hair.

    Chinese manufacturers have also been accused of skimping on quality, including supplying sanitary towels that are several centimeters shorter than their advertised length.

    “It’s a hot topic on Douyin right now that some sanitary towels just aren’t long enough,” a Shenzhen resident who gave only the surname Shen for fear of reprisals told RFA in a recent interview. “Some have been said to be unhygienic, with filling that looks black when you shine a light on it.”

    Following social media complaints on Douyin and Xiaohongshu, government-backed media The Paper tested 24 different brands, finding that 88% of them were at least a centimeter (0.4 inches) shorter than advertised.

    Chinese industry standards allow a discrepancy of up to 4%, which would equate to about 10-15 millimeters, suggesting that the discrepancies may not be illegal.

    A worrying situation

    More worryingly, social media users carried out their own private laboratory tests on Chinese-made feminine care products, finding that many products currently on the market have excessive levels of bacteria, harmful chemicals or the wrong pH, and could be harmful to women, leading to health problems, including bacterial vaginitis and pelvic inflammatory disease.

    The reports prompted many women to take to social media in the hope of locating “safe” brands of sanitary products, spawning a wave of sellers on the social media platform claiming to have goods made in Hong Kong and Japan.

    Sanitary products sold in personal products stores like Hong Kong’s Watson’s are often made in Hong Kong or Japan, to far more stringent safety standards.

    In one social media video, a customer service representative of feminine products manufacturer ABC told a customer who complained: “If you don’t think this is acceptable, you don’t have to buy them.”

    The company’s products were later removed from the shelves of its Tmall flagship store following a social media outcry.

    A number of Chinese companies have made public apologies, while ABC has said that it is “deeply sorry” for its “inappropriate” customer service response, according to multiple media reports.

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Wei Sze for RFA Cantonese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s High-Profile Trial Enters 93rd Day | Radio Free Asia (RFA)


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai’s High-Profile Trial Enters 93rd Day | Radio Free Asia (RFA)


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • 45 Hong Kong activists & ex-lawmakers to spend four years and 2 months to 10 years in prison


    This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Detained Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai testifies in his foreign collusion trial

    Detained Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai testified on Wednesday for the first time in his trial on charges of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces”, telling a court he and his now-defunct newspaper had always stood for freedom.

    Lai, 76, is facing charges under the 2020 National Security Law that Beijing imposed on the former British colony a year after it was rocked by anti-government protests. He faces life imprisonment.

    “We were always in support of movements for freedom,” Lai, wearing a gray blazer and glasses, told the West Kowloon Magistrates Court, the Reuters news agency reported.

    Scores of Lai’s supporters lined up outside the court in the rain early on Wednesday, hoping to get in to show their support, media reported.

    The founder of the now-closed Apple Daily, a Chinese-language tabloid renowned for its pro-democracy views and criticism of Beijing, pleaded not guilty on Jan. 2 to “sedition” and “collusion” under the security law.

    The United States, Britain and other Western countries have denounced Lai’s prosecution and called for his release.

    Human rights groups say Lai’s trial is a “sham” and part of a broad crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong that has all but destroyed its reputation as the only place in Greater China where the rule of law and freedoms of speech and assembly were preserved.

    The hearing comes a day after a Hong Kong court jailed 45 democracy supporters for up to 10 years for subversion at the end of the city’s biggest national security trial.

    Those sentences drew international condemnation and calls for further sanctions on Hong Kong and the expansion of lifeboat visa schemes for those fleeing the political crackdown in the city.

    Trump vow

    Lai is a British citizen who, despite being born in the southern province of Guangdong, has never held Chinese citizenship. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer raised concerns about Lai’s health when he met Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday at a G20 meeting in Brazil.

    Beijing said the 2020 security law was necessary to safeguard the Asian financial hub’s economic success.

    But critics say crackdowns on dissent and press freedom that followed its introduction sounded the death knell for the “one country, two systems” formula under which Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997, that was meant to safeguard freedoms not enjoyed elsewhere in China for 50 years.

    Lai has been in prison for nearly four years. He was jailed for nearly six years in 2022 on a fraud conviction linked to his media business.

    Lai has long advocated for the U.S. government, especially during the first term of President Donald Trump, to take a strong stance in supporting Hong Kong’s civil liberties, which he viewed as essential to the city’s role as a gateway between China and global markets.

    Prosecutors, however, allege that Lai’s activities and his newspaper’s articles constituted lobbying for sanctions against Beijing and Hong Kong, a violation of the national security law. Lai’s lawyers argue that he ceased such actions after the law took effect on June 30, 2020.

    Trump has vowed to secure Lai’s release, media reported.

    During Trump’s first term, the U.S. revoked Hong Kong’s special trade status and enacted legislation allowing sanctions on the city’s officials in response to China’s crackdown on the city.

    During the peak of the 2019 protests, Lai visited Washington and met then-Vice President Mike Pence and other U.S. politicians to discuss Hong Kong’s political crisis.

    “Mr President, you’re the only one who can save us,” Lai said in an interview with CNN in 2020 weeks before his arrest.

    “If you save us, you can stop China’s aggressions. You can also save the world.”

    Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.

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    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hong Kong: 45 Activists Jailed Up to 10 Years | Radio Free Asia (RFA)


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hong Kong pro-democracy tycoon Jimmy Lai faces high-stakes trial | Radio Free Asia (RFA)


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Jailing of 45 Hong Kong democracy activists sparks international outcry

    Read coverage of this story in Chinese

    Rights activists, relatives and Hong Kong’s former colonial governor on Tuesday slammed the sentencing of 45 democracy activists and former lawmakers for up to 10 years for “subversion,” amid growing calls for further sanctions on Hong Kong and the expansion of lifeboat visa schemes for those fleeing the ongoing political crackdown in the city.

    Britain’s last colonial governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten of Barnes, said the sentences, handed down to pro-democracy activists for organising a primary in July 2020, were “an affront to the people of Hong Kong.”

    “I absolutely condemn these sham sentences, which resulted from a non-jury trial and point to the destruction of freedoms of assembly, expression, and the press in Hong Kong,” Patten said in a statement.

    “The U.K. government must not allow the results of this case to go unnoticed or uncondemned,” he said.

    British politician and former governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten speaks during an awards ceremony, in Tokyo on November 19, 2024.
    British politician and former governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten speaks during an awards ceremony, in Tokyo on November 19, 2024.

    British Foreign Office minister Catherine West said the sentencing was a clear demonstration of Hong Kong authorities‘ use of the 2020 National Security Law to criminalize political dissent.

    “Those sentenced today were exercising their right to freedom of speech, of assembly and of political participation,” West said in a statement.

    Canadian Senator Leo Housakos, Member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, described the sentences as a “grave injustice.”

    “The National Security Law and the prosecution of these freedom fighters undermine the principles of freedom, human rights, and rule of law,” Housakos said in a statement posted by the London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch.

    Call for sanctions

    Former politics lecturer Chan Kin-man, who founded the 2014 Occupy Central pro-democracy movement along with key defendant Benny Tai, said none of those jailed, many of whom have been behind bars for more than three years, should have spent a single day in prison.

    “Benny worked hard as a constitutional scholar to expand the scope of the pro-democracy movement through peaceful means,” Chan said of Tai, who was handed a 10-year jail term by the Hong Kong High Court on Tuesday.

    He said all of those who took part in the 2020 democratic primary – which the prosecution argued was an attempt to subvert the government – had been exercising their rights under the city’s constitution, the Basic Law.

    “This makes me both sad and angry,” Chan said in a written reaction to RFA Cantonese.

    RELATED STORIES

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    U.S.-based activist Anna Kwok, who heads the Hong Kong Democracy Council, condemned the Hong Kong government for “launching an all-out assault” against the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

    “The international community must respond to the intensifying political repression with proportionate actions,” Kwok said via her X account. “We continue to call on the U.S. government to impose targeted sanctions on Hong Kong and [Chinese] officials responsible for the crackdown on these pro-democracy leaders.”

    She also called for the status of Hong Kong’s Economic and Trade Offices to be revoked by Congress, saying there are now around 1,900 political prisoners in the city.

    ‘Distortion of the facts’

    Journalist-turned-activist Gwyneth Ho, who was handed a seven-year jail term on Tuesday, said the prosecution’s claim that the democratic primary was an attempt to undermine the government was a “distortion of the facts.”

    “They forced the accused to deny their own lived experience, to see genuine solidarity as just a delusion,” Ho wrote in a post to her Facebook page. “That the bonds, the togetherness, the honest conversations among people so different yet so connected … were just a utopian dream.”

    Ho warned that what happened in Hong Kong could happen in any democracy.

    “Today, no democracy is immune to the crisis of legitimacy that results from a deficit of public trust,” she said. “Defend and repair your own democracy. Push back against the corruption of power, restore faith in democratic values through action.”

    But she said she had no regrets about her involvement in the pro-democracy movement, and the 2019 protests that many saw as a last-ditch attempt to defend the city’s vanishing freedoms.

    “Even if what happened today was always inevitable for Hong Kong, then at least back in 2019 we chose to face up to it, rather than … dumping the problem onto the next generation,” Ho wrote.

    Office workers and protesters gather during a pro-democracy demonstration in the Central district in Hong Kong on Dec. 20, 2019.
    Office workers and protesters gather during a pro-democracy demonstration in the Central district in Hong Kong on Dec. 20, 2019.

    League of Social Democrats leader Chan Po-ying, said the sentencing of her husband and fellow activist Leung Kwok-hung to six years and nine months’ imprisonment for taking part in the primary was “unjust.”

    “My only thought is that this is an unjust sentence; he shouldn’t have to spend a day in prison,” Chan told RFA Cantonese. She said she would be focusing on how best to support Leung during his weekly prison visits.

    Maya Wang, senior China researcher for the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said: “Running in an election and trying to win it is now a crime that can lead to a decade in prison in Hong Kong.”

    A promise broken

    In Taiwan, presidential spokesperson Karen Kuo said democracy isn’t a crime.

    “This was a serious violation of the Hong Kong people’s pursuit of freedom and democracy,” Kuo said. “It shows us that the promise that Hong Kong would remain unchanged for 50 years has been broken.”

    She said China’s promise to allow the city to run under different principles from the rest of China – the “one country, two systems” formula that Beijing also wants to use in Taiwan – wasn’t viable.

    “Taiwan will continue to work with the international community to jointly resist the expansion of authoritarian power,” Kuo said.

    Hong Kong Watch called on the British government to expand the British National Overseas visa scheme to include those born before the 1997 handover to Chinese rule, if they had one parent who was eligible for the scheme.

    This picture taken on July 19, 2021, shows a family taking a photo at the departure gates of Hong Kong's International Airport before they emigrate to Britain.
    This picture taken on July 19, 2021, shows a family taking a photo at the departure gates of Hong Kong’s International Airport before they emigrate to Britain.

    It also called on Washington to renew Deferred Enforced Departure, or DED, status for Hong Kongers in the United States, “to prevent them from being forced to return to Hong Kong where the human rights environment continues to worsen.”

    Hong Kong Watch said Ottawa, meanwhile, should “clear the backlog of Hong Kong Pathway applications to prevent the expiration of temporary status for Hong Kongers in Canada.”

    Group Patron Ambassador Derek Mitchell said the sentences were “another dark milestone” for Hong Kong.

    “The international community must strongly condemn this crime and stand with these brave former legislators, activists, journalists, and trade unionists who fought resolutely for democracy, rights and freedom against the tyranny of the Chinese Communist Party,” Mitchell said.

    Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Cantonese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hong Kong jails 45 democracy activists for up to 10 years

    A Hong Kong court jailed 45 democracy supporters for up to 10 years on Tuesday at the end of the city’s biggest national security trial that has damaged its reputation as an outpost of freedom in Greater China and drawn criticism from the United States and other Western countries.

    In all, 47 Hong Kong opposition politicians and pro-democracy activists were charged with “conspiracy to commit subversion” under the city’s 2020 National Security Law for taking part in a democratic primary in the summer of 2020. Two were acquitted

    China imposed the law on the former British colony a year after it was rocked by anti-government riots.

    Beijing said the law was necessary to safeguard the Asian financial hub’s economic success but critics denounced it as meaning the end of a “one country, two systems” formula under which Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997, that was meant to safeguard freedoms not enjoyed elsewhere in China for 50 years.

    Prominent democracy activist Benny Tai, who was accused of being the organizer of the 2020 primary election, was jailed for 10 years, while Joshua Wong, another leading activist, was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison.

    Activist Owen Chow was sentenced to seven years and nine months and former journalist-turned-activist Gwyneth Ho, was jailed for seven years.

    The charge of “conspiracy to commit subversion” carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

    Security was tight outside the West Kowloon Magistrates Court where the sentences were handed down, with a heavy police presence on the streets.

    Police officers stand guard outside the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts in Hong Kong, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024.
    Police officers stand guard outside the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts in Hong Kong, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024.

    The embassies of many countries, including the U.S., Britain, Germany and Australia, sent representatives to the hearing.

    Repeated delays to the 118-day trial have meant that the majority of the defendants have been behind bars for more than three-and-a-half years, something that would have been previously unheard of in the Hong Kong judicial system.

    Thirty-one of the defendants pleaded guilty and 16 denied the charges.

    People wait outside the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts in Hong Kong Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, ahead of the sentencing in national security case.
    People wait outside the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts in Hong Kong Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, ahead of the sentencing in national security case.

    The 47 former pro-democracy lawmakers and opposition activists helped to organize a primary election in July 2020, in a bid to find the best candidates for a pan-democratic slate in the city’s September 2020 Legislative Council elections.

    The prosecution argued that their bid to win a majority was “a conspiracy” to undermine the city government and take control of the Legislative Council.

    Article 22 of China’s National Security Law for Hong Kong bans anyone from “seriously interfering in, disrupting or undermining the performance of duties and functions in accordance with the law by the body of central power of the People’s Republic of China or the body of power of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region by force or threat of force or other unlawful means.”

    More than 600,000 voters took part in the primary, which was part of a bid to win enough votes for pro-democracy candidates to veto the government’s budget, which would have offered the opposition camp valuable political leverage when negotiating with the government.

    ‘Devastating blow’

    As Beijing-backed media claimed the primary was a bid to overthrow the city government, the administration of then-Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced an investigation into it.

    Lam also postponed the September 2020 election, citing the COVID-19 pandemic, while the government rewrote the electoral rulebook to prevent pro-democracy candidates from running, eventually holding an election in December 2021 in which only “patriots” approved by a Beijing-backed committee were allowed to stand.

    On Jan. 6, 2021, newly formed national security police dispatched more than 1,000 officers to 72 locations across Hong Kong, arresting 55 people on suspicion of subversion under the National Security Law in a crackdown that pro-democracy activists said struck a “devastating blow” to the city’s political life.

    They brought formal charges against 47 of them, then denied bail to the majority following a grueling arraignment hearing lasting more than four days, including a first-day session of 15 hours, during which defendants were unable to eat, shower or get a change of clothes.

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    The charges were the first clear indication that the ruling Chinese Communist Party and Hong Kong officials would be using the National Security Law to crack down on peaceful opposition and public dissent, rather than to restore public order in the wake of the 2019 protests, and sparked an international outcry.

    The last British colonial governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten of Barnes, said the trial was part of a political “purge” by the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

    Washington condemned the detention and charging of democrats, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling for their immediate release.

    Then-British foreign secretary Dominic Raab called the charges “deeply disturbing” and said it showed how the security law was being used to eliminate political dissent rather than restoring order following the 2019 protest movement, as the government had claimed.

    Then-Australian foreign minister Marise Payne said the 47 defendants “were peacefully exercising their rights,” while the German foreign ministry called on the Hong Kong authorities to release the defendants and schedule postponed elections to the Legislative Council “in a fair and democratic manner.”

    Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • EXPLAINED: Who are the Hong Kong 47?

    Read coverage of this story in Chinese

    Sentencing is expected on Tuesday following the trial of 47 Hong Kong opposition politicians and pro-democracy activists charged with subversion under the city’s 2020 National Security Law for taking part in a democratic primary in the summer of 2020.

    Police on Monday cordoned off the area outside the city’s High Court with traffic barriers and high fences, with armored vehicles standing by.

    The charge of “conspiracy to commit subversion” carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, but a range of custodial sentences looks likely following three months of mitigation hearings that concluded on Sept. 3.

    Exiled former pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui said the security measures were “a symbol of iron curtain suppression.”

    “The use of high fencing to enclose the court … sends the message that the government is in total control, and that people had better not even dream of putting up any resistance,” Hui said. “The aim is to make the people of Hong Kong give up.”

    The Hong Kong High Court found 14 democrats guilty of “conspiracy to commit subversion,” more than three years after their initial arrests in January 2021, including former pro-democracy lawmaker and veteran social activist Leung Kwok-hung and union leader Carol Ng.

    Two defendants were acquitted.

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    Jailed pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, Occupy Central founder Benny Tai and journalist-turned-lawmaker Claudia Mo were among 31 defendants who pleaded guilty in a political climate where acquittals have become rare, but where a guilty plea could mean a much lighter sentence.

    Former journalist Gwyneth Ho, a 2019 protest movement activist, former nursing student Owen Chow and labor unionist Winnie Yu were among those who pleaded not guilty, and stood trial between Feb. 6 and Dec. 4, 2023 before a panel of three government-picked national security judges and no jury.

    Repeated delays to the 118-day trial have meant that the majority have been behind bars for more than three-and-a-half years already, something that would have been previously unheard of in the Hong Kong judicial system.

    What did the activists do?

    The 47 former pro-democracy lawmakers and opposition activists had helped to organize a primary election in July 2020, in a bid to find the best candidates for a pan-democratic slate in the September 2020 Legislative Council elections.

    The prosecution argued that their bid to win a majority was “a conspiracy” to undermine the city’s government and take control of the Legislative Council.

    Article 22 of China’s National Security Law for Hong Kong bans anyone from “seriously interfering in, disrupting or undermining the performance of duties and functions in accordance with the law by the body of central power of the People’s Republic of China or the body of power of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region by force or threat of force or other unlawful means.”

    More than 600,000 voters took part in the primary, which was part of a bid to win enough votes for pro-democracy candidates to veto the government’s budget, which would have offered the opposition camp valuable political leverage when negotiating with the government.

    How did the authorities react?

    As Beijing-backed media claimed the primary was a bid to overthrow the city government, the administration of then-Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced an investigation into the event.

    Lam also postponed the September 2020 election, while the government rewrote the electoral rulebook to prevent pro-democracy candidates from running, eventually holding a fresh election in December 2021 in which only “patriots” approved by a Beijing-backed committee were allowed to stand.

    On Jan. 6, 2021, the newly formed national security police dispatched more than 1,000 officers to 72 locations across Hong Kong, arresting 55 people on suspicion of subversion under the National Security Law in a move that pro-democracy activists said struck a “devastating blow” to the city’s political life.

    They brought formal charges against 47 of them, then denied bail to the majority following a grueling arraignment hearing lasting more than four days, including a first-day session of 15 hours, during which defendants were unable to eat, shower or get a change of clothes.

    How did the rest of the world react?

    The charges were the first clear indication that the ruling Chinese Communist Party and Hong Kong officials would be using the National Security Law to crack down on peaceful opposition and public dissent, rather than to restore public order in the wake of the 2019 protests, and sparked an international outcry.

    The last British colonial governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten of Barnes, said the trial was part of a political “purge” by the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

    Washington condemned the detention and charging of democrats, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling for their immediate release.

    Then-British foreign secretary Dominic Raab called the charges “deeply disturbing” and said it showed how the National Security Law was being used to eliminate political dissent rather than restoring order following the 2019 protest movement, as the government had claimed.

    Then-Australian foreign minister Marise Payne said the 47 defendants “were peacefully exercising their rights,” while the German foreign ministry called on the Hong Kong authorities to release the defendants and schedule postponed elections to the Legislative Council “in a fair and democratic manner.”

    What are the implications for Hong Kong?

    Exiled Hong Kong democracy activist Fu Tong, who now lives in democratic Taiwan, said it wasn’t just the 47 defendants who had been criminalized by the process.

    “It wasn’t just them on trial, but all 600,000 of us who voted [in the primary],” Fu told RFA on Nov. 18. “We have become criminals too.”

    The case normalized the use of a three-judge panel and no jury, as well as restrictions on meetings with lawyers for defendants in national security trials, observers said.

    Described by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee as a “sham trial,” the case was an early indicator that political trials would likely become far more common in Hong Kong following the imposition of the 2020 National Security Law.

    In December 2023, Hong Kong plummeted in Cato Institute’s Human Freedom Index, with the annual rights report describing China’s crackdown in the city as a “descent into tyranny.”

    The city – once ranked in the top 10 freest territories in the world – dropped from 3rd place in 2010 to 46th place in 2021 out of 165 countries, the Cato Institute said in its 2023 report. It fell 17 spots from 2020.

    The report found “notable deterioration” in nearly every kind of freedom, but particularly in its rule of law, freedom of expression, and freedom of association and assembly ratings.

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Luisetta Mudie and Joshua Lipes.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Ha Syut for RFA Cantonese, Chen Zifei for RFA Mandarin.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.