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 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. 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.
RELATED STORIES
Innocent-sounding ‘care teams’ spark fears of heightened surveillance in Hong Kong
China recruits thousands to monitor its citizens’ words and deeds
China moves ahead with ‘mass policing’ plan for local communities
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.
-
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.”
RELATED STORIES
Chinese shoppers panic buy pressed cooking oil amid safety fears
Taiwan finds banned Sudan Red dye in chili powder from China
Chinese women unimpressed by government’s plan to make more babies
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.
-
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
-
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
-
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 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.
RELATED STORIES
Hong Kong jails 45 democracy activists for up to 10 years
Jailing of 45 Hong Kong democracy activists sparks international outcry
Trial delay sparks calls for release of Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
-
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
-
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
-
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 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
Hong Kong jails 45 democracy activists for up to 10 years
EXPLAINED: Who are the Hong Kong 47?
In Hong Kong court, subversion trial linked to democratic primary kicks off
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. 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. 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.
-
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. 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. 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.
RELATED STORIES
Hong Kong’s “47 Activists Case”: A Record-Breaking Political Trial
EXPLAINED: Who are the Hong Kong 47?
Hong Kong rejects amnesty for thousands arrested for 2019 protests
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.
-
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.
RELATED STORIES
One year after mass jailings, Hong Kong remembers the 47
Charging of Politicians For ‘Subversion’ in Hong Kong Sparks International Outcry
Marathon Hong Kong Bail Hearing Ends With 47 Activists Behind Bars
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.
-
In his tireless global campaign to save 77-year-old media publisher Jimmy Lai from life imprisonment in Hong Kong, Sebastien Lai has not seen his father for more than four years.
Sebastien, who leads the #FreeJimmyLai campaign, last saw his father in August 2020 — weeks after Beijing imposed a national security law that led to a massive crackdown on pro-democracy advocates and journalists. Among them Lai, founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily.
After nearly four years in Hong Kong’s maximum-security Stanley Prison and multiple delays to his trial, the aging British citizen was due to take the stand for the first time on November 20 on charges of sedition and conspiring to collude with foreign forces, which he denies.
Imprisoned Hong Kong media publisher Jimmy Lai with his son Sebastien in an undated photo. (Photo: Courtesy of #FreeJimmyLai campaign) Lai, who has diabetes, routinely spends over 23 hours a day in solitary confinement, with only 50 minutes for restricted exercise and limited access to daylight, according to his international lawyers.
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has found that Lai is unlawfully and arbitrarily detained and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called for his release.
Responding to CPJ’s request for comment, a Hong Kong government spokesperson referred to a November 17 statement in which it said that Lai was “receiving appropriate treatment and care in prison” and that Hong Kong authorities “strongly deplore any form of interference.”
In an interview with CPJ, Sebastien spoke about Britain’s bilateral ties with China, as well as Hong Kong — a former British colony where his father arrived as a stowaway on a fishing boat at age 12, before finding jobs in a garment factory and eventually launched a clothing retail chain and his media empire.
What do you anticipate when your father takes the stand for the first time?
To be honest, I do not know. My father is a strong person, but the Hong Kong government has spent four years trying to break him. I don’t think they can break his spirit but with his treatment they are in the process of breaking his body. We will see the extent of that on the stand.
Your father turned 77 recently. How is he doing in solitary confinement?
The last time I saw my father was in August of 2020. I haven’t been able to return to my hometown since and therefore have been unable to visit him in prison. His health has declined significantly. He is now 77, and, having spent nearly four years in a maximum-security prison in solitary confinement, his treatment is inhumane. For his dedication to freedom, they have taken his away.
For his bravery in standing in defense of others, they have denied him human contact. For his strong faith in God, they have denied him Holy Communion.
Sebastien Lai, son of imprisoned Hong Kong media publisher Jimmy Lai, holds up a placard calling for his father’s release in front of the Brandenburg Gate during a campaign in Berlin, Germany, in October 2024. (Photo: CPJ) We have seen governments across the political spectrum call for Jimmy Lai’s release —the U.S., the European Parliament, Australia, Canada, Germany, and Ireland, among others. What does that mean to you?
We are incredibly grateful for all the support from multiple states in calling for my father’s release. The charges against my father are sham charges. The Hong Kong government has weaponized their legal system to crack down on all who criticize them.
You met with the U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy recently, who said Jimmy Lai’s case remains a priority and the government will press for consular access. What would you like to see Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government do?
They have publicly stated that they want to normalize relationships with China and to increase trade. I don’t see how that can be achieved if there is a British citizen in Hong Kong in the process of being killed for standing up for the values that underpin a free nation and the rights and dignity of its citizens.
Any normalization of the relationship with China needs to be conditional on my father’s immediate release and his return to the United Kingdom.
Sebastien Lai (third from right) campaigns for his father Jimmy Lai’s release with his international legal team and the Committee to Protect Journalists staff during World Press Freedom Day at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York City in May 2023. (Photo: Courtesy of Nasdaq) Your father’s life story in many ways embodies Hong Kong’s ‘never-give-up’ attitude. Do you think Hong Kong journalists and pro-democracy activists will keep on fighting? What is your message to Beijing and the Hong Kong government?
I think most of the world shares his spirit. Hong Kong is unique because it’s a city of refugees. It’s a city where we were given many of the freedoms of the free world. And as a result, it flourished. We knew what we had and what we escaped from.
My message is to release my father immediately. A Hong Kong that has 1,900 political prisoners for democracy campaigning, is a Hong Kong that has no rule of law, no free press, one that disregards the welfare of its citizens. This is not a Hong Kong that will flourish.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Beh Lih Yi.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
-
A Hong Kong journalist fired by the Wall Street Journal after she was elected leader of a local journalists’ union lodged a legal challenge with the city’s labor tribunal on Tuesday.
Selina Cheng, who says she was let go as part of “restructuring” in July after being warned against seeking election as chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, is filing a case with the tribunal after her request for reinstatement was unsuccessful.
“I was fired by the Wall Street Journal because of my position as chairman of the Journalists Association,” Cheng told reporters, accompanied by her lawyer, on Tuesday. “I have tried to communicate with and seek mediation with the company’s U.S. representatives via my lawyer but this was ineffective.”
“The other party continues to insist that my dismissal was part of layoffs, and reject my request for reinstatement,” she said.
Cheng won the election to replace Ronson Chan, who stepped down from the union leadership citing threats and pressure from pro-China sources.
RELATED STORIES
Wall Street Journal fires Hong Kong journalist who took up union role
Head of embattled Hong Kong journalists’ union to step down
Journalists dismiss official claims of press freedom in Hong Kong
Officials in China and Hong Kong have repeatedly claimed that journalists are safe to carry out “legitimate” reporting activities under both the 2020 National Security Law and the Article 23 Safeguarding National Security Law, which was passed on March 23.
But pro-democracy media magnate Jimmy Lai is currently on trial for “collusion with foreign forces” for printing articles in his now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper.
Ready to testify
Cheng said she had already filed some evidence for her claim to the Labor Department, and would be filing a formal complaint on Tuesday, under Section 21b of the city‘s Employment Ordinance, which protects employees’ right to join a labor union.
“Any employer, or any person acting on behalf of an employer, who prevents or deters … an employee from exercising that right shall be guilty of an offense,” and could be fined up to HK$100,000 (US$12,855), according to the law.
“I have told the staff at the Labor Department that I am very willing to testify in court, and provide all the necessary information,” she said. “Since there is more than enough evidence to show they are in violation of the law, I think the government should actively prosecute them.”
Selina Cheng, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association shows reporters her claim form against her former employer for what she called unreasonable dismissal in Hong Kong on Nov.12, 2024. Cheng, a Hong Kong correspondent for the Journal who had survived earlier rounds of layoffs, was approached by senior editors in June after they heard she was running in elections for the chair of the union, warned off running for the top job and told to leave the board, despite approving her position at the union when she was hired in 2021.
Cheng has quoted her editor as saying that Journal employees shouldn’t be seen as advocates for press freedom in a place like Hong Kong, although there was no problem with similar behaviors in Western countries where press freedom is greater. She has said she was fired in person by U.K.-based Foreign Editor Gordon Fairclough, who was on a visit to Hong Kong, with “restructuring” given as the reason for her sacking.
She said none of her colleagues believed that this was the real reason for her dismissal.
“I learned from former colleagues at Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal that they were all very disappointed, mainly because of the claim I was laid off,” Cheng said. “Everyone knows that this wasn’t the the truth, but the company continues to insist that this was the reason they fired me.”
Cheng said the incident had damaged her professional reputation, but that she was still open to discussions about her reinstatement.
State of press freedom
Journalists and media watchdog groups say press freedom has gone sharply downhill in Hong Kong in recent years, as Beijing ramps up its mission to protect “national security” with a constant expansion of forbidden topics and “red lines” in recent years.
Foreign journalists have also been targeted, with the city refusing to renew a work visa for the Financial Times‘ Victor Mallet in 2018 after he hosted pro-independence politician Andy Chan as a speaker at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club where he was an official at the time.
The Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees, a union run by and for the employees of Dow Jones, has previously said that if Cheng was fired as what she claimed, the behavior was “unconscionable,” the Associated Press reported on Tuesday, adding that the association has called on the publication to restore her job and provide a full explanation of their decision to dismiss her.
Hong Kong ranked 135th out of 180 countries and territories in Reporters Without Borders’ latest World Press Freedom Index, down from 80 in 2021.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Wei Sze and Edward Li for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
-
Authorities in Hong Kong have been going to extraordinary lengths to avoid shining a light on some of the more negative aspects of recent Chinese history, and thereby angering Beijing.
Officials have changed the name of a lamppost whose official number contained an inadvertent reference to the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.
The move suggests local officials are keen to avoid getting into trouble with the ruling Chinese Communist Party, which bans public references to the bloodshed that ended weeks of pro-democracy demonstrations on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, and would prefer to keep the public in the dark.
The lamppost is located next to a footbridge between Yu Wing Path and Ma Tin Road in Hong Kong’s Yuen Long district, close to the internal border with mainland China, and was once labeled “FA8964,” which could be read as code for “June 4, 1989,” a politically sensitive keyword that is banned on the Chinese internet.
The old number was clearly visible on Google Streetview on Nov. 8, but RFA Cantonese found that the actual number had been changed to “DG8332” in an on-the-ground investigation on the same day, while the lamppost had been repainted with a sign warning of “wet paint.”
A lamppost in Yuen Long marked “FA8964″—a reference to the June 4 incident—recently had its number changed, sparking criticism. A government database of lamppost locations that is used to help residents report the precise location of crimes showed that lampposts numbered “FA8963” and “FA8966” were still listed, but a query on Nov. 8 for lamppost “FA8964” resulted in the message “data not found.”
The city’s Highways Department told Radio Free Asia in response to a query about the disappeared number that lampposts are sometimes given new numbers when new streetlights are installed, their position changed, or the equipment renovated.
While Hong Kong isn’t yet subject to China’s Great Firewall of blanket internet censorship, some websites linked to the pro-democracy movement are blocked by internet service providers in the city. The website of the London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch is also blocked.
The city has used a High Court injunction to force YouTube and other providers to remove references to the banned protest anthem “Glory to Hong Kong,” and arrested local residents for “seditious” posts on Facebook.
While the city’s 7 million residents are able to search Google and other sites for information on the People’s Liberation Army’s 1989 killing of civilians in Beijing, authorities have removed hundreds of books from public libraries in recent years, including those referencing the massacre.
The Hong Kong lamppost is seen after it was repainted and the problematic FA8964 designation changed to an innocuous number. Local residents said they thought the lamppost’s “upgrade” was pretty pointless.
“Changing the number is just going to draw more attention to it,” former Yuen Long district councilor Kisslan Chan told RFA Cantonese in a recent interview. “But there are always people who want to get promoted.”
He said he didn’t think the order had come from higher up, but suggested that local officials were trying to demonstrate zeal amid an ongoing crackdown on public dissent in the city.
Former district councilor Leslie Chan said the move showed just how sensitive the authorities were, however, citing the High Court injunction on “Glory to Hong Kong.”
“It’s the same reason … that such a powerful ruling party is afraid of a song,” Leslie Chan said. “Beijing fears the number 8964 more than anything.”
A local resident who gave only the surname Chan for fear of reprisals said the move was a waste of public funds.
“They could have used that money to help people,” she said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie.
RELATED STORIES
YouTube blocks banned Hong Kong protest anthem ‘Glory to Hong Kong’
Hong Kong removes hundreds of politically sensitive books from public libraries
The 1989 Tiananmen massacre – as seen by a new generation of watchful eyes
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Alice Yam and Wei Sze for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
-
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’s government wants to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II next year, a sign that the administration of Chief Executive John Lee may further step up efforts to spread patriotic fervor among the city’s seven million residents, commentators said.
“Next year is the 80th anniversary of victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression,” Lee told lawmakers during his 2024 Policy Address at the Legislative Council on Wednesday. “The government will hold commemorative activities to enhance patriotism.”
The government would also launch a new program of “patriotic education” in primary and secondary schools, stepping up the teaching of Chinese history and geography “increasing patriotic historical elements in exchanges with mainland China,” Lee said.
Lee’s second-in-command, Chief Secretary Chan Kwok-ki, added in a later comment: “Patriotic education is the foundation for safeguarding national security.”
He said the activities were intended “to enhance patriotic spirit.”
Commentators said the announcements pave the way for further indoctrination of the city’s residents, particularly its children, along the lines of patriotic education programs that already exist in mainland China.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee delivers his annual policy address at the Legislative Council in Hong Kong, Oct. 16, 2024. (Joyce Zhou/Reuters) In June, the city’s Education Bureau criticized some schoolchildren for their “weak” singing of China’s national anthem, the “March of the Volunteers,” at flag-raising ceremonies that are now compulsory as part of patriotic “national security” education from kindergartens to universities.
The announcements come amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent under two security laws, the second of which was passed in March, leading to the convictions of three people over the use of banned slogans in graffiti, a T-shirt and social media.
‘Control people’s thoughts’
Exiled former pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui said Lee’s policy address was the first time a Hong Kong leader has mentioned World War II in a policy address, which he said should have focused more on economic prosperity and social welfare.
“They want to implement the same system they have in mainland China, promoting patriotism and nationalism to control people’s thoughts,” Hui told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview.
“They want to wash away multiculturalism in Hong Kong with xenophobic sentiments used to resist foreign oppression,” he said. “I worry that the next generation of Hong Kongers will be xenophobic and hate the West, further decoupling Hong Kong from the international community.”
Primary school students practice a flag-raising ceremony in Hong Kong, June 14, 2022. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters) Political commentator Sang Pu said anti-Japanese sentiment may not take root in Hong Kong, whose people have a long-running love affair with Japanese culture.
Hong Kongers spent HK$7.8 billion (around US$1 billion) in Japan in the first quarter of this year, according to figures from the Japanese National Tourism Organization, compared with around HK$17.6 billion (US$2.25 billion) spent by tourists from mainland China in the same period, as bargain-hunters flocked to the country to stock up on household necessities.
“This isn’t just about celebrating the 80th anniversary,” Sang said. “He wants to use it as a way to spread Chinese nationalism, patriotic discourse and distorted views of history to Hong Kong.”
“They want to totally change people’s perceptions of Japan, because people … can only unite under the banner of the Chinese Communist Party if there’s an imaginary enemy to fight,” he said.
He said us-vs-them thinking would change the whole atmosphere of Hong Kong.
“They want to integrate it to use the same patriotic teaching materials as China,” Sang said, calling the move “political warfare.”
Exiled former pro-democracy Legislative Council member Ted Hui. (Courtesy of Ted Hui) Local people expressed varying degrees of indifference toward Lee’s annual policy address when interviewed by RFA Cantonese on Wednesday.
“Didn’t read it,” one said, while another said they “had no interest at all.”
“Didn’t pay attention to it,” commented another person.
A retiree who gave only the surname Sun for fear of reprisals said he thought the policy address lacked measures to boost the flagging economy.
“The economy is jet-lagged, and a lot of shops have been closing down lately,” he said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Chen Zifei for RFA Mandarin, Wei Sze and Edward Li for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
-
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
-
Facebook is censoring a growing number of posts at the request of authorities in Hong Kong, who have also pursued overseas internet service providers over content deemed in breach of the city’s security legislation.
Despite a city-wide crackdown on public dissent and political opposition in recent years, Hong Kong has so far remained outside of the Great Firewall of Chinese internet censorship.
But there are signs that the city’s internet isn’t as free as it once was.
Restrictions on Facebook content have skyrocketed from 402 instances in 2019, a year before the first security law was passed, to 2,181 instances in 2023, according to publicly available information published by Facebook’s parent company Meta, and viewed by RFA Cantonese on Oct. 9.
Most restrictions targeted personal Facebook accounts, pages and groups, although some involved restricting individual posts and comments on posts, the data showed.
Meta said in a response to RFA Cantonese that it “responds to government data requests in accordance with applicable laws and our terms of service.”
It said every request is “carefully reviewed for legal adequacy,” while any request that appeared “too broad or vague” would be carefully scrutinized.
Hong Kong activist Sunny Cheung testifies before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China Sept. 17, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.. (Olivier Douliery/AFP) It also stated that “every request we receive will be carefully reviewed for legal adequacy, and any request that appears to be too broad or vague will be reviewed carefully.” request, we may deny or request more specific details.”
The owner of the EduLancet account on Facebook, Yeung Wing Yu, said Facebook had blocked users in Hong Kong from viewing a Sept. 1 post he wrote about the widely criticized police response to July 21, 2019, attacks on passengers and passers-by in Yuen Long MTR station.
“We’ve received a legal request from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, to restrict access to your post for going against local law,” Facebook told Yeung in a notice he posted to his Instagram account. “We complied with the request after conducting a legal and human rights assessment.”
“Your content can still be seen by people in other locations,” the notice said.
However, the URL to the post provided by Yeung returned an error message when viewed from the United Kingdom on Oct. 14.
Yuen Long attacks
The Yuen Long police attacks came at the height of the 2019 protests against plans to allow the extradition of alleged criminal suspects to mainland China, that later broadened to include demands for fully democratic elections and greater official accountability.
According to a book about the democracy movement published in September 2023, Hong Kong police knew in advance that white-clad mobsters planned to attack protesters and passers-by at the Yuen Long train station on July 21, 2019.
When dozens of unidentified thugs in white T-shirts attacked train passengers and passers-by with wooden and metal poles that day, police were inundated with emergency calls, but didn’t move in until 39 minutes after the attacks began, drawing widespread public criticism that has largely been quashed or ignored by the city authorities.
Men in white T-shirts with poles are seen near Yuen Long MTR after attacks in Hong Kong, China July 22, 2019. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters) Yeung’s post had identified one officer involved in the incident.
The authorities have also pursued overseas internet service providers over content published by Hong Kongers overseas, Radio Free Asia has learned.
Overseas activist Sunny Cheung, who edits the online protest magazine “Be Water,” said the magazine’s internet service provider had received a letter from Hong Kong’s national security police, who implement the 2020 National Security Law and the 2024 Law to Safeguard National Security, last month.
U.S.-based Cheung, who is among more than a dozen overseas activists wanted by the Hong Kong authorities, said police had claimed that “Be Water” was in violation of the National Security Law, which applies to anyone, anywhere in the world, and called on the provider to block it.
“This whole thing is about the Hong Kong government trying to exercise extraterritorial power to order network service providers in the United States to implement Hong Kong’s National Security Law,” Cheung told RFA Cantonese in a recent interview.
“The letter didn’t mention any evidence, but accused us of crimes including ‘secession’ and ‘incitement’.”
Cheung described the measures as “extreme” and “ridiculous.”
“Our U.S. service providers had the guts to stand up to the Hong Kong government and reject this request,” he said.
The Facebook and Instagram pages of “Be Water” were still displaying normally in Hong Kong on Oct. 9.
However, some pro-democracy websites were blocked in the city, including the website of the U.S.-base Hong Kong Democracy Council, the London-based rights website Hong Kong Watch and an online museum commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Luk Nam Choi and Kwong Wing for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
-
Facebook is censoring a growing number of posts at the request of authorities in Hong Kong, who have also pursued overseas internet service providers over content deemed in breach of the city’s security legislation.
Despite a city-wide crackdown on public dissent and political opposition in recent years, Hong Kong has so far remained outside of the Great Firewall of Chinese internet censorship.
But there are signs that the city’s internet isn’t as free as it once was.
Restrictions on Facebook content have skyrocketed from 402 instances in 2019, a year before the first security law was passed, to 2,181 instances in 2023, according to publicly available information published by Facebook’s parent company Meta, and viewed by RFA Cantonese on Oct. 9.
Most restrictions targeted personal Facebook accounts, pages and groups, although some involved restricting individual posts and comments on posts, the data showed.
Meta said in a response to RFA Cantonese that it “responds to government data requests in accordance with applicable laws and our terms of service.”
It said every request is “carefully reviewed for legal adequacy,” while any request that appeared “too broad or vague” would be carefully scrutinized.
Hong Kong activist Sunny Cheung testifies before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China Sept. 17, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.. (Olivier Douliery/AFP) It also stated that “every request we receive will be carefully reviewed for legal adequacy, and any request that appears to be too broad or vague will be reviewed carefully.” request, we may deny or request more specific details.”
The owner of the EduLancet account on Facebook, Yeung Wing Yu, said Facebook had blocked users in Hong Kong from viewing a Sept. 1 post he wrote about the widely criticized police response to July 21, 2019, attacks on passengers and passers-by in Yuen Long MTR station.
“We’ve received a legal request from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, to restrict access to your post for going against local law,” Facebook told Yeung in a notice he posted to his Instagram account. “We complied with the request after conducting a legal and human rights assessment.”
“Your content can still be seen by people in other locations,” the notice said.
However, the URL to the post provided by Yeung returned an error message when viewed from the United Kingdom on Oct. 14.
Yuen Long attacks
The Yuen Long police attacks came at the height of the 2019 protests against plans to allow the extradition of alleged criminal suspects to mainland China, that later broadened to include demands for fully democratic elections and greater official accountability.
According to a book about the democracy movement published in September 2023, Hong Kong police knew in advance that white-clad mobsters planned to attack protesters and passers-by at the Yuen Long train station on July 21, 2019.
When dozens of unidentified thugs in white T-shirts attacked train passengers and passers-by with wooden and metal poles that day, police were inundated with emergency calls, but didn’t move in until 39 minutes after the attacks began, drawing widespread public criticism that has largely been quashed or ignored by the city authorities.
Men in white T-shirts with poles are seen near Yuen Long MTR after attacks in Hong Kong, China July 22, 2019. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters) Yeung’s post had identified one officer involved in the incident.
The authorities have also pursued overseas internet service providers over content published by Hong Kongers overseas, Radio Free Asia has learned.
Overseas activist Sunny Cheung, who edits the online protest magazine “Be Water,” said the magazine’s internet service provider had received a letter from Hong Kong’s national security police, who implement the 2020 National Security Law and the 2024 Law to Safeguard National Security, last month.
U.S.-based Cheung, who is among more than a dozen overseas activists wanted by the Hong Kong authorities, said police had claimed that “Be Water” was in violation of the National Security Law, which applies to anyone, anywhere in the world, and called on the provider to block it.
“This whole thing is about the Hong Kong government trying to exercise extraterritorial power to order network service providers in the United States to implement Hong Kong’s National Security Law,” Cheung told RFA Cantonese in a recent interview.
“The letter didn’t mention any evidence, but accused us of crimes including ‘secession’ and ‘incitement’.”
Cheung described the measures as “extreme” and “ridiculous.”
“Our U.S. service providers had the guts to stand up to the Hong Kong government and reject this request,” he said.
The Facebook and Instagram pages of “Be Water” were still displaying normally in Hong Kong on Oct. 9.
However, some pro-democracy websites were blocked in the city, including the website of the U.S.-base Hong Kong Democracy Council, the London-based rights website Hong Kong Watch and an online museum commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Luk Nam Choi and Kwong Wing for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
-
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
-
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
-
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
-
Read RFA coverage of this story in Cantonese.
The ruling Chinese Communist Party has called on Hong Kong’s leader to mobilize the city’s wealthiest families into kick-starting economic growth, although signs that any are answering the call have been thin on the ground.
Xia Baolong, who heads the ruling party’s Hong Kong and Macao Work Office, “expressed the hope that all sectors of Hong Kong society, especially the business community and entrepreneurs, will unite as one and seize the opportunity to strive for economic development,” the city’s Chief Executive John Lee told reporters following a Sept. 20 meeting with Xia, as he attended an investment cooperation conference in Beijing.
Hong Kong’s business community should “transform their love for their country and for Hong Kong into concrete and practical action, and work together to promote Hong Kong’s … prosperity,” Xia told Lee during the meeting.
Xia’s call to action echoes recent policy moves from Beijing to find a role for the private sector in boosting flagging economic growth, under Chinese President Xi Jinping’s concept of “public-private partnerships,” which analysts have warned could be a disguised asset grab by the government.
It also comes after Xi wrote to the descendants of the “Ningbo Gang” – wealthy Hong Kong families with roots in the eastern port city of Ningbo – in July, calling on them to “contribute to the dream of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” state media reported.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee (L) meets with Yin Li (R), secretary of the Communist Party of China Beijing Municipal Committee, in Beijing, China , Sept. 20, 2024. (info.gov.hk) 
They included Anna Pao, eldest daughter of the late shipping magnate Sir Pao Yue-kong, and Ronald Chao, eldest son of the late industrialist Chao Kuang-piu, families whose business operations formed the backbone of much of Hong Kong’s growth under British colonial rule.
Lee said the private sector in Hong Kong “are not bystanders, but participants, contributors and beneficiaries” of the city’s economic rewards.
‘Serve the country’
But commentators said there hasn’t exactly been a big rush to respond to Beijing’s call for investments on the part of Hong Kong’s entrepreneurs.
The city’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, has instead been stepping up his investments in the United Kingdom, with his CK Infrastructure Holdings acquiring a wind farm portfolio in from Aviva Investors for £350 million (US$450 million) in August, renewable power generator UU Solar for £90.8 million (US$122 million) in May, and natural gas distributor Phoenix Energy in April.
Exiled Hong Kong businessman Elmer Yuen, whose family hails from Ningbo, said Beijing has repeatedly called on Hong Kong’s tycoons to “serve the country.”
But he said there is unlikely to be much response, given that few business families from Ningbo and Shanghai trust the Chinese Communist Party.
“You can lump all of us together, us Shanghainese, most of whom are from Ningbo, and say that we have absolutely zero trust in the Chinese Communist Party,” Yuen said.
“Maybe a small number of people will invest, but the rest already know who they’re dealing with.”
Kevin Yeung, Hong Kong’s secretary for culture, sports and tourism, gives a speech at a ceremony in Dujiangyan, southwest China’s Sichuan province, to see off two giant pandas, An An and Ke Ke, headed to Honk Kong, Sept. 25, 2024. (info.gov.hk)
According to Xia Ming, professor of political science at the City University of New York, Lee is being tasked by Beijing to step up integration with neighboring Guangdong province and Macau, and provide a much-needed shot in the arm for the sluggish Chinese economy.
“Policy in today’s Hong Kong is clearly about how to perfectly integrate Hong Kong into what Xi Jinping calls the China rejuvenation strategy, which is basically about controlling the economy,” Xia told RFA Cantonese in a recent interview. “[Lee’s aim] is to more perfectly integrate Hong Kong into China’s accelerated regression.”
Xia said the overall aim is to integrate Hong Kong into the mainland Chinese economy and “ultimately sell Hong Kong off to Beijing and to Xi Jinping.”
“The goal of Xi Jinping’s reforms is not that mainland China will become more like Hong Kong, but that Hong Kong will become more like Yan’an,” he said in a reference to the revolutionary wartime base of Mao Zedong’s communists.
Stimulus measures
The call for investments came as Chinese leaders announced a slew of stimulus measures to boost demand for real estate, including lower mortgage rates, fewer restrictions on buyers and tax cuts as part of “a new model” for real estate development.
On Tuesday, China’s central bank, top securities regulator and financial regulator announced a raft of monetary stimulus, property market support and capital market strengthening measures to boost “high-quality economic development,” state news agency Xinhua reported.
The top economic meeting, attended by Xi, also called on officials to “foster a favorable environment for the development of the non-public sector,” with efforts made to boost consumption among low- and middle-income groups.
The pair of giant pandas gifted by the Chinese government to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China arrive safely in Hong Kong, Sept. 25, 2024. (info.gov.hk)
China has also extended a helping hand to Hong Kong in the form of pandas, with a ceremony at the Hong Kong International Airport on Thursday to welcome An An and Ke Ke, described by Lee as “just entering adulthood and full of energy” and likely to be a successful draw for tourists.
The giant pandas will live in a newly refurbished suite at the Ocean Park theme park complete with climbing frames and more plants.
“Citizens will join in welcoming the two giant pandas to Hong Kong, and the whole city is looking forward to it,” Lee told reporters on Tuesday, adding that images of the pandas will be added to the Oct. 1 National Day drone and light show over Victoria Harbour.
Hong Kong is expecting an influx of up to 1.2 million mainland Chinese tourists to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Lee said.
“We hope that everyone can celebrate the 75th anniversary of National Day together, and also bring in many business activities to increase business and tourism revenues,” he said.
Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Ng Chi Ping for RFA Cantonese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
-
This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
-
Taipei, September 26, 2024 — A Hong Kong court on Thursday sentenced two former Stand News editors on charges of conspiracy to publish seditious publications following their convictions in late August.
Chung Pui-kuen received one year and nine months in prison, and Patrick Lam, who received 11 months, was released after the hearing as he had already served 10 months and nine days in pretrial detention, and a judge reduced his sentence by 21 days due to his health condition. Chung served 11 months, which will be credited against his sentence.
“Hong Kong’s conviction and sentencing of former Stand News editors Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam demonstrate that the government has no intention of upholding press freedom in the city,” said Iris Hsu, CPJ’s China representative. “We are pleased that Lam is no longer behind bars, but authorities must also immediately release Chung and stop putting pressure on journalists doing their jobs.”
Hong Kong’s security bureau told CPJ by email in August that “the ideology of Stand News was localism which excluded China, and that it even became a tool to smear and vilify the Central Authorities and the HKSAR Government during the ‘anti-extradition amendment bill incidents.’”
China was the world’s worst jailer of journalists, with 44 behind bars at the time of CPJ’s 2023 prison census. Those held include CPJ’s 2021 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award winner Jimmy Lai, founder of the shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, who has been behind bars since 2020 and is facing life imprisonment if convicted of foreign collusion under Hong Kong’s national security law.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
-
Ten years ago, as the streets of Hong Kong pulsed with pro-democracy demonstrations, riot police repeatedly fired pepper spray and tear gas at the crowds that sometimes swelled to more than 100,000.
To protect themselves, protesters held up umbrellas – which became an iconic image of the protests that went viral in local and international media. Yellow became the protest umbrella color for its contrast against the dark clothing of many demonstrators, and the protests became known as the “Umbrella Movement.”
It was the largest show of civil disobedience since control of the former British colony was handed over to China in 1997. Tens of thousands of people, many of them students, camped in the streets and for 11 weeks occupied much of the business district of the city of 7 million people.
What sparked the protests?
The protesters’ main demand was the right to elect the chief executive of Hong Kong, which was promised in the Basic Law, the constitution for post-handover Hong Kong as a “special autonomous region” of China under the “one country, two systems” formula that gave the city some autonomy and the right to retain its system for 50 years.
Small protests over the lack of movement on candidate selection had been increasing when, on Aug. 31, 2014, China’s parliament decreed that elections in Hong Kong in 2017 would be permitted — from a list of candidates pre-approved by Beijing and nominated by a body of business elites and pro-Beijing groups.
Pro-democracy protesters open their umbrellas to mark one month since they took the street, in the Admiralty district of Hong Kong, Oct. 28, 2014. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP)
The ruling sent people out into the streets banging pots and pans and chanting, and prompted waves of university campus strikes and protests.
Pro-democracy leaders formed plans for a civil disobedience campaign against the decision, releasing a manifesto called “Occupy Central with Love and Peace” and calling for the takeover of streets outside the city’s financial district on Oct. 1, China’s national day.
A fast-moving series of campus protests and actions by student groups to take over city streets led “Occupy Central” to be moved up several days.
People built a protest city of tents and stages that rang out with protest songs while students did homework in camps. Activists and ordinary citizens demonstrated outside government headquarters and occupied city intersections and thoroughfares.
How did umbrellas get involved?
Hong Kong authorities declared the protests illegal and a “violation of the rule of law,” and tensions began to mount.
On the night of Sept. 26 and into the next day, riot police clashed with protesters on the streets, firing pepper spray at them and arresting some. Over subsequent days, protesters began using umbrellas to protect themselves.
“The image is a poignant one, and emphasizes the asymmetry of force: an innocuous household object held up against helmeted police officers wielding poisonous substances for crowd control,” the U.S. publication Quartz wrote.
Riot police use pepper spray against protesters after thousands of people block a main road to the financial central district outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong, Sept. 28, 2014. (Vincent Yu/AP)
The first known appearance of the term “umbrella revolution” was in the hashtag #UmbrellaRevolution generated by a news aggregator and circulated with a Sept. 28, 2014, report on the protests in the online edition of the British daily, The Independent.
Use of the hashtag along with eye-catching umbrella photographs spread among Hong Kong journalists and activists. The outpouring of umbrella memes included clever Cantonese puns and word play – and even a meme featuring Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping holding a yellow umbrella.
Was the Umbrella Movement an example of a “revolution?”
Despite the worldwide sympathy for Hong Kong protesters, campaign leaders were quick to disavow the term “revolution.”
They flatly rejected comparisons to the color revolutions that had seen authoritarian governments in former Soviet republics and elsewhere overthrown, stressing their focus on practical reforms.
“We are not seeking revolution. We just want democracy!” Joshua Wong, a leading figure of the student movement, was quoted by The Washington Post.
“This is not a color revolution,” Lester Shum, the deputy leader of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, told the Post.
Riot police fire tear gas on student protesters occupying streets surrounding the government headquarters in Hong Kong, Sept. 29, 2014. (Wally Santana/AP)
Protest leaders warned that talk of revolution would alienate the broader Hong Kong public and give ammunition to Chinese Communist Party leaders who viewed the protests as rebellion and wanted to crush them.
The mainstream Occupy Central campaign agreed on “Umbrella Movement,” but some groups that advocated more aggressive tactics continued to use “Umbrella Revolution.”
The occupation and protests that began on Sept. 26 lasted in pockets of Hong Kong for 79 days, until Dec. 15.
They did not achieve their goal of universal suffrage and Wong, Shum and many protest leaders are in jail, while others have gone into exile to avoid arrest under draconian security and sedition laws.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Paul Eckert for RFA.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
-
A Hong Kong court sentenced two former news editors to prison on Thursday for conspiracy to publish seditious material, the latest journalists to fall foul of what critics say is a sweeping campaign to stifle dissent in the Asian financial hub.
Chung Pui-kuen, former editor-in-chief of the now-defunct Stand News, was sentenced to 21 months. Judge Kwok Wai-kin considered an initial 14-month sentence for former acting-editor-in-chief, Patrick Lam, but reduced it by three months because he has a serious illness, allowing him to be released immediately, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported
The two are the first journalists to be found guilty of sedition since Britain returned Hong Kong to China in 1997.
Both defendants pleaded not guilty, with Chung denying the newspaper was politically motivated. Lam declined to testify and did not appear in court to hear the verdict due to health issues.
The two arrived at the district court in Hong Kong’s Wanchai district on Thursday morning but the hearing began late and went on for longer than expected after the judge called for a break to consider mitigating statements from their lawyer, according to the AP news agency.
The two faced a maximum sentence of two years in prison and a fine of 5,000 Hong Kong dollars (US$642) each. Both spent almost 12 months in jail following their arrests in December 2021.
On Aug. 29, after a 54-day trial, a Hong Kong court found the two guilty under laws introduced during British colonial rule. Hong Kong authorities used them for the first time in 2020 when China imposed strict national security laws following huge pro-democracy protests the previous year.
During the trial, lawyers for the Hong Kong government accused Stand News of promoting “illegal ideologies” and smearing the security law and the police who enforced it.
They cited 11 articles, including an interview with democracy activist Nathan Law, which they said were written with seditious intent.
Stand News was founded in 2014 and made a name by live-streaming the 2019 protests and criticizing Hong Kong authorities.
On Dec. 29, 2021, police raided its office, arresting senior staff, including Chung and Lam, and freezing its assets, forcing it out of business.
Months earlier, police raided the pro-democracy Apple Daily, also freezing its assets and forcing it to close.
Its founder Jimmy Lai is on trial, accused of “conspiring to collude with foreign forces” and “conspiring to publish seditious materials.”
RELATED STORIES
Hong Kong finds former editors guilty of sedition in blow to press freedom
Hong Kong diaspora spirit of resistance against democracy crackdown remains strong
Trial delay sparks calls for release of Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai
Some foreign news organizations have closed their offices, or moved staff out of Hong Kong amid increasing scrutiny by the authorities.
In March this year, Radio Free Asia said it was closing its Hong Kong bureau, citing concerns for the safety of its staff and actions by Hong Kong authorities, including referring to RFA as a “foreign force.”
The city’s press freedom ranking fell from 73 out of 180 territories and countries in Reporters Without Borders’ annual World Press Freedom Index to 135 last year, just above South Sudan.
“Media freedom has been a central factor for Hong Kong’s success in the past and is an essential foundation of a free and inclusive society,” the Media Freedom Coalition – a partnership of more than 50 countries – said on Sept. 9, in response to the convictions of Chung and Lam.
“To enable media workers to safely fulfill their legitimate role in scrutinizing government policy and actions, journalism should not be prosecuted under the guise of national security.”
Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed government rejects accusations from its domestic critics and Western countries, including the United States and Britain, that it is smothering freedoms in a once-vibrant society.
The city government and Beijing say stability must be ensured and what they see as foreign interference must be stopped to protect the city’s economic success.
Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
-
Read RFA’s coverage of this in Chinese.
In 2013, former politics lecturer Chan Kin-man, law professor Benny Tai and Rev. Chu Yiu-ming called a news conference to urge people to occupy Hong Kong’s Central business district in a peaceful civil disobedience campaign for fully democratic elections.
Many feared Beijing would not allow it despite promises made during the negotiations for the 1997 handover from Britain.
The following year, the ruling Chinese Communist Party issued a plan on Aug. 31 setting out Beijing’s plan for reforms of the electoral system that would give everyone a vote – but would also ensure that only candidates approved by the government would be allowed to run in elections.
The public backlash amid growing calls for genuine democratic reform took the form of a student strike, camps on major roads, sit-ins, mass rallies of hundreds of thousands of people and an unofficial referendum that came out overwhelmingly in favor of open nominations for electoral candidates.
While the authorities refused to back down, saying there was ‘no room’ for discussion on the electoral rules, police fired tear gas and beat protesters in clashes that began this week 10 years ago.
To protect themselves, demonstrators used umbrellas, and the “Umbrella Movement” was born.
Former politics lecturer Chan Kin-man, who co-founded the 2014 Occupy Central pro-democracy movement, speaks to RFA Mandarin in Taiwan, September 2024. Tang Cheng/RFA
‘Watershed’ moment
Ten years on, Chan, now 65 and living in Taiwan, told RFA Mandarin that the movement — and the authorities’ response — served as a wake-up call to many in Hong Kong who may not previously have considered themselves political at all.
Describing the 2014 movement as a “watershed” for Hong Kong, Chan said it turned his home city from a money-oriented former colony to a society that was willing to take radical action to protect its promised rights and freedoms.
“The Umbrella Movement of 2014 was a watershed,” he said. “It was the first time we had used a so-called illegal method — that of occupation.”
“It was a citizens’ resistance movement, fighting for democracy on a huge scale,” Chan said, adding that an estimated 1.2 million people were involved at some point during the movement.
“People who took part were willing to pay the price of legal action,” he told Radio Free Asia.
Former politics lecturer Chan Kin-man, who co-founded the 2014 Occupy Central pro-democracy movement, speaks to RFA Mandarin in Taiwan, September 2024. (Tang Cheng/RFA) “The biggest impact of the pro-democracy movement was on people’s political awakening – people who hadn’t paid much attention to the issue in the past ended up joining in and caring what was happening,” he said.
“The fact that many more people just watched from the sidelines doesn’t mean it didn’t have an impact on them.”
Deeply etched memories
Ten years on, the scenes he witnessed on Hong Kong’s streets remained deeply etched into Chan’s memory.
“I remember seeing one lady at the Occupy site who was very conventionally dressed,” he said. “She didn’t look at all like the protesters.”
“She ran a business near Admiralty, and I started to apologize to her, saying our occupation was likely affecting her business, but she told me never to apologize, and that she wanted to thank me,” Chan recalled.
The woman told Chan that she hadn’t been remotely interested in politics before this happened, but since then she’d started reading more news reports, and she had come to understand why the occupation was happening.
“She started to feel that she had been in the wrong all these years, for not paying much attention to Hong Kong’s political development, and just being focused on making money,” he said. “She felt she was letting the next generation down.”
While the Umbrella Movement did have its critics among those who blamed it for accelerating China’s meddling in the city’s political affairs, Chan said Beijing had left young Hong Kongers with little option but to take to the streets.
Protesters fold paper umbrellas on a main road in the occupied areas outside government headquarters in Hong Kong’s Admiralty, Oct. 9, 2014. (Kin Cheung/AP) “It’s simplistic to look at whether the movement succeeded in changing the system overnight – it managed to mobilize 1.2 million people and continue an occupation for 79 days,” Chan said.
“Not many movements in the history of the world have managed that.”
More militant
And when the movement failed to pressure the authorities into allowing properly democratic elections, it was inevitable that the next round of protests in 2019 would become much more militant, he said.
“When even civil disobedience fails, and there is no way to fight for democracy [under Chinese rule] using peaceful means, there is going to be a move towards localism and militancy,” Chan said. “We warned people about this at the time.”
“Young people were very dissatisfied and impatient, and they were already starting to agitate [for a more radical approach],” he said. “This was a critical movement, but the root cause of it all was the authoritarian approach of the Chinese Communist Party.”
“It was they who forced the people of Hong Kong, bit by bit, down the road to civil disobedience,” Chan said. “The whole thing stems from the fact that the Chinese Communist Party rejects and resists democracy at every turn.”
When protests against plans to allow extradition to mainland China erupted in 2019, Chan was still in prison. By the time he got out in 2020, the National Security Law had already been imposed on the city, ushering in a crackdown on public dissent and peaceful political opposition.
Fleeing to Taiwan
When Benny Tai was arrested alongside dozens of former pro-democracy lawmakers in 2021, Chan fled the city for Taiwan.
He still keeps a close eye on developments there, but is unclear whether resistance of the kind he proposed in 2013 is even an option these days, now that the authorities have two national security laws to use against dissenting voices.
“Overt resistance hasn’t been possible since the National Security Law came out [in 2020], but it’s too early to say whether Hong Kong is dead or not,” he said, citing plummeting turnout figures in recent elections under Beijing’s new, highly restrictive rules.
“A lot of people may still be holding onto their beliefs — the authorities say that this is a form of soft confrontation,” he said of the recent lack of interest in voting.
“But that would mean people haven’t died inside,” Chan said. “And that means there’s still hope.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Chen Zifei for RFA Mandarin.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
