Explainer: Hong Kong’s national security crackdown – month 49
Hong Kong Free Press
In July, the 49th month since the Beijing-imposed national security law came into effect, court proceedings in some of the city’s most high-profile national security trials were delayed.
Civil society group the Hong Kong Christian Institute announced plans to disband citing the “social environment,” and the opposition-free legislature passed a bill to transform a social work licensing body to “protect” national security.
Jimmy Lai trial adjourned until November
Detained pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai, who stands accused of two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces and one count of conspiring to publish seditious materials, was back in court in July when his defence team argued that the prosecution had not presented enough evidence to build a case against him.
The court, however, ruled that Lai had a case to answer and adjourned proceedings until November 20, when Lai will take the stand. Originally estimated to last 80 days, the trial has already lasted 92, and a further three to four weeks have been allocated for Lai’s testimony and cross examination.
Lai, 76, has been detained since December 2021, and faces spending the rest of his life behind bars if convicted under the security law.
Hong Kong 47: Mitigation delayed
Mitigation hearings for 45 pro-democracy figures who have been convicted of taking part in a conspiracy to commit subversion as part of the city’s largest national security case to date were delayed by almost a month because of “unforeseen circumstances.”
Mitigation for defendants Eddie Chu, Sam Cheung, Wong Ji-yuet, Ng Kin-wai, Andrew Wan, Kwok Ka-ki, Carol Ng, and Roy Tam was originally scheduled for July 30 to August 1. Their hearings have been adjourned to August 27 to 29.
Meanwhile, mitigation hearings scheduled for August 5 to 8 will be adjourned to September 2 to 5. Those hearings involve Gwyneth Ho, Ventus Lau, Alvin Yeung, Ray Chan, Owen Chow, Lam Cheuk-ting, Gary Fan, Hendrick Lui, Leung Kwok-hung, Mike Lam, and Ricky Or.
Chow Hang-tung to pay HK$100k legal costs
Rights activist Chow Hang-tung, who has been detained pending trial under the national security law since September 2021, was ordered to pay HK$100,000 to cover government legal costs relating to her efforts to oppose an injunction banning unlawful acts relating to the broadcast and performance of protest anthem Glory to Hong Kong.
Chow, who was vice-chair of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, the group that organised Hong Kong’s annual vigils to mark the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, was arrested on suspicion of inciting subversion, alongside other former leaders of the group, Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho in September 2021. Their trial is expected to begin next year, although no date has been set.
Alliance members to take appeal to top court
Chow Hang-tung, Tang Ngok-kwan and Tsui Hon-kwong, all former standing committee members of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, have been allowed to take their conviction over refusing to comply with a national security police data request to Hong Kong’s top court.
The trio were were sentenced to four and a half months in prison last March after being found guilty of failing to comply with a notice issued by national security police in August 2021 demanding information, including personal information, about Alliance standing committee members and staff on the basis that the Alliance was a “foreign agent.”
Chow, Tang and Tsui maintained throughout proceedings that the Alliance was not a foreign agent, nor was that fact proven by the prosecution, thus they need not have complied with the request for data.
The Court of Final Appeal will hear their appeal on January 8.
Social work body changed to ‘protect’ security
Hong Kong’s opposition-free legislature passed a bill giving government appointees a majority in the city’s social workers’ licensing body, a move that Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun said would help “protect the public’s interests and safeguard national security.”
Days later, solicitor Herman Hui was appointed the new chairperson of the Social Workers Registration Board that is tasked with issuing qualifications for the city’s social workers.
Under the amended legislation, individuals who have been convicted of national security offences are barred from becoming social workers. Members of the licensing body are also required to take an oath to affirm that they would uphold the Basic Law and bear allegiance to Hong Kong, though Sun said there were “no plans” to require social workers to make the same pledges.
Hong Kong Christian Institute to disband
The Hong Kong Christian Institute, which supported the city’s pro-democracy movement, announced that it planned to deregister and disband, saying it was “constrained by the current social environment.”
“The institution is unable to operate in a way where it can freely carry out its mission,” it said on July 23.
The group, which supported the Umbrella Movement in 2014 and the anti-extradition unrest in 2019, joined dozens of other civil society organisations that have disbanded in the wake of Beijing’s national security law when it ceased operations at the end of July.
Gov’t slams op-ed on early prisoner release
Hong Kong’s Correctional Services Department condemned an op-ed written by top legal scholar Johannes Chan about a new rule denying early release to national security convicts, calling Chan’s comments “misleading.”
The statement came after Chan, the former dean of the University of Hong Kong’s law faculty, wrote in Ming Pao about how recent security legislation, known locally as Article 23, had raised the threshold for the early release of national security convicts. Typically, prisoners can trim a third off their sentence for good behaviour.
Chan wrote that criminal offences were not typically retroactive to protect people from being punished when something that was not illegal at the time of action was criminalised at a later date.
Days after Article 23 came into effect, protester Ma Chun-man’s early release was axed. He has launched a legal challenge against that decision, saying it violated his rights and procedural fairness.
Titles removed from Hong Kong Book Fair
At least two exhibitors at the Hong Kong Book Fair, which was held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai from July 17 to 23, were “advised” to stop selling certain books after the event’s organiser allegedly received complaints.
Several titles were removed from booths over the course of the fair, with booksellers telling reporters that Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) staff had said they were considered “sensitive.”
An HKTDC spokesperson told HKFP it reminded all exhibitors to comply with the Exhibitors’ Manual and Rules & Regulations, as well as all Hong Kong laws, including the Hong Kong National Security Law, the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance, and laws related to intellectual property.
HKJA head fired by Wall Street Journal
American newspaper The Wall Street Journal fired Hong Kong-based reporter Selina Cheng weeks after she was elected chair of the city’s embattled Hong Kong Journalist Association (HKJA), which has met with increasing pressure from authorities.
Cheng told reporters on July 17 she was “appalled” that her first press conference as head of the HKJA was one to announce that she “was fired for taking up this position in a press union.”
“Around three weeks ago, after senior editors at the newspaper found out I was running to be HKJA’s chairperson, my supervisor in the UK directed me to withdraw from the election,” Cheng said. “She also asked me to quit the board, which I have served on since 2021, even though The Wall Street Journal approved this when I was hired.”
Cheng said she “declined” the request, after which she was told that her role with the HKJA would be “incompatible” with her job as a reporter covering China’s automobile and energy sectors for the newspaper.
She said the company had told her that employees of The Wall Street Journal should not be seen as advocating for press freedom “in a place like Hong Kong,” even though they “can in Western countries where it is already established.”
The HKJA has has come under fire from Hong Kong authorities and state-backed media since the city was wracked by months-long protests and unrest in 2019, accused of smearing the police force, allowing “fake journalists” to join, and protecting protesters.
On June 21, Secretary for Security Chris Tang claimed the group did not represent the news media industry as its executive committee election lacked candidates from local mainstream media.
Hongkongers think criticism of gov’t is good
US think tank Pew Research Center released results of a questionnaire that surveyed adults in Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan on their views regarding government criticism.
In Hong Kong, 81 per cent of the 2,000-odd people surveyed said they believed that people who disagreed with what the government was doing should be able to publicly criticise the authorities. Fifteen per cent said they should not be able to.
Once common in Hong Kong, mass protests have not taken place since the national security law came into place in June 2020. Opposition parties and labour groups who have applied to organise protests have been turned down, while activists have said they have received warnings from national security police ahead of sensitive dates – like the Handover anniversary and China’s National Day – not to hold any activities.
Security chief says security risks remain
Secretary for Security Chris Tang warned Hongkongers “not to let their guard down,” saying that risks to national security remained in the city even after Hong Kong had completed its constitutional duty of passing a homegrown security law in March.
Tang added that the government would continue to promote awareness of national security, for example through setting up a national security gallery. In April, Tang said authorities were planning to install a national security exhibition at the Hong Kong Museum of History.
Wanted activists denied access to pensions
Financial institutions HSBC and Manulife declined to comment on a Guardian report that two overseas Hong Kong activists wanted under the security law, former lawmaker Ted Hui among them, were blocked from accessing their pension funds.
In response to HKFP, HSBC and Manulife said they did not comment on individual cases and that the companies adhered to local legislation.
Hui, who was a lawmaker for four years before resigning in protest with other pro-democracy legislators in 2020, is now based in Australia.
Hui is wanted under the national security law, with police offering HK$1 million for information leading to his arrest. He is suspected of colluding with foreign forces, inciting secession and inciting subversion. According to the Guardian, the second activist included in its report is also wanted under the security law.
US lawmakers call for sanctions on officials
A bi-partisan group of US lawmakers wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen on July 17, urging for sanctions to be placed on 27 Hong Kong officials, police chiefs, and prosecutors and judges handling national security cases.
In the letter, they said that the implementation of Article 23 showed “Hong Kong authorities’ willing contribution to the [Chinese Communist Party]’s strategy to undermine the freedoms that distinguish Hong Kong from mainland China.”
They also said the case in which 45 Hong Kong democrats were convicted “starkly exemplifies” how security legislation was being used to “silence political opposition and intimidate those who advocate for democratic principles.”
In a lengthy response, the Hong Kong government said it would not be “intimidated by such a despicable behaviour.”
“[Sanctions] grossly interfere in Hong Kong affairs which are China’s internal affairs, and violate the international law… the HKSAR despises such so-called ‘sanctions’ and is not intimidated by such a despicable behaviour,” it said in a statement.
Hong Kong needs ‘civil force’ to counter criticism
China responded to recommendations put forward by United Nations member states as part of a routine Universal Periodic Review at the UN headquarters in Geneva on July 4, saying it had adopted 70 per cent of the suggested but rejecting most proposals from Western states.
On July 15, Hong Kong’s legislature convened a panel on constitutional affairs, in which Chief Secretary Eric Chan presented a government report on the UN review, echoing Beijing’s view that recommendations from the West were based on “false information.”
Lawmakers in attendance suggested equipping civil society actors with information and fact sheets so they could respond to overseas criticism of Hong Kong during international exchanges.
“Foreign powers have long weaponised and politicised human rights to gain advantage over bilateral works with [China] and [Hong Kong],” Ma Fung-kwok said.
“It is a form of international struggle. While the UN makes a platform for officials, it’s more important that the civil force knows what to do” when faced with foreign criticism, he added, saying businesspeople, athletes, and artists who regularly went abroad should be trained for such encounters and be able to “speak up for Hong Kong.”
EU envoy urges shift of focus from security
In an interview with HKFP, Thomas Gnocchi, outgoing head of the European Union office to Hong Kong and Macau, urged officials in the city to shift their focus from national security to enhancing Hong Kong’s economic openness.
“Many civil society organizations have had to cease to operate. Many independent media also have ceased operating and independent trade unions likewise,” Gnocchi said, adding that he had seen “self-censorship in many areas.”
“I think in a nutshell, you could say that, whereas Hong Kong used to be an open society, it no longer is an open society,” he added.
Latest prosecution and arrest figures
As of June 21, a total of 299 people had been arrested in “cases involving suspected acts or activities that endanger national security” since Beijing’s national security law came into effect, the Security Bureau told HKFP. The number includes those arrested under Article 23, known officially as the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance.
Of the 175 people and five companies who have so far been charged, 156 persons have been convicted or are awaiting sentencing. Among them, 76 have been convicted or are awaiting sentencing under the national security law.
“As revealing specific arrest figures and information related to these activities could have an impact on operational deployment, no breakdown of the arrest statistics would be disclosed to the public,” the Security Bureau added.
HKFP has reached out to the Security Bureau for more recent figures.
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https://hongkongfp.com/2024/08/04/explainer-hong-kongs-national-security-crackdown-month-49/