A US report which alleged that Hong Kong’s unique system had been “withered away,”leaving it “nearly indistinguishable” from mainland cities, has been condemned by the local government and Beijing.
The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) – a US government body monitoring human rights conditions in China – published its annual report on Friday. It said violations of human rights are “most brutally implemented in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Tibet, and Hong Kong.”
The Capitol Building in Washington DC. Photo: Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for Public Affairs, via Flickr.
“The façade of an alternative system of political governance that was promised to last 50 years… has withered away as Hong Kong becomes nearly indistinguishable from any other neon-lit city on the Chinese mainland,” the report read. “Indeed, Hong Kong officials may now be more zealous than their mainland counterparts in enforcing national security laws.”
In response, theCommissioner’s Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong said in a Chinese-language statement on Saturday that the “so-called report” was a tactic which “grossly interferes” in the internal affairs of mainland China and Hong Kong.
The Office said the report “fully exposed the ignorance, prejudice, and arrogance of certain U.S. politicians.”
Cui Jianchuan (right), the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the HKSAR, met the US consul general Gregory May(left) on August 7, 2024 in Hong Kong. File photo: the Commissioner’s Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the HKSAR
“No matter how many such reports the U.S. side throws out, they cannot shake the prosperous and stable situation in Hong Kong…” the statement has read.
Separately, in a Saturday statement, the Hong Kong government said the report “smack[s] of despicable political manipulation with ill intentions.” It warned the US side against “interfering” in Hong Kong affairs.
Rights abuses
The CECC report pointed to “the arbitrary application of national security laws” and an “ongoing criminal prosecution” against Hong Kong pro-democracy activists based on national security and sedition laws.
The report named pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai, former chief editor of defunct media outlet Stand News Chung Pui-kuen, human rights lawyer and activist Chow Hang-tung and student activist Joshua Wong as figures who had been prosecuted after they “peacefully exercised their rights.”
Tsang Kin-shing, aka “the Bull,” lines up outside the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on November 19, 2024, ahead of the sentencing hearing for 45 pro-democracy figures in Hong Kong’s largest national security case to date. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
Lai is still on trial for for two counts of taking part in a “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces” under Beijing’s security legislation. Wong – last month – was sentenced to 56 months in jail under the same legislation along with 44 democrats. Chow, meanwhile, is awaiting her national security trial.
In late September, Chung Pui-kuen was jailed for one year and nine months under the sedition law, the first such conviction of journalists since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Chow Hang-tung, former leader of the group that organised Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen vigils, was escorted to Court of Final Appeal on June 8, 2023. File photo: Lea Mok/HKFP.
the fact that annual vigils in Victoria Park commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown were no longer held was also another example of a human rights concern listed by the CECC.
In response, the Hong Kong government said the report “ignores the severe national security threats posed by the riots and the Hong Kong version of [a] ‘color revolution’ in 2019,” adding that all national security laws in Hong Kong were established to “safeguard national sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity.”
Some versions of 2019 protest song “Glory to Hong Kong” can no longer be accessed on Youtube and Spotify from Hong Kong as of December, 2024. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
“The laws also better safeguard the fundamental rights and freedoms of the residents of the HKSAR and other people, including those doing business, in the city,” the statement read. It added: “The relevant laws have set out clear definitions and criminal elements which will not affect regular exchanges between Hong Kong residents and people here for business with foreign countries.”
