The organizer of Hong Kong’s annual vigil for the victims of China’s Tiananmen Square Massacre yesterday said that his account with Zoom Video Communications Inc was suspended after trying to host an online discussion about Beijing’s global influence.
His statement came after Zoom had said that it temporarily closed a US account used by activists who tried to connect more than 250 people to remember Beijing’s crushing of the pro-democracy movement on June 4, 1989.
That revelation sparked concerns that the US videoconferencing app, which has soared in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, is bowing to China’s authoritarian government.
Photo: AFP
Lee Cheuk-yan (李卓人), chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance, said that he has been locked out of Zoom since May 22 when his group tried to host an online discussion on China’s influence around the world.
“The account was suspended before the talk started. I’ve asked Zoom many times whether this is political censorship, but it has never replied to me,” Lee said, adding that the alliance held two previous talks on Zoom without issues.
Once locked out, the alliance broadcasted on Facebook and YouTube, which are allowed in Hong Kong, but banned in China, he said.
The May 22 talk contained no speakers from China, but the alliance has always sought ways to reach people beyond China’s Great Firewall and Zoom can be used there, Lee said.
Zoom has said that it reactivated the account of a US-based group of Chinese pro-democracy advocates, after earlier closing the account “to comply with local laws.”
“Just like any global company, we must comply with applicable laws in the jurisdictions where we operate,” a Zoom spokesman said in a statement. “When a meeting is held across different countries, the participants within those countries are required to comply with their respective local laws. We aim to limit the actions we take to those necessary to comply with local laws and continuously review and improve our process on these matters. We have reactivated the US-based account.”
Zoom, which maintains a significant research and development workforce in China, has come under scrutiny for its links to the country.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
COMPLIANCE: The SEF has helped more than 3,900 Chinese verify documents, indicating that most of those affected are willing to cooperate, the MAC said More than 3,100 spouses from China have submitted proof of renunciation of their Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The National Immigration Agency has since April issued notices to spouses to submit proof that they had renounced their Chinese household registration on or before June 30 or their Taiwanese household registration would be revoked. People having difficulties obtaining such a document can request an extension of the deadline or submit a written affidavit in lieu of it. The council said it would hold a briefing at 2:30pm on Friday at the immigration agency’s Taichung office in cooperation with the
ELITE UNIT: President William Lai yesterday praised the National Police Agency’s Special Operations Group after watching it go through assault training and hostage rescue drills The US Navy regularly conducts global war games to develop deterrence strategies against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, aimed at making the nation “a very difficult target to take,” US Acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby said on Wednesday. Testifying before the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Kilby said the navy has studied the issue extensively, including routine simulations at the Naval War College. The navy is focused on five key areas: long-range strike capabilities; countering China’s command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; terminal ship defense; contested logistics; and nontraditional maritime denial tactics, Kilby
RSS