A UK-based rights group yesterday pledged not to remain silent after the Hong Kong government demanded it shutter its Web site and accused it of endangering China’s national security.
While China heavily restricts the Internet on the mainland, Hong Kong does not generally censor the Web, allowing residents to access sites and content that might be critical of Beijing. However, yesterday’s announcement makes Hong Kong Watch the first overseas non-governmental organization (NGO) to confirm it is in the crosshairs of a National Security Law that Beijing imposed on June 30, 2020, to snuff out dissent in the territory.
“By threatening a UK-based NGO with financial penalties and jail for merely reporting on the human rights situation in Hong Kong, this letter exemplifies why Hong Kong’s National Security Law is so dangerous,” Hong Kong Watch chief executive Benedict Rogers said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“We will not be silenced by an authoritarian security apparatus which, through a mixture of senseless brutality and ineptitude, has triggered rapid mass migration out of the city and shut down civil society,” said Rogers, who was barred from visiting Hong Kong in 2017.
The Hong Kong Security Bureau accused the group of “colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security,” according to an e-mail sent on Thursday last week, which Hong Kong Watch posted in full on its Web site yesterday.
The offense, one of the four major crimes under the security law, can carry maximum penalties of up to life imprisonment.
“Criminal investigation reveals that ‘Hong Kong Watch’ has been engaging in ... lobbying foreign countries to impose sanctions or blockade” against China and Hong Kong, the e-mail said.
Hong Kong Police Commissioner Raymond Siu Chak-yee (蕭澤頤) also sent a notice the same day demanding that the group remove all publications from its Web site.
“Should you fail to do so, further action will be instituted ... without further notice,” the e-mail said.
The Hong Kong Police force yesterday said that it does not comment on specific cases, but added that the public can continue to use the Internet “lawfully.”
The UK — Hong Kong’s former colonial ruler — condemned what it called the “unjustifiable action.”
“The Chinese Government and Hong Kong authorities must respect the universal right to freedom of speech, and uphold that right in Hong Kong in accordance with international commitments, including the [Sino-British] Joint Declaration,” British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs Liz Truss said in a statement.
“Attempting to silence voices globally that speak up for freedom and democracy is unacceptable and will never succeed,” the statement said.
Founded in 2017, Hong Kong Watch monitors “threats to Hong Kong’s basic freedoms, the rule of law and autonomy.”
The NGO is supported by a number of British politicians, including former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten.
Since last month, the Web site has not been accessible in the Chinese territory without the use of a virtual private network.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique