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.
BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The planned transit by the ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the ‘Frankfurt am Main’ would be the German Navy’s first passage since 2002 Two German warships are set to pass through the Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Reuters last month reported that the warships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main, were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Der Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasize that Berlin views the trip as normal. The German Federal Ministry of Defense declined to comment. While
‘UPHOLDING PEACE’: Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked the US Congress for using a ‘creative and effective way’ to deter Chinese military aggression toward the nation The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack. The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says. The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously. “If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit
A senior US military official yesterday warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders. Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, but they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control. Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan (吳亞男), head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, talked via videoconference. Paparo “underscored the importance
The US House of Representatives yesterday unanimously passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, which aims to disincentivize Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by cutting Chinese leaders and their family members off from the US financial system if Beijing acts against Taiwan. The bipartisan bill, which would also publish the assets of top Chinese leaders, was cosponsored by Republican US Representative French Hill, Democratic US Representative Brad Sherman and seven others. If the US president determines that a threat against Taiwan exists, the bill would require the US Department of the Treasury to report to Congress on funds held by certain members of the
RSS