Hong Kong: Assault on freedoms continue with new security law and crackdown around Tiananmen anniversary

Hong Kong’s civic space remains rated as ‘closed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor. The draconian 2020 National Security Law (NSL) has been used to prosecute activists, journalists and critics with heavy penalties, while sedition charges have been brought against activists and critics to silence dissent. Warrants have also been issued against exiled pro-democracy activists. Peaceful protesters have also been convicted and some remain behind bars. The right to freedom of association has also been undermined by the introduction of the NSL, with civil society groups and unions ceasing to operate.

On 30th March 2024, the US Department of State announced that it was taking steps to impose new visa restrictions on a number of Hong Kong officials responsible for the intensifying crackdown on ‘rights and freedoms’, without naming any of the targeted officials.

On 25th April 2024, the European Parliament passed an urgency resolution which strongly condemned Hong Kong’s recent passage of the Safeguarding National Security Bill and ongoing implementation of the Beijing-imposed 2020 National Security Law. The resolution urged the Hong Kong government to immediately and unconditionally release Andy Li, Jimmy Lai, Joseph John, Kok Tsz-lun and all other political prisoners in Hong Kong who are detained for exercising their internationally-guaranteed rights and freedoms.

In recent months, a new repressive security law was passed without genuine consultation and which has been used to stifle dissent, with the first arrests around the Tiananmen crackdown anniversary. Fourteen activists were convicted under the draconian 2020 security law in a landmark security trial that violated international due process standards. Commemoration of the Tiananmen anniversary were stifled, the passports of six pro-democracy activists in exile were cancelled, an opposition party shut down and a press freedom group representative detained and deported. A protest song was banned by the court of appeal while protestors were arrested for allegedly insulting the national anthem.

Association

New repressive security law passed

The Beijing-controlled Legislative Council in Hong Kong passed a new security law on 19th March 2024 that will add another layer of repression in the territory. The legislature took only 11 days to pass the ordinance unanimously without any genuine public consultation.

The Safeguarding National Security Ordinance contains seven offences: treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People’s Government, theft of state secrets, to prohibit foreign political organisations or bodies from conducting political activities in the territory, and to prohibit political organisations or bodies of the territory from establishing ties with foreign political organisations or bodies.

According to Human Rights Watch, it can be used to punish peaceful speech and civil society activism with heavy prison sentences, it expands police powers and weakens due process rights. Because provisions apply to Hong Kong residents and businesses anywhere in the world, the law can silence dissent both in the city and globally.

Definitions of many of the crimes in the Ordinance are overly broad, increasing the risks of politically motivated prosecutions and convictions. The Ordinance allows the government to ban organisations found to be engaging in activities broadly deemed to be endangering national security.

Hong Kong residents and Hong Kong incorporated bodies or businesses can violate the Ordinance anywhere in the world. The government can cancel their passports and suspend their qualifications to practise a profession.

The Ordinance spells out harsh sentences for peaceful activities. The law raises the maximum sentence for “sedition” from the current two years to seven years, despite repeated calls from the UN Human Rights Committee to repeal the archaic colonial-era law and refrain from using it.

Under the Ordinance, the police may extend the detention of a person arrested without charge from the current 48 hours to a further 14 days subject to court approval. Police may restrict the right of a person under investigation or detention to consult with certain lawyers.

Currently, Hong Kong prisoners are entitled to apply for a review of their sentence and may receive up to a one-third reduction for good behaviour. However, amendments to existing laws now prevent prisoners convicted under a national security offence from such reviews (clause 168), including prisoners with sentences imposed before the Ordinance was passed.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk deplored the accelerated consideration and adoption of a national security bill despite detailed, serious human rights concerns raised with the authorities by his Office and UN human rights mechanisms. Türk stressed that broadly defined and vague provisions in the Bill could lead to the criminalisation of a wide range of conduct protected under international human rights law, including freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly, and the right to receive and impart information.

First arrests under new security law around Tiananmen crackdown anniversary

Eight people were arrested under the new security law for alleged seditious intent, including imprisoned human rights defender Chow Hang-tung.

Six individuals were detained on 28th May 2024 and accused of publishing messages with seditious intent on social media commemorating “a sensitive day” (referring to the Tiananmen crackdown anniversary) and allegedly violating section 24 of the security law. The police said the homes of the arrested were searched, and that electronic devices were seized. A seventh individual was detained the following day, also for sedition. On 4th June, police apprehended an eighth person, a 62-year-old man, for sedition.

Amnesty International said: “The Hong Kong government has once again moved to suppress freedom of expression as it attempts to stop people remembering the horrific events of 4 June 1989. Despite warnings from UN human rights experts that the law is inconsistent with international human rights laws and standards, the Hong Kong government insists on weaponising it to silence critique.”

14 activists convicted under draconian security law

On 30th May 2024, three judges handpicked by the Beijing-controlled Hong Kong chief executive convicted 14 activists under the draconian National Security Law (NSL). Two were acquitted.

As previously documented, in January 2021, pro-democracy activists, opposition candidates, former lawmakers and lawyers were arrested and detained under the NSL. They were accused of ‘subverting state power’ under Article 22 of the NSL for organising, joining and supporting an unofficial primary election in July 2020 to shortlist pro-democracy candidates for the legislature election. On 28th February 2021, police in Hong Kong charged 47 of the activists. The majority of the defendants have been in detention for more than three years, as only 13 have been granted bail. 31 of the defendants have pleaded guilty.

According to Human Rights Watch, many aspects of the detention and trial proceedings violated international due process standards, including prolonged pretrial detention and denial of a jury trial. Hong Kong authorities have also repeatedly denied consular access, as required by international law, to Gordon Ng Ching-hang, an Australian citizen.

Hong Kong Watch said: “This latest verdict is an all-out assault on democracy and governments which value democracy around the world. Hong Kong Watch stands in solidarity with the 47 democrats and continues to call on the international community to recognise that business is not as usual in Hong Kong.”

Crackdown on commemorations of the Tiananmen anniversary

On 4th June 2024, police reportedly arrested four people and detained five others as authorities sought to stamp out commemorations of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in mainland China on its 35th anniversary. Police were out in force patrolling Hong Kong’s Victoria Park, where an annual candlelight vigil had been held until recent years.

Police said they made four arrests, including a 68-year-old woman who was chanting slogans, and suspected to have committed offences "in connection with seditious intention," which carries a sentence of up to seven years in jail under the new domestic security law. Five other people were taken in for questioning on suspicion of disrupting public peace but were released.

Officers also led away an elderly man who had held up two handwritten posters listing democracy movements in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan alongside a poem commemorating 4th June.

Ahead of the anniversary, police detained performance artist Sanmu Chen in Causeway Bay, the busy Hong Kong shopping district where the park is located. Before officers approached him, Chen wrote the Chinese characters “8964,” which refer to the date of the crackdown, in the air with his finger. He also mimed the Chinese traditional tomb-sweeping ritual of pouring wine onto the ground to mourn the dead. He was released the same night.

Hong Kong cancels passports of six pro-democracy activists in exile

On 12th June 2024, Hong Kong cancelled the passports of six pro-democracy activists who are in exile overseas under its newly-enacted domestic security law – the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance.

Under Article 23, the Hong Kong Secretary for Security can declare an individual to be an absconder if they have an arrest warrant for a minimum of six months without appearing before a magistrate, and if the Secretary for Security “reasonably believes” they are not in Hong Kong. The government will also cancel all business dealings in Hong Kong related to the six individuals, and make it unlawful to provide them with “funds, financial assets, handle their economic resources, or have property dealings”.

The six men, accused of national security crimes in Hong Kong and wanted by police, include former legislator Nathan Law and British Consulate worker Simon Cheng, who was detained for 15 days in China in August 2019. The others are activist Finn Lau, labour rights activist Christopher Mung, Fok Ka-chi and Choi Ming-da.

Writing on the social media platform X, Lau said the move was “an explicit act of transnational repression” but it would not stop him from campaigning for what he believed in.

Hong Kong Watch condemned this “outrageous manoeuvre by the Hong Kong authorities to further target, intimidate and silence these six pro-democracy activists living in the UK who have simply advocated for their freedoms. This blatant act of transnational repression further demonstrates that, in the absence of consequences, the Hong Kong government will be emboldened to commit further attacks on the safety of activists and the wider Hong Kong community in the UK.”

Opposition party shuts down

Four days after the enactment of Article 23 in Hong Kong, the Civic Party of Hong Kong officially dissolved. In May 2023, the Civic Party disbanded under a leadership vacuum, and spent the remainder of the year clearing out its office.

According to Hong Kong Watch, following the imposition of the National Security Law in Hong Kong in 2020, the Civic Party had their elected politicians unseated, three members jailed, and a former politician listed as a wanted fugitive. By the end of 2021, all Civic Party members had been ousted under Beijing’s new “patriots-only” laws which disqualifies anyone deemed politically disloyal from contesting elections or holding public office in Hong Kong.

The Civic Party is a pro-democracy political party in Hong Kong that was founded in 2006 as a Basic Law Article 45 Concern Group to promote democracy in Hong Kong.

Press freedom group representative detained and deported

A representative of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) was deported from Hong Kong in April 2024 on arrival in the territory to monitor the landmark trial of publisher Jimmy Lai, who is facing spurious national security charges.

According to RSF, on 10th April 2024, their Taipei-based Advocacy Officer Aleksandra Bielakowska was detained for six hours, searched, and questioned at Hong Kong's international airport before being deported from the territory. She was on a mission, along with RSF’s Asia-Pacific Bureau Director Cédric Alviani, to meet journalists and monitor a hearing in the trial of Jimmy Lai, the founder of independent newspaper Apple Daily, who is currently facing possible life imprisonment for "endangering national security."

This is the first time any RSF representative has been denied entry or held at the Hong Kong airport. RSF representatives successfully entered the territory in June 2023 and again in December 2023, when they monitored the opening of Jimmy Lai’s trial. On those occasions, RSF’s representatives – including Bielakowska – were able to enter the territory, hold meetings with journalists and diplomats, and monitor court proceedings without any problems.

Expression

Protest song banned by court of appeal

On 8th May 2024, the Hong Kong Court of Appeal overturned a July 2023 decision by a lower court, which had rejected the Hong Kong government’s decision to ban ‘Glory to Hong Kong’ due to concerns it would have a “chilling” effect on freedom of expression.

Hong Kong’s Department of Justice is seeking to ban the “broadcasting, performing, printing, publishing, selling, offering for sale, distributing, disseminating, displaying or reproducing in any way” of the song, which gained particular prominence during 2019 mass protests in the city.

The song’s lyrics and melody would also be banned. The government has previously said people who engage with the song in any of the ways described could be prosecuted under the National Anthem Ordinance, or even charged with “secession” under the National Security Law, potentially leading to life imprisonment.

Amnesty International said: “The Hong Kong government’s campaign to ban a song is as ludicrous as it is dangerous. Banning ‘Glory to Hong Kong’ not only represent a senseless attack on Hongkongers’ freedom of expression; it also violates international human rights law.”

On 15th May 2024, YouTube said it will comply with the court decision and block access inside Hong Kong to 32 videos deemed prohibited content. A spokesperson for YouTube said the geo-blocking of videos would take effect immediately for viewers in Hong Kong.

Three arrested for allegedly insulting national anthem at football match

Police reportedly said three people were arrested at Hong Kong’s World Cup qualifying match against Iran on 7th June 2024 because they “turned their backs toward the pitch and did not stand for the playing of the national anthem”.

Local media reported that plainclothes police officers were observing spectators and filming them as the Chinese national anthem was played at Hong Kong Stadium.

Hong Kong’s National Anthem Law, passed in 2020, criminalises perceived “insults” to China’s national anthem, punishable by up to three years in prison. All those arrested were released on bail, pending investigation.

Prosecutors close case against media owner Jimmy Lai

On 11th June 2024, prosecutors closed their case against pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai in a landmark national security trial. The proceedings will resume in late July 2024.

As previously documented, Jimmy Lai is the 75-year-old founder of the now-defunct newspaper Apple Daily. He was arrested in 2019 as part of a crackdown against Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement under the National Security Law imposed by Beijing. Apple Daily was forced to close down in 2021 after the arrests of its top executives and journalists.

On 22nd January 2024, UN experts called on the authorities to drop all charges against Lai and release him immediately. They said: “We are alarmed by the multiple and serious violations of Jimmy Lai’s freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association, and his right to a fair trial, including the denial of access to a lawyer of his own choosing and the handpicking of judges by the authorities.”

In June 2024, a group of lawmakers wrote to the Hong Kong Department of Justice (DoJ) to condemn their failure to admit relevant evidence in the trial of Jimmy Lai. The lawmakers, which include 17 politicians labelled ‘conspirators’ and ‘foreign forces’ by prosecutors, accused the DoJ of serious legal failings.