Critics say officials in the Chinese finance hub have used the sedition offence, which has roots in British colonial rule, to target government critics and stifle dissent.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Hong Kong police said on Saturday (August 31, 2024) that two people were arrested for sedition under a new national security law, accusing them of spreading hatred against Chinese and local authorities.

The arrests on Friday came only a day after the pro-democracy news outlet Stand News and two former editors were found guilty of sedition, the first conviction of its kind since the city came under Chinese rule in 1997.

Critics say officials in the Chinese finance hub have used the sedition offence, which has roots in British colonial rule, to target government critics and stifle dissent.

A man aged 41 and a 28-year-old woman were arrested on Friday for committing “an act or acts that had a seditious intention” and remained in custody, police said in a statement.

Hong Kong media reports said the arrests were made in connection to a note widely circulated on social media this week after a university professor was killed on railway tracks.

The author expressed suicidal thoughts due to despair over Hong Kong’s future. AFP was unable to verify the identity of the person who wrote it.

Police said the woman was suspected of “publishing fraudulent ‘last words’ of the deceased in relation to a recent suicide case”.

They said the man was accused of placing “memorial light boxes” in various places, with contents “provoking hatred” of the governments in Beijing and Hong Kong, police said.

The new national security law, passed in March and commonly known as Article 23, increased the maximum jail term for sedition from two years to seven.

It is Hong Kong’s second national security law and follows the one imposed by Beijing in 2020 after huge, sometimes violent pro-democracy protests a year earlier.

Those protests prompted a crackdown on free speech that has seen critics of China jailed or forced into exile

The United States and Britain are among vocal critics of the new law, which they say has curbed rights.

By August 1, 301 people had been arrested for national security crimes under various laws.

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File image of Ehsan Khan© Twitter

Diplomacy for a semi-autonomous city is tricky business. Do you woo investors, dispel democratic anxieties, or crack down on dissent? If you are John Lee Ka-chiu, you do it all, and you do it without mincing words. Last year, during the “Hello Hong Kong” campaign, the city’s Chief Executive was seen gesturing his arms open, welcoming foreign visitors to a “world city like no other”. On the sidelines, he doggedly pursued “street rats”. Mr. Lee issued a bounty of HK$1 million against eight pro-democracy activists living abroad. They were wanted, dead or alive, under the Beijing-imposed national security law.

The eight Mr. Lee referred to are part of the ‘Hong Kong 47’— the 47 activists, academics, and politicians jailed or forced into exile since 2021. On May 30, a Hong Kong court found 14 activists guilty of attempting to “paralyse Hong Kong’s government” and to “topple the city’s leader”. The landmark prosecution is carried out under Mr. Lee’s leadership that began in 2022.

Hong Kong’s fifth Chief Executive has had humble beginnings. He was born into a middle-class family in Guangzhou and grew up in public housing, experiencing “first-hand hardships faced by the grassroots community”, Mr. Lee said in a campaign speech.

He attended the prestigious Wah Yan College run by Jesuit priests. His classmates and teachers described him as “obedient” and “result-oriented”, one who kept a low profile, according to a South China Morning Post report. The young Mr. Lee passed an opportunity to study engineering due to “family reasons”. In 1977, when Hong Kong was still a British colony, Mr. Lee, then 20 years, joined the police force. He was “known as an anglophile during the colonial rule”, Reuters reported earlier.

A policing background separates Mr. Lee from his predecessors, who rose from civil service or had ties to the business community. The 66-year-old spent more than four decades tackling security challenges. He started as a probationary inspector; moving up the ranks to become a deputy commissioner in 2010, a secretary for security in 2017, and by 2021, he was chosen the chief secretary for administration — the second most powerful job in Hong Kong. Mr. Lee had earned a reputation for being “notoriously difficult to deal with” and seemed hostile to those who raised questions, former lawmaker and activist in exile Nathan Law Kwun-chung told CNN.

Mr. Lee’s “sense of justice” began when he was robbed as a school student, which to him was a lesson in being a law-abiding citizen, according to the Global Times. The learning stuck.

When pro-democracy activists protested the controversial (and now withdrawn) extradition Bill in 2019, Mr. Lee defended his former police colleagues, who fired tear gas canisters, water cannons and rubber bullets at protesters. The protesters were “radicals” sowing “terror”, stopped only by the “courageous” police force, he said. Pro-Beijing lawmakers appreciated his “leadership skills” in handling the mass pro-democracy protests and the pandemic

Rewriting rule of law

The Basic Law, the city’s mini constitution, guarantees civil liberties, free speech, and independent judiciary in the former British Colony. The National Security Law rewrites the rule of law, and gives the government more power to crush dissent, critics fear. The U.S. has placed Mr. Lee on a sanctions list for undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy.

In 2022, Mr. Lee was the unopposed choice to be Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, handpicked by an election committee comprising Beijing loyalists. The appointment was a “reward for loyalty”, said Joseph Cheng, a retired Hong Kong academic.

Detractors also point out his lack of expertise in governance which would impact his ability to tackle the city’s housing and poverty issues. Mr. Lee approved new domestic security laws in March this year, an expansion of the NSL, which experts fear could dampen Hong Kong’s prospects of becoming a hub for international business.

Hong Kong’s Chief Executives traditionally juggle opposing forces — balancing Hong Kong’s desire for autonomy alongside China’s vision for the city. Mr. Lee’s governance bends towards the latter; national security would take priority “above all else”, he had said. Mr. Lee’s 2022 manifesto vowed to bolster security legislation, introduce a “national identity” education and enact a “fake news” law. The National Security Law (which prohibits treason, secession, sedition or subversion against Beijing) has “restored peace” and was necessary to guard against “undercurrents that try to create troubles”, he said. When asked about law and order, Mr. Lee, in an interview with China Daily, said the “national security threat is well under control”, with “patriots” like himself administering Hong Kong.

What drives Mr. Lee? He quoted a Cantonese saying during a press meet. “When we draw a cartoon character, we should draw its intestines as well”, he said, suggesting his attention to details while drawing up initiatives. The Chief Executive has earned the sobriquet of the cartoon ‘Pickachu’ on social media. It’s a play on his Cantonese name Ka-Chiu, encoded with the implication of his subservience to Beijing. Mr. Lee reworked a detail to counter this criticism. Marketing flooded online channels with a blue cartoon called ‘Brother Chiu’, an affectionate salutation for a respectable figure in Hong Kong.

This tough line earned him praise from the higher-ups. Last December, China’s President Xi Jinping said Mr. Lee’s work has “consolidated the general trend turning Hong Kong from chaos to order”, and that Hong Kong “now sits on a path to prosperity”.

Photo of Zheng Zeguang, Chinese Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

Britain’s foreign ministry has summoned the Chinese ambassador after three men were charged with spying for Hong Kong, the Telegraph newspaper reported on May 14.

The ambassador will be challenged by officials over the allegations that three men had assisted Hong Kong’s foreign intelligence service in Britain, the newspaper said. The men appeared in a London Court on May 13.

Britain’s Foreign Office had no immediate comment.

The men are accused of helping the Hong Kong agency between December and May by “agreeing to undertake information gathering, surveillance and acts of deception” in Britain, according to the charges.

The Chinese Embassy in London accused Britain of fabricating the charges and said it had no right to interfere in Hong Kong’s affairs.

Hong Kong was under British rule for 156 years before reverting to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

In this image from a video taken on October 25, 2023, and released by Hong Kong Legislative Council, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee delivers a policy address at the Legislative Council meeting room in Hong Kong.
| Photo Credit: AP

Hong Kong leader John Lee said on October 25 the semi-autonomous city would create its own national security law in 2024, four years after Beijing imposed sweeping legislation aimed at silencing dissent.

In a three-hour-plus policy address, the Beijing-anointed leader unveiled measures aimed at revitalising Hong Kong’s COVID-ravaged economy and flagging population growth, while asserting the need to protect the Chinese city from “external forces”.

“Some countries are undermining China and the implementation of ‘one country, two systems’ in Hong Kong for their own benefits,” he said, referring to the governance model agreed by Britain and China under which the city would keep some autonomy and freedoms following the 1997 handover.

“External forces continue to meddle in Hong Kong affairs,” he said.

“We must guard against those seeking to provoke conflict… and remain alert to acts of ‘soft resistance’ in different forms,” Mr. Lee said, using a phrase that China and Hong Kong officials have started deploying in speeches to denote anti-government actions.

Massive pro-democracy protests rocked the city in 2019, bringing hundreds of thousands of people to the streets to call for greater freedoms and more autonomy from mainland China.

In response, Beijing imposed a national security law with sentences ranging up to life in prison. As of the end of September, 280 people have been arrested and 30 convicted under the security law.

Security chief-turned-leader Lee — who is under U.S. sanctions for his role in stamping out the protests — said Hong Kong would “continue to safeguard national security”.

“The government is pressing ahead to draw up effective legislative options and will complete the legislative exercise in 2024 to fulfil our constitutional duty,” Mr. Lee said.

Under the Basic Law — the city’s mini-constitution — Hong Kong is required to implement its own law combating seven security-related crimes, including treason and espionage.

The task, often referred to as “a constitutional responsibility” by the city’s government, has yet to be fulfilled more than 25 years after Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule.

The last legislative attempt in 2003 was shelved after half a million people took to the streets in protest.

Mr. Lee told reporters his administration would avoid a repeat of 2003 by “(ensuring) that people will understand what the eventual legislation will do to protect them”.

Thomas Kellogg, executive director of the Center for Asian Law at Georgetown University, said the new legislative push was a “deeply disturbing development”.

A new homegrown security law “would give the Hong Kong government the chance… to threaten an even broader array of individuals with legal penalties merely for exercising their basic rights,” Kellogg said.

Mr. Lee also said Hong Kong would “roll out patriotic education to enhance national identity”.

His announcement came a day after Beijing passed a law to strengthen “patriotic education” for children and families as “some people are at a loss about what is patriotism”, said China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.

Hong Kong — which in April finally dropped harsh anti-Covid restrictions that left the finance hub isolated — is “set to… resume growth” this year, Lee said, adding that the first half of 2023 has seen the economy grow 2.2 percent.

He unveiled measures to boost the city’s ailing property market amid falling real estate prices, slashing stamp duty by half to 7.5 percent for non-local buyers and Hongkongers buying additional properties.

Hong Kong’s “long-standing problem” of subdivided units — flats divided into small spaces in often dilapidated buildings — would also be tackled via a taskforce.

The issue of affordable housing remains one of the city’s major policy roadblocks and something successive administrations have failed to tackle.

Lee also sounded the alarm on the “persistently low birth rate” in Hong Kong — which last year recorded its lowest number of births since records began in 1961 — set against a population that has among the longest life expectancies in the world.

A “one-off cash bonus of $20,000 (US$2,600) for each baby born today or after” will be offered to Hong Kongers or parents who are permanent residents — a measure that will last for three years.

Researcher Tan Poh Lin said Singapore’s experience with using cash gifts to boost the fertility rate “does not provide high confidence” that many families would be convinced.

“Given the size of the cash bonus, few couples are likely to respond by increasing fertility intentions… But it is a supportive gesture that can alleviate some of the upfront costs,” said Tan, an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore.

As Hong Kong does not recognise same-sex marriages, the two women in the case — who were granted anonymity by the court — were married and underwent RIVF in South Africa. Image for representation purpose only. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A Hong Kong court has sided with a lesbian couple who argued that both women should have parental status over their child born via “reciprocal IVF”, a ruling hailed as a win for the LGBTQ community.

The medical procedure of reciprocal in vitro fertilisation (RIVF) allows two women to share in the process of childbearing and is credited with helping same-sex couples start families.

Two women who took part in RIVF launched a legal challenge last year after the Hong Kong government recognised only one of them as the mother of their son, citing existing family laws.

Also Read | Hong Kong’s top court rules to recognise same-sex partnerships

On Friday, judge Queeny Au-Yeung at the court of first instance ruled that the government’s non-recognition was a form of discrimination against the couple’s son.

Their child was “discriminated as to his birth in the sense that, unlike other children, he does not have a co-parent, genetically linked to him,” the judge wrote in her ruling.

The court declared that the woman initially denied legal status should be recognised as a “parent at common law”, saying the move would align her legal status with reality.

“The court should be astute to the changing world where people build families in different manners other than through a married or heterosexual relationship,” the judge added.

In RIVF, a lesbian couple can jointly take part in childbearing as one woman’s egg, fertilised externally with the aid of a sperm donor, is transferred to the other woman who carries the pregnancy to term.

The procedure was introduced in the late 2000s and can now be performed without restriction in more than a dozen European countries, according to an academic survey.

As Hong Kong does not recognise same-sex marriages, the two women in the case — who were granted anonymity by the court — were married and underwent RIVF in South Africa.

Lawyer Evelyn Tsao, who represented one of the women, called the ruling “one giant step for the rainbow families in our LGBTQ community”.

“For the first time, the court expressly states that children of same-sex couples are discriminated by the current legislation,” Ms. Tsao told AFP.

Barrister Azan Marwah, one of the lawyers who argued the case in court, said on social media that the ruling was a first in the common law world.

The Department of Justice told AFP it was “studying the judgment in detail and considering the way forward”.

Earlier this month, Hong Kong’s top court ruled against same-sex marriage but ordered the government to provide an “alternative framework”, such as civil unions, to protect the rights of homosexual couples.

Hong Kong:

A Hong Kong court has sided with a lesbian couple who argued that both women should have parental status over their child born via “reciprocal IVF”, a ruling hailed as a win for the LGBTQ community.

The medical procedure of reciprocal in vitro fertilisation (RIVF) allows two women to share in the process of childbearing and is credited with helping same-sex couples start families.

Two women who took part in RIVF launched a legal challenge last year after the Hong Kong government recognised only one of them as the mother of their son, citing existing family laws.

On Friday, judge Queeny Au-Yeung at the court of first instance ruled that the government’s non-recognition was a form of discrimination against the couple’s son.

Their child was “discriminated as to his birth in the sense that, unlike other children, he does not have a co-parent, genetically linked to him,” the judge wrote in her ruling.

The court declared that the woman initially denied legal status should be recognised as a “parent at common law”, saying the move would align her legal status with reality.

“The court should be astute to the changing world where people build families in different manners other than through a married or heterosexual relationship,” the judge added.

In RIVF, a lesbian couple can jointly take part in childbearing as one woman’s egg, fertilised externally with the aid of a sperm donor, is transferred to the other woman who carries the pregnancy to term.

The procedure was introduced in the late 2000s and can now be performed without restriction in more than a dozen European countries, according to an academic survey.

As Hong Kong does not recognise same-sex marriages, the two women in the case — who were granted anonymity by the court — were married and underwent RIVF in South Africa.

Lawyer Evelyn Tsao, who represented one of the women, called the ruling “one giant step for the rainbow families in our LGBTQ community”.

“For the first time, the court expressly states that children of same-sex couples are discriminated by the current legislation,” Ms Tsao told AFP.

Barrister Azan Marwah, one of the lawyers who argued the case in court, said on social media that the ruling was a first in the common law world.

The Department of Justice told AFP it was “studying the judgment in detail and considering the way forward”.

Earlier this month, Hong Kong’s top court ruled against same-sex marriage but ordered the government to provide an “alternative framework”, such as civil unions, to protect the rights of homosexual couples.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

People walk past a flooded area during heavy rain in Hong Kong, on September 8, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Torrential rain deluged Hong Kong on September 8, leading to widespread flooding across the densely packed city, submerging streets, shopping malls and metro stations, as authorities shut schools and asked workers to stay at home.

The Chinese special administrative region saw the highest hourly rainfall since records began 140 years ago.

Hong Kong Observatory reported rainfall of 158.1 millimetres (6.2 inches) between 11 p.m. HKT on Thursday and midnight on Friday (1500 to 1600 GMT on Thursday).

Drainage workers assist a driver stranded due to flooding to a safe place, during heavy rain in Hong Kong, on September 8, 2023
| Photo Credit:
Reuters

The weather bureau issued the highest “black” rainstorm warning and said more than 200 mm of rainfall was recorded on Hong Kong’s main island, Kowloon and the northeastern part of the city’s New Territories since Thursday night.

The trough of low pressure associated with the remnant of Typhoon Haikui has brought torrential rain to the coast of Guangdong since Thursday, the weather bureau said. Extreme conditions are expected to last until at least noon on Friday.

Hong Kong’s stock exchange will not open on Friday morning if the black rainstorm warning is still in place at 9 a.m., the exchange said.

City leader John Lee said he was very concerned about the severe flooding in most parts of the territory and had instructed all departments to respond with “all-out efforts”.

Videos circulating on social media showed streets turning into raging rivers, while one clip showed water gushing down an escalator into a swamped subway station.

A view of a flooded shopping mall during heavy rain, in Hong Kong, on September 8, 2023.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters

The city’s cross harbour tunnel, one of main arteries connecting Hong Kong island to Kowloon, was also inundated with water, while photos showed a waterlogged shopping centre in the Chai Wan district.

Hong Kong’s MTR Corp which operates the city’s rail network said at least one line was shut while others were operating at delayed intervals.

All schools have been suspended on Friday due to “extreme conditions caused by extensive flooding and serious traffic disruption,” the government said.

It appealed to employers to observe work arrangements normally used for the strong wind signal 8, which brings the city to an effective standstill with offices and stores shut.

Hong Kong:

Hong Kong’s top court partially approved on Tuesday a landmark appeal by an LGBTQ activist for recognition of overseas same-sex marriages, and called for an alternative legal framework for such couples to legitimise their basic social needs.

The ruling ended a five-year legal battle fought by jailed democracy and LGBTQ rights activist Jimmy Sham, marking the first time Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal directly addressed the issue of same-sex marriage in the Asian financial hub.

Chief Justice Andrew Cheung, Permanent Judges Roberto Ribeiro, Joseph Fok, Johnson Lam, and Non-Permanent Judge Patrick Keane ruled that marriage freedoms outlined in Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, known as the Basic Law, were confined to opposite-sex marriage.

But the judges acknowledged same-sex couples’ need “for access to an alternative legal framework in order to meet basic social requirements.”

Same-sex couples also needed to “have a sense of legitimacy which dispels any sense of them belonging to an inferior class of person whose committed and stable relationships are undeserving of recognition,” the judges wrote.

Lawyers and activists say the ruling could potentially force changes by the city’s government and institutions, and lead to the creation of a new legal regime to allow smoother inheritance and insurance options as well as tax allowances, among other rights.

The decision could also influence Asian financial hubs from Tokyo to Singapore to draft more inclusive laws as a drawcard for the diverse, global talent that multinational corporations from banks to technology giants are seeking to hire and retain.

The judges suspended a declaration that the government’s lack of an alternative legal framework had violated Sham’s rights, giving the government two years to make further submissions.

Sham, 36, married his partner in New York in 2013 and twice lost in lower courts after launching his bid for Hong Kong to recognise overseas same-sex marriages in 2018.

Sham is one of the 47 democrats charged under the Beijing-imposed national security law over an unofficial primary election held in 2020 and has been detained since March 2021.

Esther Leung, campaign manager of the Hong Kong Marriage Equality group, said after the ruling that while the decision was a “major step forward, it falls short of what is really at stake in this case: full inclusion in marriage”.

Hong Kong is due to host Asia’s first Gay Games in November – an event that could help boost Hong Kong’s lacklustre post-COVID economic recovery.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)