Chu Kai-pong, 27, pleaded guilty to ‘act with seditious intent’ for displaying slogan ‘Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times’
A man in Hong Kong has pleaded guilty to sedition for wearing a T-shirt with a protest slogan, becoming the first person to be convicted under the city’s controversial national security law known as Article 23, passed in March.
Chu Kai-pong, 27, pleaded guilty to one count of “doing acts with seditious intent”.
Continue reading...Staff from at least 15 media outlets subjected to threats and defamatory letters sent to their families and employers
Journalists from more than a dozen media outlets in Hong Kong have been harassed and targeted in what the city’s largest journalist association said was a “systemic and organised attack” over recent months.
The harassment included death threats, and threatening and defamatory complaint letters being sent to reporters’ families and their employers, as well as landlords and neighbours, the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) said.
Continue reading...British manufacturer’s share price slumped 6.5% after engines failed on Cathay Pacific flight on Monday
• Cathay Pacific says 15 jets need new part after Rolls-Royce engine problem
An engine failure on a Cathay Pacific flight on Monday has put the spotlight on the British manufacturer Rolls-Royce, which makes and maintains the power plant on the Airbus A350.
As airlines that operate the twin-aisle plane inspect their fleets, investors are trying to establish whether there will be broader implications for Rolls-Royce. The A350, which carries up to 410 passengers, is used mainly on lon-haul routes.
Continue reading...Singapore Airlines also says it is inspecting aircraft after component failure on rival’s Airbus A350
Cathay Pacific has said it identified 15 Airbus A350 aircraft that need component replacements after a part failed on one of its Rolls-Royce engines minutes after takeoff from Hong Kong on Monday.
A second carrier, Singapore Airlines, said on Tuesday it was also inspecting the engines of its Airbus A350 aircraft “as a precautionary measure”.
Continue reading...Chris Patten condemns ‘dark day for press freedom’ as Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam convicted over 11 articles
Two journalists from the closed Hong Kong media outlet Stand News have been found guilty of conspiring to publish seditious materials – the first such convictions since Hong Kong’s return to Chinese control – after a trial that was closely observed as a bellwether for the city’s diminishing press freedom.
The former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen and former acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam were arrested on 29 December 2021 after police raided the outlet’s newsroom.
Continue reading...David Neuberger was part of court panel that dismissed appeal of Jimmy Lai and six other pro-democracy activists
David Neuberger, the former president of the UK’s supreme court, has resigned from his role as chair of a legal advisory board to an international media freedom coalition, citing the “concern expressed” over his role as a judge in Hong Kong.
Lord Neuberger said he had been considering his position as chair of the high-level panel of legal experts that advises the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC), an international NGO, for several months.
Continue reading...Film-maker who directed films starring Li, Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh and later worked as a Hollywood fight coordinator, died during the Covid pandemic two years ago
Celebrated Hong Kong martial arts actor and director Corey Yuen died two years ago during the Covid pandemic, it has been reported.
The Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers confirmed Yuen’s death following a social media post by action star Jackie Chan naming Yuen (also known as Yuen Kwai) among a list of late disciples of China Drama Academy head Yu Jim-yuen, who died in 1997.
Continue reading...Former governor speaks out after appeal court upholds convictions of seven activists over 2019 protest
Chris Patten, the former governor of Hong Kong, has decried as “unjust” a decision by the Chinese city’s top court to uphold the conviction of Jimmy Lai and other prominent pro-democracy activists for participating in a peaceful protest in 2019.
On Monday, Hong Kong’s court of final appeal unanimously agreed to uphold the convictions of seven activists who participated in an unauthorised 2019 protest in which 1.7 million people – roughly a quarter of Hong Kong’s population – took to the streets to oppose Beijing’s tightening grip on the city.
Continue reading...Pro-democracy campaign group finds exports of goods to Russia, vital to its war efforts, roughly doubled in a year
Hong Kong has become a global trade hub for “the world’s most brutal regimes”, according to a report examining the city’s role in facilitating the flow of goods to countries under sanctions by the west, including Russia, Iran and North Korea.
A report published on Monday by the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, a campaign group, found that between 2021 and 2022, exports of semiconductors from Hong Kong to Russia roughly doubled to $400m (£310m), second only to shipments from mainland China. Semiconductors are vital to Russia’s war effort as they are a component in weaponry such as drones and cruise missiles.
Continue reading...Case raises questions about complicity of western financial institutions in persecution of Chinese government critics
Two exiled pro-democracy Hong Kong activists have been blocked from accessing their pensions, depriving them of tens of thousands of US dollars of their savings and raising questions about the complicity of western financial institutions in the persecution of Chinese government critics.
Assets, including pension savings, belonging to Ted Hui, a former pro-democracy legislator who is now based in Australia, were frozen shortly after he fled from Hong Kong in December 2020. The assets are held by HSBC, a British bank.
Continue reading...Selina Cheng says she believes her termination is linked to her taking up the position at the embattled union
The chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association has been fired by her employer, the Wall Street Journal, weeks after being appointed as the head of the embattled union.
Selina Cheng said she was “appalled” that her first press conference as HKJA chair was to announce that she had been “fired for taking up this position in a press union”.
Continue reading...Anthony Albanese should seek commitments for concrete action in his talks with Li Qiang, campaigners say
Human rights advocates have called on Anthony Albanese to place China’s human rights record ahead of economic and trade discussions in his meeting with China’s second most powerful leader on Monday.
They said it was time for Australia’s Labor government to demand concrete action from China in addressing human rights complaints against it as “statements of concern” were not achieving results.
Continue reading...The three British judges still on territory’s top bench under pressure to quit after two others stepped down last week
Pressure is increasing on the last remaining British judges who sit in Hong Kong’s top court to resign, after two senior justices stepped down last week because of the “political situation” in the former British colony.
Jonathan Sumption and Lawrence Collins resigned as non-permanent overseas judges from Hong Kong’s court of final appeal on Thursday. Collins cited the “political situation in Hong Kong” in a brief statement about his departure.
Continue reading...Lord Sumption, who last week quit territory’s top court, speaks out on ‘paranoid atmosphere’ under Chinese rule
A British judge has described the “paranoid atmosphere” in Hong Kong as he explained his decision to step down from the territory’s top court.
Jonathan Sumption, along with another British judge, Lawrence Collins, last week resigned from Hong Kong’s court of final appeal (CFA).
Continue reading...Beverley McLachlin’s decision comes after British judge Lord Sumption quit court of final appeal, condemning ‘impossible political environment’
A former chief justice of Canada’s supreme court has announced she is stepping down from Hong Kong’s court of final appeal – the latest in a string of departures amid concerns about judicial independence from China.
Beverley McLachlin, 80, said she would be leaving the territory’s top court when her term ends next month to spend more time with her family, but that she still held “confidence in the members of the court, their independence and their determination to uphold the rule of law”.
Continue reading...Democracy campaigners welcome move by Lord Sumption and Lord Collins, who cited political situation in statement
Two of the last remaining British judges to sit on Hong Kong’s top court have resigned, with one citing the political situation in the former colony.
Lawrence Collins and Jonathan Sumption, former UK supreme court justices, announced their resignations on Thursday. “I have resigned from the court of final appeal because of the political situation in Hong Kong, but I continue to have the fullest confidence in the court and the total independence of its members,” Lord Collins said.
Continue reading...Sanmu Chen appeared to write the date of massacre in the air as anniversary becomes increasingly sensitive in Hong Kong
Hong Kong police detained an artist on Monday night after he appeared to write “8964” in the air with his hand, a reference to the date of the Tiananmen Square massacre, hours before Tuesday’s 35th anniversary.
Public acknowledgment of the events of 4 June 1989, when Chinese soldiers shut down a weeks-long peaceful protest with violence, killing anything from several hundred to several thousand people – is banned in mainland China and increasingly sensitive in Hong Kong.
Continue reading...Events marking 35 years since troops ended peaceful protest with deadly violence are banned in China and Hong Kong
Chinese and Hong Kong authorities have arrested or put under surveillance several dissidents before the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre this week, according to human rights groups.
On 4 June it will be 35 years since Chinese soldiers shut down a weeks-long peaceful protest with violence, killing anything from several hundred to several thousand people.
Continue reading...Last week’s conviction of dissidents came in the biggest case since introduction of a new national security law
The verdict wasn’t surprising but outside room no 2 of the West Kowloon courthouse, people still wept. The panel of Hong Kong national security judges had set down two days for the hearing but dispensed with the core business in about 15 minutes. In the city’s largest ever national security trial – involving the prosecution of pro-democracy campaigners and activists from a group known as the “Hong Kong 47” – almost all the defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to commit subversion.
Their crime was trying to win an election, holding unofficial primaries in 2020 attended by an estimated 600,000 residents.
Continue reading...US says 14 protesters have been jailed for ‘peacefully participating in political activities’ that should have been allowed
The Hong Kong government has rejected western criticism of the conviction of 14 pro-democracy activists for subversion, calling it “untruthful, slandering and smearing”.
The US said on Friday it was “deeply concerned” about the guilty verdicts announced in the national security law trial of the activists in Hong Kong. The state department said the 14 activists had been subjected to “politically motivated prosecution and jailed simply for peacefully participating in political activities” that should have been protected under the basic law, which was supposed to guarantee a degree of autonomy for Hong Kong when it came under Beijing’s rule in 1997.
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