Category Archives: Hong Kong

Concern as Hong Kong postpones elections for a year, citing Covid-19

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The decision is ‘an assault on fundamental freedoms’, says Hong Kong Watch, as democracy deteriorates

The Hong Kong government has postponed its upcoming elections for one year, citing the growing coronavirus outbreak in the territory but sparking immediate accusations that the pandemic was being used as a pretext to suppress democracy.

The city’s leader, Carrie Lam, announced on Friday she had invoked colonial-era emergency regulations to delay the 6 September vote to 5 September 2021, saying it was the “hardest decision I have made in the past seven months”, but had the full support of the Chinese central government.

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New Zealand’s relationship with China is at a tipping point | Anne-Marie Brady

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More needs to be done to limit Beijing’s political interference and any short-term damage will be worth it in the long run

This week New Zealand announced it was suspending its extradition treaty with Hong Kong as a result of Hong Kong’s new national security law. At the same time, NZ changed its policy on military and dual-use goods and technology exports to Hong Kong, subjecting the city to the same as the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The New Zealand government also issued a travel warning to New Zealanders on the risks of travelling to Hong Kong.

In a statement, Wellington said it “can no longer trust that Hong Kong’s criminal justice system is sufficiently independent from China.” No explanation was given for the suspension of sensitive technology exports.

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Hong Kong: China says it will not recognise UK overseas passports

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Ambassador’s warning comes in response to UK’s special visa offer to Hong Kong citizens

China will not recognise the British national (overseas) passport as a legal travel document, raising the prospect that the 3 million Hong Kong citizens eligible for the passport will be banned from leaving Hong Kong by the Chinese government.

The warning was made at a press conference by the Chinese ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, in which he also warned that it was hard to imagine a global Britain that bypassed or excluded China. Decoupling from China would mean decoupling from growth and the future, he suggested.

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Hong Kong drops restaurant dining ban after people forced to eat in streets

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Move to control spread of coronavirus abandoned after widespread public anger

Hong Kong’s government has reversed a day-old ban on restaurants serving dine-in customers that was introduced to control the spread of coronavirus, following widespread public anger.

All restaurants in the city of 7.5 million were ordered to serve only takeaways from Wednesday as part of a raft of ramped-up social-distancing measures to combat a fresh wave of virus cases.

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Hong Kong: outcry as student activists arrested under new security law

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Three men and one woman are the first political activists to be held since controversial legislation was imposed by Beijing

The arrests of four students in Hong Kong’s first crackdown on political figures after the enactment of a sweeping national security law imposed by China have prompted widespread public outrage.

Tony Chung, 19, the convenor of disbanded pro-independence group Studentlocalism and three other members were arrested late on Wednesday.

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Prominent Hong Kong professor and pro-democracy activist fired by university

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Decision to fire Benny Tai, a tenured law professor, goes against previous ruling by the university senate

A prominent Hong Kong professor and pro-democracy campaigner has been fired by his university, in a move that he and other critics described as a devastating blow to academic freedom in the city.

It came amid growing fears that city authorities may try to delay upcoming elections to Hong Kong’s legislative council, where pro-democracy candidates expect a strong showing. The vote could be postponed for up to a year, on grounds of a spike in coronavirus cases, local media reported.

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European committee chairs jointly condemn China over Hong Kong

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Chairs of eight parliamentary foreign affairs committees say new security law infringes human rights

The chairs of eight parliamentary foreign affairs committees from across Europe have written to the Chinese government in opposition to Hong Kong’s new security law, saying it infringes on “basic human rights” in their countries.

The joint statement by the committee chairs – from countries including Germany, the UK, Belgium, Latvia, Norway and the European parliament itself – shows a network of parliamentarians is being constructed to shift European governments towards a harder stance on China’s abuse of human rights.

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Why is Xi Jinping pitting China against the world?

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Xi has stifled dissent at home and is increasingly willing for China to assert itself abroad

Earlier this week, Chinese leader Xi Jinping held a rare meeting in Beijing with business leaders. Admitting that the Covid-19 pandemic had a “huge impact” on the country’s economy, Xi used a Chinese idiom to assure his listeners.

“While the green hills last, there will be wood to burn,” he said. “If we maintain our strategy … we will find opportunity in crisis and turbulence. The Chinese people will surely prevail over all difficulties and challenges ahead”.

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The Guardian view on rethinking China: right, but not because the US says so | Editorial

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The UK’s suspension of the extradition treaty with Hong Kong reflects an international shift. But British and American interests are not identical

Mike Pompeo’s remark that Britain was making its own “sovereign choices” in dealing with China might have sounded better had he not concluded with a pat on the head: “We think – well done.”

The US secretary of state’s visit to London highlighted the complications of the government’s toughened stance. The hardening of attitudes towards China, seen throughout much of the west and elsewhere, has been driven primarily by Beijing’s increasing repression at home and forcefulness internationally. Much of the shift is a sensible recalibration. The government was right to extend the arms embargo on mainland China – which covers equipment potentially used for internal repression – to Hong Kong, and to suspend the extradition treaty with the region. Britain could hardly have done otherwise, given not only its historical responsibility, but also the extraordinary reach and draconian nature of the national security law.

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UK will ‘bear the consequences’ for Hong Kong decision, China warns

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Ambassador to London calls extradition treaty suspension ‘blatant’ interference in Chinese affairs and a contravention of international law

China’s ambassador has accused the UK government of blatantly interfering in China’s internal affairs by suspending extradition with Hong Kong, and led a cavalcade of Beijing voices warning of consequences.

On Monday the UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, announced his government would follow moves by Australia, Canada, and the US, and formally suspend its extradition agreement with Hong Kong in response to Beijing’s unilateral imposition of national security laws.

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UK risks China’s wrath by suspending Hong Kong extradition treaty

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Foreign secretary also bans export of riot control kit in response to security crackdown

The UK is to immediately suspend its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and also bar the export of riot control equipment following Beijing’s imposition of a sweeping national security law on the territory, Dominic Raab has announced.

Speaking to the Commons on Monday, the UK foreign secretary said that while Britain sought cooperative ties with China, it was deeply worried at both events in Hong Kong and the repression of the Uighur population in China’s Xinjiang province.

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Global wrap: Hong Kong ‘critical’ as Covid cases rise worldwide

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Lam says situation out of control, while Melbourne makes face masks compulsory

The coronavirus situation in Hong Kong is “really critical”, with a record 100 new infections recorded on Sunday, the territory’s leader, Carrie Lam, said, as Melbourne became the first city in Australia to make wearing masks compulsory in response to a resurgent and aggressive outbreak there.

Hong Kong was held up months ago as a model for its success in keeping down Covid-19 cases in the crowded city-state of 7.5 million people, but its caseload – although still low by European and American standards – had grown by a third in the past fortnight to nearly 1,800. Lam has shuttered bars, gyms and nightclubs in the past week and on Sunday announced new guidelines including mandatory mask-wearing indoors.

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Global report: coronavirus infections in India pass 1m as outbreaks flare globally

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Country becomes third in world to reach figure; alarming peak in French region of Brittany

India has become the third country to record more than 1m coronavirus infections, following the US and Brazil, as it reported 34,956 new cases in the past 24 hours, taking the national total to 1,003,832.

New peaks continue to appear around the world, including an alarming rise in the Brittany region of France.

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UK looking at help for young Hongkongers who want to flee

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Priti Patel says she is looking at giving people aged 18-23 a new right to come to Britain

The UK home secretary, Priti Patel, has said she is looking at giving young Hongkongers a new right to come to the UK.

Britain has made an offer of citizenship to 2.9 million people in Hong Kong eligible for a British national overseas (BNO) passport, but this excludes anyone born after 1997.

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China promises ‘firm response’ to Trump’s order ending Hong Kong’s special status

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Beijing says US move to rescind Hong Kong’ preferential economic treatment over new security laws is a ‘mistake’

China has vowed to retaliate after Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered an end to Hong Kong’s special status under US law to punish China for what he called “aggressive actions” against the former British colony.

Citing China’s decision to enact a new national security law for Hong Kong, Trump said he signed an executive order that will end the preferential economic treatment Hong Kong has received for years – “no special privileges, no special economic treatment and no export of sensitive technologies”, he told a news conference.

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How many Hongkongers will want to come to Britain is unclear

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There are 3 million eligible for citizenship, but many factors will determine if it is taken up

The Foreign Office claim that 200,000 Hong Kong citizens will want to come to the UK over the next five years to take up Britain’s offer of citizenship is a very broad estimate and not a forecast, diplomats have said.

The figure suggests less than 10% of the 3 million Hongkongers eligible for a British National Overseas passport will be attracted to a new life in Britain.

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Hong Kong’s national security laws are designed to make the media self-censor | Tom Grundy

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The legislation imposed by China intends to make journalists tiptoe around ill-defined red lines. The need to hold power to account is growing

Beijing’s far-reaching security law was foisted on Hong Kong with breathtaking speed, sweeping aside guarantees of freedom of expression and freedom of the press overnight. Analogies of slow-boiling frogs and civil liberties suffering a “death by a thousand cuts” now feel redundant as independent media outlets scramble to future-proof themselves against vaguely worded legislation that carries a punishment of life imprisonment for crimes such as “subversion” and “collusion.”

I founded Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) as a response to dwindling press freedoms after cutting my teeth reporting on the pro-democracy Umbrella Movement. As a non-profit, it was the city’s first crowdfunded outlet – transparent, impartial, governed by an ethical code and built to resist censorship. But it was all based on the free press guarantees in the city’s mini-constitution.

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China’s colonial mindset over Hong Kong | Letter

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Prof Christopher R Hughes believes a letter by Dr Hugh Goodacre on the crisis in Hong Kong does not stand up to historical scrutiny

Dr Hugh Goodacre’s letter (5 July) in response to Simon Jenkins (Britain can’t protect Hong Kong from China – but it can do right by its people, 2 July) claims that the people of Hong Kong gained the democratic right to vote on their future because China “stood up in the world”, which would have been unthinkable under British rule. This does not stand up to historical scrutiny.

As early as January 1958, Zhou Enlai warned the Macmillan government against supporting a “conspiracy” to make Hong Kong a self-governing dominion. In the 1960s, China insisted Britain should resist US pressure to introduce self-government, as the status of Hong Kong was to China’s benefit. Beijing continued to resist the introduction of democracy throughout the Sino-British negotiations and its current behaviour confirms its intention to act like a colonial power. Its narrative that the current protests are due to the whipping up of anti-Chinese hysteria by outside forces reflects this mindset by denying agency to the people of Hong Kong.
Prof Christopher R Hughes
Department of international relations, London School of Economics

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The Guardian view on Covid-19 worldwide: on the march

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Infections are accelerating in largely untouched countries and those which hoped they had come through the worst. But there is hope

“Most of the world sort of sat by and watched with almost a sense of detachment and bemusement,” said Helen Clark, appointed to investigate the World Health Organization’s handling of the pandemic. The former New Zealand prime minister was describing the early weeks of the outbreak, and the sense that coronavirus was a problem “over there”. The failure to recognise our interconnection created complacency even as the death toll rose.

It took three months for the first million people to fall sick – but only a week to record the last million of the nearly 13 million cases now reported worldwide. As England emerges from lockdown at an unwary pace, Covid-19 is accelerating globally. The WHO has reported a record surge of a quarter of a million cases in a single day. The death toll is over half a million people and rising fast.

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‘My civil right’: Hong Kong citizens vote in unofficial pro-democracy poll – video

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Hundreds of thousands of Hongkongers queued to cast ballots over the weekend in an unofficial poll to select the strongest pro-democracy candidates who will aim to seize control from pro-Beijing rivals for the first time.

The vote might fall foul of the new national security law imposed by Beijing, according to senior Hong Kong officials. But residents visited 250 polling stations in what the Chinese-ruled city’s opposition camp says is a symbolic protest vote

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