Benedict Rogers: Keep walking until being shut up

“I will talk until I am shut up.” Those were the inspiring words from Emily Lau when I spoke with her a week ago for Hong Kong Watch’s online interview series, on the very day that Jimmy Lai was jailed.

Since then the Hong Kong authorities have made further efforts to shut people up, by forcing HSBC to freeze bank accounts and by arresting eight activists, including former legislators Eddie Chu Hoi-dick, Wu Chi-wai and “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung, current district councilors Tang Sai-lai, Bull Tsang King-shing and Lancelot Chan Wing-tai, and Figo Chan, the Deputy-Convenor of the Civil Human Rights Front, organizer of the annual march.

The news that HSBC – a global brand – froze the accounts of pro-democracy former legislator Ted Hui Chi-fung and his family shocked the world. Fast on the heels of this came reports that the same bank froze the accounts of the Good Neighbour North District Church, and of its courageous pastor Roy Chan Hoi-hing and his wife, which was even more outrageous. This was followed by a police raid on the church.

These terrible incidents demonstrate one clear message: no one now in Hong Kong is safe. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime’s repression is no longer confined to pursuing protesters. The legislature, the banking sector and the Church are now weaponized. If you stay in Hong Kong and the CCP don’t like what you have done, you risk arrest and jail; if you go into exile, the regime may try to punish you financially by freezing your bank accounts.

As soon as the national security law was implemented, I warned that it would not be long before freedom of religion or belief would be restricted, just as freedom of expression, assembly and association were eroded. But I did not predict a direct assault on a pastor and his church so quickly – and all because they provided humanitarian assistance to last year’s protesters.

I have written to the United Nations Special Rapporteur for freedom of religion or belief, the United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom and officials in the European Union and the British government to urge them to speak out for Pastor Chan – and make it clear to the Hong Kong authorities and HSBC that their actions this week are a scandal.

And I know I am far from alone. This week in Britain, three key events showed that even as the CCP tries to shut its critics up in Hong Kong, the voices of solidarity with them and of outrage at the regime’s repression grow ever louder and stronger outside Hong Kong and China.

On Monday afternoon this week, the House of Commons debated an Urgent Question on Hong Kong. Members of Parliament in all parties spoke passionately and with a great sense of urgency for Hong Kong.

The former leader of the Conservative Party Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP, co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), focused on HSBC’s actions, having spoken with Ted Hui two days before. He reminded Parliament that HSBC “is not a bank started in China and based in China that has nothing to do with the UK; it is a bank that benefits from its location here in London, and that is highly thought of in the trading community. It has behaved in a disreputable and appalling way in freezing the accounts of an individual fleeing for justice. Surely this is an outrage that the Government can now say should stop.”

The Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy called on the British government to lead a global, coordinated response to the crisis in Hong Kong.

And the Scottish Nationalist MP Alyn Smith, who tabled the debate, called – along with others – for measures to ensure that activists like Joshua Wong who are jailed for their political activities are not penalized in Britain’s asylum system for having criminal records.

Labour MP Sarah Champion highlighted Jimmy Lai’s imprisonment, asking the Minister, Nigel Adams: “Does he believe that denying a 73-year-old man bail is proportionate or fair for allegedly breaking the terms of a lease? What conversations is he having with Carrie Lam about the use of the law in this manner?”

The Minister himself emphasized that Britain condemns recent arrests, saying: “They are being used as a pretext to silence opposition, which is outrageous … We as a Parliament …are urging China to uphold the rights and freedoms that are protected in the joint declaration to which it is a signatory.”

Later that same night, the House of Lords sent the CCP a crystal clear message on a separate but related matter, when it passed an amendment to the Trade Bill that would revoke or prevent trade agreements with genocidal regimes.

Proposed by a cross-party group of members of the House of Lords led by Lord Alton of Liverpool, it would require the courts in Britain to make a preliminary determination on genocide where it is alleged. It passed – astonishingly – 287 votes to 161, a majority of 126. While the amendment goes back to the House of Commons for further consideration, a significant part of the British Parliament has spoken clearly: we won’t trade with the perpetrators of genocide. Those responsible for the horrific persecution of the Uyghurs ought to keep that in mind.

And then on Wednesday, Britain’s Home Secretary Priti Patel became the first Cabinet minister to meet exiled former legislator Nathan Law and a group of Hong Kong activists. The meeting, which I was privileged to participate in, was organized by the Conservative Party’s candidate for Mayor of London Shaun Bailey and my friend Luke de Pulford, coordinator of IPAC and a Fellow of Hong Kong Watch. It provided a rare opportunity to discuss the implementation of the British National Overseas (BNO) programme, and sent a clear message that Britain will stand by Hong Kongers. Priti Patel deserves our applause and gratitude, for she has consistently championed the cause of freedom for Hong Kong and led the way on Britain’s new, generous and courageous offer to BNOs.

These three examples – and many others from elsewhere in the world – signify clearly that even as the CCP tries to shut people up in Hong Kong, those of us in the free world who have a voice must not, and will not, be silent. On the contrary, we will increase our efforts to speak out for Hong Kong, mobilize international attention and make sure that Hong Kongers receive whatever help is possible and the CCP is made to pay a high price for its crimes.

Yesterday, 10 December, marked two anniversaries: International Human Rights Day, and the third anniversary of the launch of Hong Kong Watch. In just three years Hong Kong Watch’s team, achievements and influence have grown more than I could ever have envisaged when it was just an idea in my head. But now is no time at all to rest on our laurels. Like Emily Lau, we must keep working and speaking for Hong Kong – and we won’t be shut up.

Benedict Rogers is the Chief Executive of Hong Kong Watch, this article was published in Apple Daily on 11 December 2020.