Briefing: Human rights developments in Hong Kong in July 2022

This briefing describes developments in Hong Kong in July 2022 focusing on the rapid deterioration of human rights in the city following the introduction of the National Security Law.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

POLITICAL PRISONERS: ARRESTS, CHARGES, & TRIALS

In the last month, Beijing continued its crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, with the following developments:

  • The sentencing of 66-year-old ‘Grandma Wong’ to eight months in prison for two counts of unlawful assembly during a protest in August 2019.

  • The sentencing of a terminally ill 75-year-old veteran activist to nine months in jail under a sedition law for planning to protest against the Beijing Winter Olympics.

  • Five executive committee members of a now defunct speech therapists union pleading not guilty to sedition in the publication of children’s book about sheep.

  • Four men aged between 16 and 24 were arrested while trying to leave Hong Kong for Taiwan after being wanted on protest-related charges.

  • Seven protestors were sentenced for seven to 10 months for taking part in a plan to abscond to Taiwan in August 2020 while facing charges linked to the 2019 protests.

  • Four former leaders of defunct Hong Kong activist group Student Politicism pleaded guilty to conspiring to incite subversion.

  • Albert Ho, the 70-year-old former leader of the now disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, was denied bail again over Tiananmen vigil group case.

A SLEDGEHAMMER TO CIVIL SOCIETY & EDUCATION

  • Beijing-backed media print full page attacks on the League of Social Democrats, one of the last active protest groups in Hong Kong as the group is forced to delete online posts.

  • Universities begin rolling out a compulsory class on the national security law. Students at the University of Hong Kong will be required to take a course titled ‘Introduction to the Constitution, the Basic Law and the National Security Law,’ in order to graduate.

  • Secondary schools are asked to submit plans for mainland study tours as part of the overhauled liberal studies course.

THE STATE OF THE RULE OF LAW

  • A new cybercrime law consultation paper has been published, with experts expressing concern over what this means for internet freedoms in Hong Kong.

  • Tong Ying-kit, the first person found guilty under the national security law, has been ordered to pay over HK$1.38 million in court fees for his failed legal bids.

  • Three UK barristers who are representing Jimmy Lai have received emails claiming to be from ‘an officer of the national security wing’ in Hong Kong, saying that they were in breach of Hong Kong’s national security law.

A FREE PRESS IN THE CROSS HAIRS

  • Three leading bookstore chains in Hong Kong are not stocking Chris Patten’s latest book, ‘The Hong Kong Diaries’, even as the book sells out at independent book stores.

  • New chief executive John Lee calls on journalists to tell positive narratives of the city.

STATE SECURITY AND ECONOMY

  • HSBC has become the first foreign lender to install a Chinese Communist party committee in its investment banking subsidiary in the country, HSBC Qianhai Securities. HSBC’s move will pressure other foreign banks to follow.

  • As more than 150 Chinese companies are now on a provisional line-up of firms to be removed from American exchanges under a 2020 law, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said that Hong Kong has to make full preparations for a worst-case scenario.

  • The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups surveyed young people in the city, finding that one in five people under the age of 35 were planning to leave and half were not confident of the city’s future.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS

  • UN Human Rights Committee releases reporting calling for a repeal of the national security law.

  • US lawmakers from the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China urged President Biden to consider issuing sanctions on prosecutors.

  • EU Parliament passes resolution condemning the arrest of Cardinal Joseph Zen and the other trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Committee.

  • UK government announces the renewal of its integration funding for Hong Kong BNOs who are coming to the UK on the BNO visa.

  • Hong Kong Watch research shows that almost 2 million still do not have a route out of the city.

  • Monsignor Javier Herrera-Corona, the Vatican's unofficial representative in Hong Kong, has told Catholic missionaries to prepare for a tougher future as China tightens its control over the city.

Briefing, NewsGuest UserHong Kong