Hong Kong Watch Briefing on Human Rights Developments: December 2024

This briefing describes developments in Hong Kong in December 2024 focusing on the rapid deterioration of human rights in the city following the imposition of the National Security Law and the passage of Safeguarding National Security Ordinance.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

POLITICAL PRISONERS: ARRESTS, CHARGES & TRIALS

  • Hong Kong government targets overseas activists via bounties and cancelled passports

  • Trial of British citizen Jimmy Lai continues

  • Fourteen of ‘Hong Kong 47’ challenge sentences

  • Hong Kong court rejects first challenge to Safeguarding National Security Ordinance

  • Sedition case of Chow Kim-ho adjourned to await landmark appeal

THE STATE OF THE RULE OF LAW AND POLICING

  • US Congressional-Executive Commission on China reports Hong Kong becoming ‘nearly indistinguishable’ from Mainland Chinese cities

  • ‘Father of Democracy’ Martin Lee stripped of Justice of the Peace title

  • China’s Customs seizes Hong Kong textbooks

STATE SECURITY AND ECONOMY

  • UK Parliament holds hearing on withholding of Hong Kongers’ Mandatory Provident Fund savings

  • Hong Kong’s 2024 GDP growth projected to decline to 2.4%

OTHER NEWS

  • US Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act extended until November 2029

  • Manager of London Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office pleads not guilty to espionage charges in British court

  • Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee visits Beijing

Briefing, NewsMegan KhooHR