'An epic fight for Hong Kong’s freedoms', Benedict Rogers

Together, we must challenge Beijing and bolster the spines of governments across the free world

It is only a year since Hong Kong’s puppet Chinese Communist Party government imposed a draconian domestic security law in the city, ripping out the last remnants of liberty, cremating the final fragments of freedom, and destroying the final crumbs of the rule of law.

Today, Hong Kong is a shell of the great free, open, global city it once was. As a result of the new security law, talk of freedom is either a joke, a farce, or a criminal offence.

Indeed, Secretary for Security (rather insecurity) Chris Tang lashes out furiously at anyone who criticises his apparatus of repression. His critics are accused of “smears,” though Tang is the past master of smear tactics against pro-democracy voices.

Over the year since the Safeguarding National Security Bill or Article 23, as it is colloquially known, was fast-tracked through Hong Kong’s rubber-stamp legislature, what has been the impact?

A total of 16 people have been arrested for sedition. None of them had engaged in any violence or plots of violence.

There have been three convictions. For what crimes? One, wearing a T-shirt printed with protest slogans; two, criticising the government online; and three, writing protest slogans on bus seats.

And don’t forget, Hong Kong’s security laws – both this and the draconian National Security Law imposed on the city by Beijing in 2020 – carry extra-territorial application.

In other words, no matter where you are in the world, and regardless of whether or not you are a citizen of Hong Kong, you could violate its security laws by what you say or what you write.

Two years ago, I received a letter from the Hong Kong police threatening me with a fine and a prison sentence for my activities.

Articles which I wrote for Hong Kong newspapers when I lived there 25 years ago would now not only be unpublishable, but even writing them would be an imprisonable offence.

And yet – as I have already alluded to – this repression is not contained in Hong Kong.

The new security laws have provided wind in the sails of the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign of transnational repression, aiming to intimidate, threaten, harass and frighten into silence exiled diaspora communities of Hong Kongers, Uyghurs, Tibetans and Chinese dissidents, as well as foreign critics.

Again, in a very small way, I have experienced this, receiving threatening, anonymous letters at my home address. Such letters have been sent to my neighbours and my mother.

In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party has issued arrest warrants and placed bounties on the heads of Hong Kong exiled activists around the world.

So far, at least 19 Hong Kong activists have been threatened with bounties of HK$1 million (approximately US$128,644). The youngest of them, Chloe Cheung was aged 19 at the time she was targeted with a bounty.

The Chinese Communist Party clearly suffers from acute paranoia.

Leaflets have been distributed in areas of London where exiled activists Carmen Lau and Tony Chung live, and in Kevin Yau's neighborhood in Australia, offering a £100,000 reward for anyone who hands them over to the Chinese embassy.

My friend Ted Hui, a courageous former Hong Kong pro-democracy legislator, now in Australia, was targeted with a particularly insidious campaign, with leaflets falsely linking him to Israel distributed in Adelaide mosques to stir up hatred against him.

No one is safe in Xi Jinping’s China today – and as the regime’s tentacles reach far and wide, all of us around the world who value freedom must do much more to defend it.

Hong Kong’s wealthiest business tycoon Li Ka-shing – who has cosied up to Beijing for decades – is now threatened because he decided to sell his company’s Panama Canal assets to a consortium that included US investment firm BlackRock.

Four Canadians have been executed for drug crimes. Let’s read that correctly. It is not a typo. It is not extradited, but executed.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong has announced another round of sham elections later this year, for its legislature.

But keep in mind these are elections in which only candidates loyal to Beijing can run. They are only open to ‘patriots.'

Nearly 30 years ago, Amnesty International published a report about China titled No One Is Safe.

I can say today that the title of that report in 1996 was prescient, apposite, and prophetic.

The words “No one is safe” in China – or beyond, if in the orbit of the Chinese Communist Party regime – are absolutely true.

One should avoid paranoia, and yet one should not be lackadaisical.

The ultimate purpose of Beijing’s tactics is to instil a climate of fear and create a chill factor that silences dissent and criticism, and we must not allow that to happen.

Diaspora communities and foreign critics must be able to utilize the freedoms they have in the open societies in which they find themselves to speak without fear.

We must avoid the kowtow, and we must urge our governments to stop kowtowing too.

Those who are able or brave enough to speak should be given a platform. Their voice should be welcomed, respected and promoted in the free world.

Between us – exiled, diaspora activists and experienced foreign advocates – we must work together more.

Together, we must challenge Beijing and bolster the spines of governments across the free world.

We are in an epic fight for our values.

This article was posted on UCA News on 27 March 2025.