Hong Kongers Protest New Embassy
Hong Kongers were among hundreds of demonstrators who protested against the building of a large new Chinese embassy in London last weekend. Various complaints centred around the prospect that the embassy could be used as a focal point for cracking down on dissidents who have fled Hong Kong.
“It will be like a headquarters [for China] to catch the [Hong Kong] people in the U.K. to [send them] back to China,” one anonymous demonstrator, who was a member of HongKongers in Leeds, told AFP.
Jimmy Lai Denies Calling Extradition Bill ‘Terrorism’
At his ongoing national security trial, Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai (黎智英) this week denied comparing the 2019 Hong Kong extradition bill to an act of terrorism.
On his 39th day of testimony, Lai was answering questions about an April 2019 op-ed in which he wrote, “The purpose of this ‘extradition evil law’ is akin to the psychological effect of a terrorist attack, creating an ‘availability cascade’ that traps Hongkongers in a state of fear-induced obedience.” He said he had meant to emphasize the psychological effects of the bill, not make a literal equivalency with terrorism.
Faced with a life sentence on two different charges under the same national security law, the 77-year-old has denied trying to influence foreign policy in Hong Kong and defended the idea of “delivering freedom” through pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily.
Lai’s son Sebastien (黎崇恩) has said the trial is “a complete show trial.” His lawyers have said he has been mistreated in custody.
U.S. and China Argue Over Lai
After the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor “urge[d] the [Hong Kong] government to immediately and unconditionally release Jimmy Lai” last week, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong said the U.S. was “openly supporting anti-China and Hong Kong-disrupting element Jimmy Lai.”
Wanted Activist ‘Isolated’ by Bounty
In her first interview since the Hong Kong government offered a 1 million Hong Kong dollar ($128,000) reward for 19-year-old Chloe Cheung (張晞晴), the Hong Kong activist working for the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation in the U.K. has said that many of her former classmates in Hong Kong have cut ties with her over concerns for their own safety.
“It’s a really sad thing to happen but I know it’s not their fault,” Cheung told The Times. “The first purpose of the bounty is to isolate activists like me, to make their friends or family blame them, be scared of them, and not talk to them. The second purpose is to create a chilling effect on anyone who wants to become an activist.”
Cheung was one of six activists to be newly listed as wanted, which brings the total of exiled Hong Kongers with arrest warrants and bounties against them to 19. She is accused of “incitement to secession” and “collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security.”
Chief Justice Claims Overseas Judges ‘Harrassed’
Hong Kong’s Chief Justice Andrew Cheung (張舉能) has said overseas judges who quit the city’s judiciary in recent months were victims of “orchestrated harassment” following the introduction of Hong Kong’s National Security Law and broader geopolitical tensions.
Fifteen overseas judges previously sat on Hong Kong’s court, but there are now only six. British judge Nicholas Phillips, 86, became the fifth foreign judge to leave Hong Kong’s judiciary in the last year after stepping down in October, citing “personal reasons.” He chose not to return after his fourth term ended. Another British judge, Jonathan Sumption, said Hong Kong “is slowly becoming a totalitarian state” when he resigned earlier in the year.
Rights Group Calls on U.K. Foreign Secretary to Challenge Wang Yi
Ahead of British Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s meeting with Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) this week, rights group ARTICLE 19 called on Lammy bring up China’s reneging on the Sino-British Joint Declaration.
It also called on the foreign secretary to demand an immediate end to the arbitrary detention of British citizens, citing the cases of Jimmy Lai and Lee Bo (李波). The latter was involuntarily removed to mainland China without any due process in December 2015, before returning to Hong Kong in 2016 after what appeared to be a forced confession. Bo was punished for selling books critical of Chinese Communist Party elites.
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