Hong Kong’s National Security Law has created a “human rights emergency,” Amnesty International said yesterday, a year after China imposed it on the territory to crush a democracy movement.
The legislation — which criminalizes anything authorities deem subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorism with up to life in prison — has radically transformed Hong Kong’s political and legal landscape.
“In one year, the National Security Law has put Hong Kong on a rapid path to becoming a police state and created a human rights emergency for the people living there,” Amnesty’s Asia-Pacific regional director Yamini Mishra said.
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Beijing said that the legislation was required to restore stability after huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy demonstrations in 2019, but promised that it would target only an “extreme minority.”
Since then, police and prosecutors have broadly applied the national security legislation, with a vast majority of the charges targeting political speech — which is widely considered a reneging on China’s assurances that Hong Kong would be allowed to maintain its key liberties and autonomy after its 1997 handover from the UK.
Amnesty released the report a week after democracy newspaper Apple Daily was forced to shut down following the arrests of its senior executives and lead editorial writer, and a freeze on its assets.
“From politics to culture, education to media, the law has infected every part of Hong Kong society and fomented a climate of fear that forces residents to think twice about what they say, what they tweet and how they live their lives,” Amnesty said in the report.
The human rights group said that it analyzed court judgements and hearing notes, and interviews with democracy advocates targeted under the legislation to show how it has been used to carry out “a wide range of human rights violations.”
“Ultimately, this sweeping and repressive legislation threatens to make the city a human rights wasteland increasingly resembling mainland China,” Amnesty said.
On Tuesday, Hong Kong authorities said that since the legislation was implemented, 117 people had been arrested for “committing acts and engaging in activities that endanger national security.”
Sixty-four people have been charged, including tycoon Jimmy Lai (黎智英), prominent democracy advocates and former lawmakers.
Most defendants charged under the legislation have been denied bail due to a strict clause requiring them to persuade a court that they no longer pose a national security risk.
Last week, Hong Kong also began its first national security trial without a jury, a watershed moment for the territory with a 176-year-old common law system, where trial by jury has always been a defining feature.
The legislation has sparked concerns in some legal circles about whether judicial independence can be maintained, but Hong Kong authorities have said that the territory’s judges are committed to judicial independence and the judiciary remains “free from any interference.”
In a rare interview published by pro-Beijing magazine Eastweek yesterday to mark the first anniversary of the legislation’s imposition, Zheng Yanxiong (鄭雁雄), the head of Beijing’s national security office in the territory, said that Hong Kong’s independent judiciary “should highly manifest the nation’s will and interests.”
“It will be the biggest loophole in the rule of law if national security is not safeguarded,” he said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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