Briefing: Human rights developments in Hong Kong in August 2022

This briefing describes developments in Hong Kong in August 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

  • Five speech therapists are found guilty and convicted of “publishing seditious material” under Hong Kong’s colonial-era law over a series of children’s books.

  • The Head of the Hong Kong Journalist Association, Ronson Chan, was arrested for allegedly obstructing a police officer.

  • Cardinal Joseph Zen and five other trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund are to stand trial in September.

  • Patrick Chow Pak-kwan, who lost a kidney after being shot in the stomach by a policeman while protesting in 2019, has been found guilty of trying to steal an officer’s handgun.

  • National security police arrested two men for posting ‘seditious’ posts on social media groups.

  • Albert Ho, the former leader of the group that organised Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen candlelight vigils has been granted bail while facing a national security charge.

  • In the first case in which minors have pleaded guilty under the national security law, six activists, four of whom are under 18, have entered guilty pleas to charges of conspiracy to incite others to subvert state power.

  • The founder of Apple Daily, Jimmy Lai, will stand trial without a jury in Hong Kong, after he told a court he would plead not guilty to national security charges.

  • Joshua Wong and Benny Tai are among the 29 entering guilty pleas in the trial of the 47 pro-democracy activists who are charged with conspiracy to commit subversion under the national security law.

THE STATE OF THE RULE OF LAW

  • A judge has challenged secret hearings for democracy activists, overruling a local magistrate’s decision to place reporting restrictions on the case of an activist, 37-year-old Chow Hang-tung, detained under the security law.

  • Barrister Anson Wong, who is representing one of the defendants in the sedition case against the five speech therapists, cited a report from the United Nations Human Rights Committee which said that the sedition legislation had an “overly broad interpretation.”

A FREE PRESS IN THE CROSS HAIRS

  • Police officials have said that they will use a new 24-hour public opinion tracking system designed to flag fake news and quell “rumours” on social media and on online discussion platforms.

  • Another career bureaucrat, Eddie Cheung Kwok-choi, Special Representative for Hong Kong Economic and Trade Affairs to the European Union, is to take the helm at public broadcaster RTHK. He has no prior media experience.

STATE SECURITY AND ECONOMY

  • Hong Kong suffers a record fall in population, the biggest in at least six decades, as people flee political crackdowns and strict Covid policies.

  • Hong Kong slips back into recession for the second time in three years as economy contracts by 1.4%.

  • HSBC chair Mark Tucker has issued a rebuke to the bank’s largest shareholder Ping An, a Chinese insurer, rejecting calls to split its Asian and western operations.

  • Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s flagship airline posts a HK$5bn loss for the first half of 2022.

  • Over a third of global fund management firms have transferred regional and global positions out of Hong Kong.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS

  • Canadian politicians urge the Canadian Government to extend and expand Open Work Permit scheme for Hong Kongers.

  • Billboards celebrating Hong Kong’s ‘new era’ stay up in Australia despite complaints.

Briefing, NewsHarri ThomasHong Kong