The Long Reach of Hong Kong Tyranny A single Facebook post from abroad or even singing a song can put you in prison.
How far will China’s Communist Party go to stifle and punish dissent in Hong Kong? As far as authorities can reach, new developments show.
The first involves “Glory to Hong Kong,” an anthem that arose from the 2019 pro-democracy protests. On Monday the Hong Kong Department of Justiceasked the city’s High Court to issue an injunction on national-security grounds to prohibit anyone from “broadcasting, performing, printing, publishing, selling, offering for sale, distributing, disseminating, displaying or reproducing” the song “in any way.”
The government added that it’s seeking to restrict sharing of the song “on the internet and/or any media accessible online and/or any internet-based platform or medium.”
Beijing claims its national-security law applies even to speech abroad and to foreigners. Article 43 asserts that authorities can order a “relevant service provider” to hand over communication or delete information. Regulations say Hong Kong can require social-media companies to take down posts deemed a national-security threat, and failing to comply can mean fines or imprisonment.
There is also the recent case involving a 23-year-old Hong Konger studying at a Japanese university. Some two years ago the young woman (whose name hasn’t been released) posted a brief statement on Facebook about independence for Hong Kong, according to the Tokyo-based JiJi Press. Hong Kong authorities arrested her in March when she returned home to renew her ID card.
Tomoko Ako, a Japanese professor whose student is the Hong Konger’s boyfriend, says she was charged with “inciting secession” under the territory’s national-security law. The student is currently released on bail, but her passport was confiscated and she can’t return to Japan to study. Hong Kong wants to ruin her life for a two-year-old Facebook post.
As of March 31 the Hong Kong Police National Security Department had arrested at least 248 people for alleged crimes under the national-security law or for sedition, a separate political offense, according to the Asia Society’s ChinaFile and the Georgetown Center for Asian Law. That includes publisher Jimmy Lai, pop singer Denise Ho, and many well known former pro-democracy politicians and activists.
Authorities have also gone after the not famous who don’t receive media attention. In September a 43-year-old man was arrested for playing “Glory to Hong Kong” on his harmonica at a vigil for Queen Elizabeth, and in March housewife Lo Oi-wah was arrested and denied bail after posting the anthem online. Both are accused of acting with seditious intent.
Before Beijing imposed the national-security law on Hong Kong, the city remembered the martyrs of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre with peaceful vigils that sometimes drew more than 100,000 people. Now such public remembrances are illegal.
Last weekend—the 34th anniversary of the massacre—Hong Kong police announced eight arrests for seditious acts or breaching the public peace. Press reports put the arrested in the dozens. Whoever you are, wherever you live, the Communist Party’s Hong Kong agents are listening and ready to strike.
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