The Odyssey - Democracy in Hong Kong

[Randy W]

The Global Times tries to help out with a few pointers for the "Media Gianta"

New implementation rules of national security law spark legal battle with social media giants

Quote

When asked to respond to social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Zoom's refusal to share date with government after enactment of the law will be deemed as illegal, Zhao Lijian, Foreign Ministry spokesperson did not response directly, but said national security law will better protect Hong Kong residents' benefit and welfare, "horses will run faster, stocks will still sizzle more, dancers will dance better."

. . .

Legal weapons
The Hong Kong government said on Monday that if any publisher refuses to remove harmful information, the relevant officers may apply to a magistrate for a warrant under specific circumstances to authorize police officers to request that the relevant service provider provide identification records or decryption assistance, as the case requires.

Li said that if those platforms refused to cooperate, the Hong Kong government has administrative power to assess and manage, regarding the information on these platforms and the potential social damage the information may cause.

For instance, if the police could not pin down the person who posted harmful information, and the platform refuses to cooperate, the platform can be punished under the name of "indirectly sponsoring crimes endangering national security," such as a fine, and other administrative punishments, according to Gu.

Qin believed that Facebook's use of "pause" in its statement is playing with words, and social media giants intend to give themselves room to manoeuvre, as they are not only eyeing the Hong Kong market, but also longing to enter the Chinese mainland market, and are being careful not to provoke authorities, while at the same time trying not to cause concern among users, said Qin.

Those commercial platforms must learn to develop a sense of respect for the local legal system and national sovereignty where they operate, and only then will they have a basis to thrive, said Qin, who stressed that if they choose to stand against the people and authority, their good days will also be over.

Edited December 24, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

This from the WSJ about the dilemmas faced by western companies

 

Big Tech’s Stand on Hong Kong Law Reveals Wider Fears at Foreign Firms

• Facebook, Twitter and Google, all shut out of China, have less to lose than most U.S. companies in challenging Beijing

Quote

By suspending the processing of Hong Kong government requests for user data, Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google put up a united front in challenging the law that is the sharp edge of Beijing’s crackdown on the city’s protest movement. The opaque and top-down nature of the law has sown fear among companies and lawyers who have scrambled to interpret new rules that are only published as they take effect.

The Silicon Valley giants—shut out of the censored internet on China’s mainland—have less to lose than many other foreign companies with offices in Hong Kong. Businesses in the city typically have operations in China and more at stake by stepping into Beijing’s crosshairs. Many also store data in Hong Kong that falls under sweeping new powers of scrutiny and disclosure handed to law-enforcement agencies.

Although there are likely millions of combined users of the companies’ messaging apps and social-media platforms in Hong Kong, the city is insignificant for their revenue on a global scale. The reputational risk in the West of being seen as working with Chinese authorities to stamp out dissent in the city is much larger. Facebook cited human-rights concerns in its decision.

“Companies headquartered in the U.S. or overseas are going to face pressure in their home governments and in their home jurisdictions that they shouldn’t be complying with these sorts of orders, particularly when it comes to people being arrested and charged under this law,” said Antony Dapiran, a Hong Kong-based lawyer and writer.

China’s TikTok, the short-video platform owned by technology titan Bytedance Ltd., said Tuesday it would pull out of Hong Kong within a week in light of “recent developments” in the city. Also Tuesday, Zoom Video Communications Inc. said it would pause its cooperation with Hong Kong authorities’ requests for user data.

Edited December 24, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Looks like TikTok, a Chinese company, is the first to leave.

in the WSJ (pay-walled, unfortunately). An interesting article about serving different markets.

TikTok, Once an Oasis of Inoffensive Fun, Ventures Warily Into Politics

• App starts allowing U.S. protest videos and quits Hong Kong, while facing flak in Washington over its Chinese control

Quote

The incremental moves to loosen restrictions could expose TikTok to risks in China, where the government has historically cracked down on businesses that got outside accepted Chinese cultural norms.

The spokeswoman for TikTok said it doesn’t believe it faces such risks. “The TikTok app isn’t even available in China. Our content and moderation policies are led by our U.S.-based team and are not influenced by any foreign government,” she said.

In response to the concerns of some in Washington that TikTok’s Chinese ownership makes it a national-security risk, officials of TikTok have said that servers in the U.S. and Singapore hold its user data, and they won’t share the data.

Edited December 24, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the SCMP on Facebook

Self-censoring takes hold in Hong Kong

Quote

"This is really, really painful. We have this freedom before." - Some publishers in Hong Kong have started self-censoring books, following the national security law.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3578857178808320&id=355665009819

Edited December 24, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

Trump signs Hong Kong Autonomy Act, and ends city’s special trade status

• New law is the latest salvo from a united Washington as it retaliates against Beijing for further eroding Hong Kong’s autonomy
• The executive order means ‘Hong Kong will now be treated the same as mainland China’, the US president says

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

. . . and China's response, from China Pictirial

Quote

China firmly opposed and strongly condemned the move of the U.S. side of signing the so-called "Hong Kong Autonomy Act" into law, said a statement released on the foreign ministry's website Wednesday.

China will make necessary responses to protect its legitimate interests, and impose sanctions on relevant personnel and entities of the United States, said the statement.

https://m.facebook.com/ChinaPic/photos/a.558235270968533/2934641563327880/?type=3

Edited December 24, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the SCMP - caught between a rock and another rock?

Banks in Hong Kong reviewing client lists, prepping for US sanctions

• Client lists examined periodically as part of compliance functions, but Hong Kong Autonomy Act has accelerated reviews
• Banks are examining prior American sanctions to game plan the potential path for any US actions, sources say

Quote

Global banks in Hong Kong are quietly combing through their client lists for people at risk as the United States prepares to move forward with sanctions against Chinese officials and possibly other individuals in the city over a controversial new national security law, according to people familiar with their thinking.

For big banks ranging from Citigroup and Goldman Sachs to HSBC and Standard Chartered, a lot is at stake.

If they are found to be doing business with blacklisted individuals, American lenders could face stiff penalties for running afoul of US sanctions and non-American banks could find themselves cut off from US dollar clearing and their top executives barred from travelling to the US under the recently passed Hong Kong Autonomy Act.

Those lenders also face the risk that complying with US sanctions would constitute a violation of the city’s wide-ranging national security law.

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

US Autonomy Act opens ‘Pandora’s box’ for Hong Kong dollar peg

• US sanctions on Hong Kong banks are seen as the biggest risk to the finance hub, although one-year time frame before imposition and ability to appeal eases concerns
• But analysts say the long-term outlook for the Hong Kong dollar peg is uncertain given escalating tensions between China and the US

Quote

Economists estimate that investment flows through the city account for more than 70 per cent of China’s international funding.

Indeed, any doubts about the Hong Kong dollar peg and an exodus of capital from the city have been largely erased by a flood of hot money pouring into Chinese initial public equity offerings this year.

A push in Washington to make Chinese companies listed on US exchanges open their accounting to scrutiny, in combination with proposed legislation that would force them to delist, has seen many firms look to list on the Hong Kong stock market to hedge their bets, buoying the value of the Hong Kong dollar, analysts said.

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Falun Gong in Hong Kong under the new National Security Law

from the SCMP on Facebook

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=746140416144293&id=355665009819

. . . and YouTube

Edited December 24, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

Members of localist group arrested by Hong Kong national security officers

• Images posted online showed Tony Chung, one of the former convenors of Studentlocalism, being taken away
• Move marks the first such police operation outside of arrests made at protests

Quote

Hong Kong’s new police unit enforcing the national security law arrested four student members of a pro-independence group on Wednesday after it announced its mission to build the city into a republic.

The arrests of the suspects, aged 16 to 21, in Yuen Long, Sha Tin and Tuen Mun marked the first such crackdown on anti-government activists not at the scene of street protests.

Police did not reveal the suspects’ identities, but images posted online showed Tony Chung Hon-lam, one of the former convenors of Studentlocalism, being taken away in handcuffs in Yuen Long by officers.

Studentlocalism was a pro-independence group that was disbanded on June 30, hours before the Beijing-imposed national security law came into effect, banning acts of secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with a foreign country to endanger national security.

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

Hong Kong police ‘seek activist Nathan Law, 5 others on security charges’

• Law and others deny charges, which would be first issued against individuals outside Hong Kong
• Even if those charged are not extradited to Hong Kong, ‘the move can help send a high-profile message to them or others’, a police source says

Quote

Six people, including activist Nathan Law Kwun-chung and former British consulate employee Simon Cheng Man-kit, are being sought by Hong Kong police on suspicion of breaking the new national security law, the South China Morning Post has learned.

The pair, who along with two of the others – independence activists Ray Wong Toi-yeung and Lau Hong – are currently in Britain, have been accused of inciting secession and collusion with foreign and external forces to endanger national security, according to a police source.

This would be the first time Hong Kong police invoked the extraterritorial provision under the sweeping law imposed by Beijing a month ago.

Two others, Wayne Chan Ka-kui, previously reported to be in Amsterdam, and US-based Samuel Chu of the Hong Kong Democracy Council (HKDC), were also listed as suspects since the new law was instituted.

Chu, who has been a US citizen for almost 25 years, said he had woken up on Friday to the reports that he was a “wanted fugitive”. He is believed to be the first non-Chinese citizen to be targeted under the new national security law.

“The Hong Kong police is issuing an arrest warrant against an American citizen for advocating and lobbying my own government,” Chu, whose Washington-based organisation has lobbied US lawmakers to support numerous Hong Kong-related bills, said in a statement.

The source said that police were pursuing the six for activities that took place after the enactment of the law, which he said did not have retroactive effect.

Since the new law was instituted, several Western countries have cut off extradition treaties with Hong Kong. Even so, the source said, “the move can help send a high-profile message to them or others that their acts could constitute an offence against the law”.

“The six will be put on the list of people wanted by police and they will be intercepted once they return to the city,” he said.

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

"Shameless and despicable" sanctions on individuals in Hong Kong's government. This video from the SCMP also explains what that means.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=338681290635217&id=355665009819

Edited December 24, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

But does it have any bite? From the SCMP

How hard will US sanctions against Hong Kong officials bite?

• Under Washington’s measures, the US-based assets of 11 officials serving Hong Kong are frozen, Americans and firms barred from dealing with them
• But is the retaliatory move over the national security law a case of symbolism over substance?

Quote

Politicians and academics are divided over whether the United States’ sanctions announced on Friday are substantive or symbolic. While some suggested the impact would be minimal, others warned of the consequences for US-linked businesses caught between the new restrictions and the national security law.

A Post analysis of the declarations of interests made by chief executive Lam, her 16 ministers and 16 non-official members of Exco found only Bernard Chan, the convenor of the Executive Council, and Exco member Laura Cha Shih May-lung had disclosed American assets. But neither Chan nor Cha were sanctioned.

Mainland affairs secretary Erick Tsang Kwok-wai and police chief Tang were both quick to insist they were unaffected.

But the immediate families of those targeted face being dragged into the saga. According to local media reports, the younger of Lam’s two sons, Joshua, is now a graduate student at Harvard University’s mathematics department

Edited December 24, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Because . . . what better way to show respect for "One country, two systems" than to leave the government be for a LITTLE while longer?

from the SCMP

Decision to let Hong Kong lawmakers stay in Legco ‘has US link’

• One pro-Beijing heavyweight attributes the expected move to a desire not to provoke the US in the lead-up to November’s presidential election
• Mainland academics, meanwhile, believe allowing the four barred Legco members to complete their term would ‘help restore political harmony’

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the SCMP on Facebook

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=631216980862419&id=355665009819

Quote

Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow was arrested on Aug 10, as part of a sweep under the new national security law.

Read more here: https://sc.mp/b1ge1

Edited December 24, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)