#LegCo #ProvisionalLegCo
Civic Party and Democratic Party Align Stance: Public opinion will decide for us to either boycott or serve in the extended LegCo term

The Democratic Party expressed on the morning on August 21, 2020, that they will look at the result of public opinion poll before deciding whether its members will sit for a Legislative Council term extended by Beijing.

Respecting and endorsing the idea of an independent poll, Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu said he and other four legislators of the Civic Party would abide by the results.

Yeung explained that pro-democracy pursuits in the Legislative Council and on the street are suffering extreme oppression following the authorities' forceful imposition of the National Security Law. Yeung added, “while the room left for international lobbying and street-level protests remain unknown, it is sensible to stay on and speak the truth as LegCo remains an important battlefield.”

Yeung later spoke in his own capacity that since he is one of the four candidates being disqualified from running the coming LegCo election, serving in the extended term for the purpose of “annoying” the government and Beijing loyalists is also his consideration.

Incumbent lawmaker and Civic Party member Jeremy Tam Man-ho pointed out that international lobbying, street-level protests and Legislative Council deliberation are three inseparable battlefronts for advancing the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. Under the National Security Law, there are only limited space left for the first two fronts, with LegCo being the only remaining one. He challenged whether leaving LegCo is a wise plan.

While Tam admitted that pro-democracy legislators could not stop the Beijing-loyalist- dominated LegCo from passing draconian law, Tam reiterated the importance of having oppositional voices in the Council to delay, if not halt, the pro-Beijing force in passing even more controversial bills in lightning speed. He asked citizens for their understanding, stressing that it is a dilemma situation for pro-democracy legislators to choose either boycotting or staying on.

Source: InMedia #Aug20
https://www.inmediahk.net/node/1076628

#ProvisionalLegCo #NationalSecurityLaw #PoliticalOppression

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HK's Democratic Party announces to entrust a third party to conduct a public scientific survey to decide whether to serve the extended LegCo terms arranged by Beijing
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/24402

#PoliceState #Abduction #Kidnap #AsiasFinest
Video Shows Alleged Kidnapping of Citizen by HK Police

Source: Stand News #Aug20
#Video

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https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/24434

#PoliceState #Abduction #Kidnap #AsiasFinest
Video Shows Alleged Kidnapping of Citizen by HK Police

Watch video: https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/24433

A video submitted to “Stand News” on 20 August, 2020 showed that 5-8 plainclothes police seized and forced a lady into a black seven-seat van under the bridge at the junction of O’Brien Road and Jaffe Road in Causeway Bay. The lady in the video, which has been circulating on the internet continued, shouted for help while being manhandled in the van. Police had been suspected to ”kidnap” civilians.

Police later posted in their official Facebook at night to clarify that the lady in the video has been arrested of the violation of “Access to a computer with criminal or dishonest intent”. They condemned netizens on the accusation of “kidnapping” by police officers on duty without warrant. Also, they denounced netizens attempted inciting hatred.

Source: Stand News #Aug20
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1361504794044825&extid=XqzSwPQH0G21ei9D

#PoliceState #PoliticalSuppression #DistrictCouncil
Hong Kong Government Paralyses the Operation of Pro-Democracy District Council

Citing pandemic prevention as a reason, the government's Home Affairs Bureau (#HAB) has restricted the District Council, which are generated through direct elections, to convene only one meeting of less than 2 hours every week. Likewise, the government's secretariat will only provide secretarial services to the Council once a week.

The government's secretary to the Yuen Long District Council has, for instance, changed the meeting schedule of the District Facility Committee without prior consultation and notification. Pro-democracy district councillor, Ben Wai-pan Ho, who is also the chairperson to the Healthcare and Food Safety Committee, condemned the behaviour for impairing the function and operation of the district council, “without the authorisation of the commitee chairperson, it’s ultra vires for the secretary to change the meeting schedule."

Ho originally had planned a meeting for the Healthcare and Food Safety Committee on Aug 20; however, due to the clash of schedule, the meeting had to take place at a councillor’s office, instead of a formal venue provided by the government.

Similarly, the Sai Kung District Council called for a meeting for the Community Building and Innovative Committee. Since the government has restricted the District Council to use meeting room only once a week, the meeting venue had to change from the Government Complex in Tseung Kwan O to the village hall of the Tin Ha Wan Village.

Sai Kung district council chairperson, Chung Kam-Lun, criticised that the government has been made moves without prior consultation and these new regulations and arrangements were not “logical”. He said, “we don’t have any support, even when district council meeting is by law exempted from group gathering ban”.

Source: InMedia #Aug20
https://bit.ly/2CJlI8R
https://bit.ly/3aS9zeF

#Injustice #Court #JudicialIndepedence #TeresaCheng
HK Secretary for Justice Intervenes Private Prosecution Against Pro-government driver, allowing defendant lawyer to recoup legal fee from pro-democratic lawmaker

Source: Stand News #Aug20 #Aug24

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https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/24521

#Injustice #Court #JudicialIndepedence #TeresaCheng
HK Secretary for Justice Intervenes Private Prosecution Against Pro-government driver, allowing defendant lawyer to recoup legal fee from pro-democratic lawmaker

Democratic Party lawmaker Ted Hui Chi-fung initiated a private prosecution in February against Henry Cheng Kwok-chun, a driver who rammed his car into a crowd of pro-democracy protesters and severely wounding at least one young woman in 2019.

On August 20, 2020, it was revealed that Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng had taken the rare step of intervening in the case, informing Hui that the Department of Justice would exercise its power to end the case and that the defendant Cheng would be exempted from testifying in court.

Subsequently, the law firm representing Cheng wrote to Hui’s lawyer in bid of seeking HK$82,000 to cover its expenses. The law firm representing the defendant, K.C Ho & Fong, has Beijing loyalist Junius Ho Kwan-yiu as a senior partner. The litigation fees include lawyer’s fee for Junius Ho at HK$9,400 per hour, stating the reason that “the summons should never have been taken out by the applicant at all”.

Disapproving the claim and the Secretary for Justice’s intervention, Hui called it absurd, pointing out that the authorities are attempting to frame this private prosecution as a trivial act with malicious intention. Hui believes that any sensible person could see the reasonable doubt in Cheng purposefully driving his car into the crowd.

As of August 24, the request of the Secretary for Justice was formalized in court.

Source: Stand News #Aug20 #Aug24
https://bit.ly/2E0xlZT
https://bit.ly/3aQEzvr

#PoliceState #PoliceBrutality #FailedState #TedHui #JuniusHo

US universities allow anonymous online discussion, warn of sensitive course materials due to Hong Kong National Security Law

Universities are supposed to be a platform for freedom of speech and academic freedom. However, some of universities in the United States(U.S.) have imposed new measures to protect students from falling into legal traps because of the Hong Kong National Security Law, including concealing students' identities, reminding students that lesson content may violate the law, or even allowing students not to participate in the class discussion should they be in fear of violating the law.

The Hong Kong National Security Law covers violation anywhere in the world. US universities are always a popular choice for students from China and Hong Kong, so the universities also have to prepare for the National Security Law before the course starts this autumn. The Wall Street Journal stated some of the top universities would remind students that the course content may be classified as "politically sensitive” by the Chinese Government. The schools started to formulate new policies to protect the identities of staff and students, to avoid legal troubles due to the law. The Chinese Politics curriculum at Princeton University requires students to use a nickname instead of a real name, protecting their identities. Among the colleges, some professors at Amherst College plan to have anonymous online communication in order to ensure students can express their opinions freely.

These decisions were made for online learning this semester due to the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for Chinese and Hong Kong international students who cannot attend lessons in the United States. Some scholars worry that the classes may be recorded, and even sent to the relevant Chinese authorities. According to data for the 2018-2019 academic year, there were 370,000 Chinese students and 7,000 Hong Kong students studying in US colleges and universities.

Article 38 gives the Hong Kong National Security Law “extraterritorial jurisdiction" covering offences committed overseas by non-Hong Kong residents. Even if they are not permanent Hong Kong residents and not inside the Hong Kong border, they are also under the regulation of this law. Offenders may be arrested once they step into Hong Kong.

#US #COVID19 #HiddenIdentity #Chinese #HK #PrincetonUniversity

Source: Stand News #Aug20

https://bit.ly/31szhTH

Japanese Universities Use Liu Xiaobo’s Charter 08 as Chinese Teaching Material

Source: Stand News #Aug20

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https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/24829

Japanese Universities Use Liu Xiaobo’s "Charter 08" as Chinese Teaching Material

In 2019, the Education Bureau of Hong Kong initiated a “professional consultancy service” for senior secondary curriculum Liberal Studies text books. The public raised doubts that the books were actually handed over for censorship. Recently, six publishers has published revised textbooks, in which components pertaining to political contents such as the 1989 June 4th Tiananmen incident were “river crabbed” (a euphemism for censorship in China).

On the other hand, Japanese universities have been adopting Liu Xiaobo’s written work "Charter 08" as a Chinese teaching material.

Nishinippon Shimbun reported that some universities in Japan have been using Charter 08, written by the late Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, as a Chinese teaching material. The teaching material, entitled Learning Quality Chinese through Charter 08, was published by a Japanese publisher last year on the 30th Anniversary of June 4th Tiananmen incident. The publication makes use of the full text of Charter 08 and includes a Japanese translation, grammar explanations, exercises and a brief description of the history of social movements in China.

Ken Suzuki, professor of law at Meiji University, has been using the book to teach since fall last year. He said, “Through studying constitutional law, students can learn standard Chinese syntax. Charter 08 is a critique on the present state of China, so it gives students an idea of China’s current condition too.” The report added that besides Meiji University, many universities in Kansai also used this book as a teaching material for Chinese language this year. Some of these universities initially planned to use books published in China, but changed to Charter 08 when the books could not be posted to Japan due to the epidemic.

Source: Stand News #Aug20

#Charter08 #LiuXiaobo #Meijiuniversity #Japan
#LiberalStudies #Textbook

Hong Kong police arrested a man claimed to took part in #YuenLong721Attack

An 87-year-old man was arrested on Thursday (19 Aug) in connection with the 721 Yuen Long Attack in 2019. The man, surnamed Wong, visited a street booth set up by Alex Yeung Kwun-wah, a pro-police KOL. During the visit, Wong said ‘I hit them too’ referring to the Yuen Long attack.

Wong was arrested on Thursday for taking part in riot and conspiracy to wound with intent, police said. He was detained for further investigation.

Alex Yeung apologized to Wong through his Facebook page "Wah Kee Channel": "Sorry! … It’s really my fault! Very Sorry! Sorry!"

Source: Stand News #Aug20

https://bit.ly/3sy8p0z

#YuenLong721

#CCPRules #PoliceState #Sanction
#China delays implementing Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law in Hong Kong

The 4-day meeting of China's CCP Standing Committee of the National People's Congress was ended on August 20, 2021. It was reported earlier that the Committee will deliberate over adding the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law into the Annex III of the Hong Kong Basic Law in the Congress meeting.

The decision, however, has been delayed.

Alibaba-owned South China Morning Post (#SCMP) cited sources who said the sudden decision to postpone the deliberation was that the Committee "could consider more views".

The Pro-Beijing newspaper Sing Tao Daily slso published an "analysis” based on an internal memo of #XinHua news agency, a CCP mouthpiece. It hinted that including the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law into the Annex III of the Hong Kong Basic Law “may not be among motions to be passed.”

Responding to media inquiry, Hong Kong senior delegate Tam Yiu-chun, a pro-Beijing figure, said that the Stand Committee did review the agenda item, but decided not to take a vote on it.

The Hong Kong SAR Government issued a statement stating that the Central People's Congress is "concerned about the well-being of Hong Kong people". The statement continued saying decisions of the Standing Committee on Hong Kong matters are "based on local interests", and the SAR Government is determined to give its full support.

#CCP #1C1S #AntiSanctionsLaw

Source: Stand News; #Aug20
https://www.thestandnews.com/china/%E5%8F%8D%E5%A4%96%E5%9C%8B%E5%88%B6%E8%A3%81%E6%B3%95%E7%B4%8D%E5%85%A5%E9%99%84%E4%BB%B6%E4%B8%89%E7%8F%BE%E8%AE%8A%E6%95%B8-%E8%AD%9A%E8%80%80%E5%AE%97%E6%8C%87%E4%BA%BA%E5%A4%A7%E5%B8%B8%E5%A7%94%E6%8A%BC%E5%BE%8C%E8%A1%A8%E6%B1%BA

#PressFreedom #MediaLandscape
Another Talk Show Host Replaced after Pro-China Management Takes Over #NowTV in Hong Kong

Source: Stand News; #Aug20

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#PressFreedom #MediaLandscape
Another Talk Show Host Replaced after Pro-China Management Takes Over #NowTV in Hong Kong

Now TV News has seen yet another personnel change since Bill Chan Tit-piu, former managing editor of the pro-China TVB News, took over as the head of Now News last June. The latest change involved Max Wong, host of the current affairs programme “News Magazine”.

Jacqueline Pang, a co-host of the programme, posted a photo of Wong and herself on her Facebook page, confirming that Wong will no longer host the programme.

Sources claimed that the newly-arrived Bill Chan once tried to persuade a guest host, Jacky Fung Chi-chen, to reprimand the Council of HKU for tabling a motion to mourn #LeungKinFai who knifed himself after stabbing a police officer on 1 July this year.

Fung refused to comply with Chan's demand, and was soon replaced by Dr Xu Jin of HK University Centre for Asian Studies.

Source: Stand News; #Aug20

https://www.thestandnews.com/politics/a-now-%E6%96%B0%E8%81%9E%E6%99%82%E4%BA%8B%E5%85%A8%E6%96%B9%E4%BD%8D%E5%86%8D%E6%8F%9B%E4%B8%BB%E6%8C%81-%E6%99%82%E4%BA%8B%E8%A9%95%E8%AB%96%E5%93%A1%E7%8E%8B%E6%85%A7%E9%BA%9F%E9%9B%A2%E4%BB%BB

#FailedState
Strict Covid-19 curbs leave Hong Kong 'indefinitely trapped', #EUchamber says

Source: Straits Times #Aug20

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#FailedState
Strict Covid-19 curbs leave Hong Kong 'indefinitely trapped', #EUChamber says

//The European Chamber of Commerce (#ECC) in Hong Kong sent the letter to Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Thursday, Aug 19, 2020, calling the city's newly tightened quarantine rules a "significant setback" following a quickly abandoned attempt to relax some of the world's strictest requirements for inbound travellers.

The rules include mandatory quarantine hotel stays of as long as 21 days, as well as rigid testing and isolation policies that require infected people to be hospitalised and most close contacts sent to quarantine facilities. Most visitors, whether for business or tourism, are not allowed.

"We are of the view that Hong Kong must open itself sooner rather than later or this new quarantine regime could lead many in the international community to question if they want to remain indefinitely trapped in Hong Kong when the rest of the world is moving on," Mr #FrederikGollob, chairman of the chamber's board of directors, wrote.

"This concern amongst the international business community could pose, undoubtedly, a growing threat to Hong Kong's status as an international business centre."//

Source: Straits Times #Aug20

www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/strict-covid-19-curbs-leave-hong-kong-indefinitely-trapped-eu-chamber-says

#Pandemic #Covid19 #Quarantine

State Media Calls on Hong Kong to Compensate For Tide of Emigration

Net departures from Hong Kong hit nearly 90,000 in the year following the imposition of the national security law by Beijing, according to recent figures from the city's census and statistics department.

In the biggest decline in the city's population since records began in 1961, Hong Kong saw a net outflow of 89,200 residents in June 2021. The departures have led to a 1.2 percent drop in the city's population, the Census and Statistics Department reported.

Until now, Hong Kong and Chinese officials have sought to play down the scale of the exodus, brushing aside the impact on the city's economic and professional life.

But on Monday, a Chinese state media organization, CRNTT, was the first to acknowledge that highly skilled people are leaving in large numbers.

Source: RFA #Aug20

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/emigrate-08302021135106.html

#HongKong #NationalSecurityLaw #Beijing #CRNTT

Protests in Pakistan erupt against China’s belt and road plan

Protests have erupted in Pakistan’s port city Gwadar against a severe shortage of water and electricity and threats to livelihoods, part of a growing backlash against China’s multibillion-dollar belt and road projects in the country.

This week, demonstrators including fishers and other local workers blocked the roads in Gwadar, a coastal town in Balochistan. They burned tyres, chanted slogans and largely shut down the city, to demand water and electricity and a stop to Chinese trawlers illegally fishing in the nearby waters and then taking the fish to China. Two people were injured when the authorities cracked down on the protesters.

Source: The Guardian #Aug20

https://t.co/IT95SLk3Xq

South Koreans Now Dislike China More Than They Dislike Japan

The list of election issues set to define South Korea’s presidential race next year is long. The runaway housing prices, the pandemic, North Korea and gender inequality are a start. But an unlikely addition has also emerged in recent weeks: China.

South Korea’s decision ​​to let the American military deploy a powerful antimissile radar system on its soil​ in 2017 has been the subject of frequent criticism from China. And last month, a presidential hopeful, Yoon Seok-youl, told the country to stop complaining, unless it wanted to remove its own ​radar systems near the Korean Peninsula.

Source: NY Times #Aug20

https://t.co/293E8RZfzp

#SouthKorea #China #Japan

[Special] Taiwanese students living in HK under National Security Law - some got back to Taiwan, some stay.

Translated by Guardians of Hong Kong

In the past ten years, many Taiwanese further their post-secondary education and stay for career development in Hong Kong which has comparatively more international exposure than studying in Taiwan.

This year, among the many crying and hugging scenes in the Hong Kong International Airport, there were some Taiwanese friends. Wing-Yan (pseudonym), a Taiwanese who completed her bachelor degree in the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and stayed for 7 years, left Hong Kong in Aug 2021 and returned to Taiwan.

Read our fully translated story here:
https://telegra.ph/Special-Taiwanese-students-living-in-HK-under-National-Security-Law---some-got-back-to-Taiwan-some-stay-12-31

Source: The Stand News #Aug20

Reporter: KWAN Kwun-kei

#NSL #ChinaTaiwan #TaiwaneseInHK #Taiwan