#FailedState #PoliticalAllegiance #Neutrality
Pro-Establishmemt Newspaper: New Civil Servants to Vow When Entering Government Services Next Month, May Be Dismissed if They Refuse to Follow

Source: Headline Daily; SingTao Daily #Sept23

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https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/25511

#FailedState #PoliticalAllegiance #Neutrality
Pro-Establishmemt Newspaper: New Civil Servants to Vow When Entering Government Services Next Month, May Be Dismissed if They Refuse to Follow

According to pro-Establishement newspaper Singtao Daily, Hong Kong's Secretary of Civil Service Patrick Nip Tak-Kuen revealed that the government would issue a notice in mid-October 2020 about an arrangement for new civil servants to sign a document.

Contents of the document include advocating the “Basic Law”, devotion to HKSAR, committing to their duties and being responsible to the HKSAR government.

Also, those being promoted to a senior position, officer’s position, other vital roles or sensitivity position in the Hong Kong Civil Service, such as Disciplined Services, Administrative Officers, legal officers, etc will also be participants of the first phase of marking vows for existing civil servants.

Chairman of Hong Kong Federation of Civil Service Unions Tong Lai-ngor was concerned that the government had unilaterally changed the contracts by requesting their employees to vow, asking what the consequence would bes if existing employees rejected the request and what proposal of compensation would be offered by the government. She requested the government to list the guideline and punishment in details before its enactment. Chairman of Hong Kong Senior Government Officer Association Lee Fong-chung hoped the government would have just procedures for dealing with cases related to vow-breaching and that it would be best for the government to follow the existing system of punishment.

Regarding questions from associations, Nip responded firmly, “Violating the vow means violating the “Basic Law” and the “National Security Law”. Violators would be dismissed. But civil servants have a chance to appeal.”

Source: Headline Daily; Singtao Daily #Sept23

#CivilServants #PatrickNip

#Santions #ReginaIp
Beijing Loyalists in Hong Kong Claim They Are Unafraid of US Sanctiond but Will Sell Overseas Assets

The US government has announced the sanction of government officials in China and Hong Kong. The list in HK included Chief Executive Carrie Lam, Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng and Secretary for Security John Lee. At the momrnt, members of the Executive Council (ExCo), who are advisors appointed by the Chief Executive, are not on the list.

ExCo member Tommy Cheung Yu-Yan, who is also the chairman of the pro-Establishment Liberal party, was interviewed by Michael Chugani in China-friendly TVB news.

According to Cheung, his wife and son had difficulties in opening bank accounts and exchanging US dollars. Also, he worried his children and grandchildren would be affected in the coming 20 years. He claimed, “I don't know why, but this is how the world is doing it nowadays.”

Cheung said that he doesn’t have assets in the US and overseas, but he didn’t like to be sanctioned.

Another ExCo member Regina Ip, who is a former government official and now the chair of the pro-Beijing New People’s Party, was interviewed in the same program. Ip believed she wouldn’t be sanctioned in the short term, but she revealed she took some precautions including selling the assets she has in the US.

Source: Stand News #Sept23
#Sanction

#GeoffreyMa #JudicialIndependence
Hong Kong's top judge rebuts, “Duty of judges is strictly to apply the law and nothing else”

Source: Stand News, Apple Daily #Sept23

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#GeoffreyMa #JudicialIndependence
Hong Kong's top judge rebuts, “Duty of judges is strictly to apply the law and nothing else”

Geoffrey Ma, the chief justice of the Court of Final Appeal, issued a rare statement on September 23 to remind the public that any criticism of judges and court decisions must be informed, solidly based and properly made, otherwise it would be detrimental to public confidence in the administration of justice and, ultimately, to the rule of law in the city.

Ma’s statement came amidst heated debates over Hong Kong’s judicial independence, after claims by both the Communist Party and the local government that the city does not exercise separation of powers between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. The pro-Beijing camp, including media outlets, has also rounded magistrates for supposedly being too lenient with young protesters.

Ma explained to the public that the constitutional duty of judges was “strictly to apply the law and nothing else.”

Judges must be impartial, he said, and when they were not, a number of channels were available: redress by way of an appeal or review, an application for recusal filed by the accused or the prosecution, and the established complaints mechanism of the judiciary.

Notable among other principles were the requirement of a fair trial, the presumption of innocence, the need for the prosecution to prove that an accused committed a crime beyond reasonable doubt before there could be a conviction, and the right to an appeal.

Ma also singled out the topics of bail, sentencing, and appeals and reviews, which had attracted comment and criticism. He said it was important that such comments were informed and understood in the proper context.

“In this respect, the role and responsibilities of the Secretary for Justice (as representing the public interest in the prosecution of crimes) must also be properly understood,” he wrote.

Source: Stand News; Apple Daily #Sept23
#SeperationofPowers #RuleofLaw #ChiefJustice

#PoliceState
Police Charge 10 Hong Kong students for Forming Human Chain in Support of the Anti-ELAB Movement One Year Later

A year ago on September 7, citizens in Hong Kong built a long human chain around Tai Po Market train station, exhibiting solidarity against and defiance of police brutality, among them, many were students in school uniform.

As riot police stormed onto the scene, fired tear gas, the peaceful crowd of pro-democracy protesters was forced to disperse. More than 20 protesters were arrested during the clash on that day.

A year later, HK police charged 11 of them for attending an illegal assembly. Their age ranges from 15 to 49. 10 of them are students and the remaining one is the father of one of the students.

Sources: Inmedia; Stand News #Sept23
https://www.inmediahk.net/node/1077614

#Students #HumanChain #Injustice #School
=====
Read more about human chain activity in Taipo on 7 Sept 2019 and victims of #PoliceBrutality

https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/14349

#ChanTongGai
Victim's Parents Call On Murder Suspect to Fulfill his Promise and Surrender to Taiwan Authorities

Source: Stand News #Sept23

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https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/25829

#ChanTongGai
Victim's Parents Call On Murder Suspect to Fulfill his Promise and Surrender to Taiwan Authorities

The murder suspect Chan Tong-gai who killed his pregnant girlfriend, Poon Hiu-wing, on their holiday in Taiwan in February 2018. Chan escaped the island and returned to Hong Kong, where he was arrested for four rounds of money-laundering offences. Since his discharge in October 2019, Chan sought protection from HK Police and resided in a safe house with his mother.

A year after Chan’s discharge from prison, Poon’s parents issued an open letter on September 23 through Stand News. They urged Chan to turn himself in to Taiwan authorities as he promised, stating that Taiwan has set up a “single special window” with Hong Kong from the outset to settle this matter. The parents called on Chan to stand trial in Taiwan and stop “chickening out”.

Reverend Canon Peter Koon Ho-ming, provincial secretary general of the Anglican church in Hong Kong, who has been assisting Chan since his discharge from prison refused to comment on the case, saying he is not Chan’s “spokesperson.”

Editor’s note:
Chan Tong-gai’s case is often cited by the media for ultimately sparking the year-long anti-ELAB movement. In February 2019, the city’s Chief Executive, Carrie Lam took Chan’s case as the rationale for a proposed amendment to the extradition ordinance to establish a mechanism for case-by-case transfers of fugitives, on the order of the Chief Executive, to any jurisdiction with which the city lacks a formal extradition treaty.

Source: Stand News #Sept23
https://bit.ly/3mInFEC
#Justice

Hongkongers

Source: The Economist #Sept23

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#Hongkongers in Britain

//...the Hong Kongers are quite different from other immigrants, including other ethnic Chinese. Many have a distinct legal status and are socially atypical. They live in specific places, which they chose in a novel way. They have created distinctive self-help groups. In just a few months, they have begun to rewrite Britain’s immigrant story.

A survey by Hongkongers in Britain, a self-help group, however, found that the average age of Hong Kong residents intending to come to Britain was 37. More than two-thirds are university-educated, and the majority have children.

Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about the Hong Kongers is the speed with which they have organised themselves. In little more than a year, several well-run groups have sprung up to help migrants settle in and to lobby on their behalf. They have conducted surveys, arranged housing, legal advice and English courses, organised walking tours, testified in Parliament and much more besides.

Sadly, this self-reliance is not a choice, but a necessity. Newly arrived Hong Kongers often fear recently established Chinese community groups that are aligned with the government in Beijing. Jabez Lam, a veteran organiser at the Hackney Chinese Community Service, says that most Hong Kongers who ask him for help will not give their names. They are right to worry about hostility from other Chinese people, he says. He was roughed up in Chinatown after defending pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.

Hong Kongers’ groups have two ambitions. First, they want migrants to integrate rapidly. Hence the English lessons, an enthusiasm for working with churches and gatherings like the one in Sutton, which brought Hong Kongers together with locals. “If Hong Kongers just get together with Hong Kongers, it doesn’t help—it’s another Chinatown,” explains Mr Choi. The groups stress that the migrants’ values, such as a belief in freedom and democracy, are also British ones.

Second, they want Hong Kongers to think of themselves as a community in exile. “Hong Kong is not only a place any more. It’s a diaspora, sharing values,” says Simon Cheng of Hongkongers in Britain. However comfortable and integrated they become, he thinks, Hong Kongers must remember why they had to flee. //

Read the full article:
https://www.economist.com/britain/2021/09/23/britains-newest-immigrant-group-is-unlike-any-that-came-before

Source: The Economist #Sept23

#Immigrant #BNO #Exile #Diaspora #MigrationWave #UK

#Perseverence
Arrested Pro-democracy Activist #ChowHangTung opposes Hong Kong Alliance’s disbandment: "I would choose not to lose, not to forget, not to give up, and to persevere until the last moment.”

Source: Stand News #Sept23

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#Perseverence
Arrested Pro-democracy Activist #ChowHangTung opposes Hong Kong Alliance’s disbandment: "I would choose not to lose, not to forget, not to give up, and to persevere until the last moment.”

Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho Chun-yan, chairman and former vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, who are currently detained, issued a joint open letter on September 17, 2021, stating that the best solution for the pro-democracy Alliance is to disband.

[Editor's note: After a special meeting on September 25, 2021, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China passed a motion to dissolve.

https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/31135]

The Alliance had been the organizer of the annual June 4 Tiananmen Massacre Candlelight Vigil in Hong Kong's #VictoriaPark since 1990.

On September 23, 2021, an "Open Letter from Chow Hang-Tung to Hong Kong Alliance (before and after)" was published on Chow's personal Facebook page, stating that she cannot see the act of disbanding any help in continuing the Alliance's philosophy.

"Please oppose the dissolution motion and give the Alliance a chance to continue," Chow expressed despite being arrested and detained.

Chow, a barrister by profession, also pointed out, "The regime has chosen to annihilate us all, so we have to choose whether to persist until the end or to bail out before it’s too late. On this choice, I would choose not to lose, not to forget, not to give up, and to persevere until the last moment.”

Source: Stand News #Sept23
https://thestandnews.page.link/bEjeeCGyLUq7i5Zt8

#TonyeeChow #Disband #HKASPDMC #Alliance #NationalSecurityLaw #Unafraid #OpenLetter #Courage