The 5th Legco election was held on Dec 19, 2021, breaking a number of records in history.

#LegCoElection #Democrats47 #GoHKgraphics

#MandatoryTesting #PoliceState
Mandatory COVID-19 testing turns into police-resident stand off

Source: Channel C HK, Pazu’s Facebook page; #Feb10

#FailedState #Omicron #WuhanPneumonia

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#MandatoryTesting #PoliceState
Mandatory COVID-19 testing turns into police-resident stand off

At around 8pm on February 10, a large crowd of over a hundred residents at Sun Chui Estate were agitated after waiting for three hours for mandatory COVID-19 testing in a pop-up center in Tai Wai, Hong Kong as the testing center insisted to close on time.

Instead of soothing the hightened emotions among residents, police officers on the scene criticised them for "creating troubles". Some even switched on video cameras, pointing them at the crowd of angry residents, aiming to intimate and silence them.

The situation soon turned into a police-resident stand off. An emotional officer hurled insults at the crowd, saying "it's none of your business." He was quickly pulled away from the crowd to avoid further clashes.

Meanwhile, another officer, taunted residents by remarking that, "you should come to the counter earlier!"

Being provoked, the crowd immediately retalitated in anguish. Many shouted back that they have arrived at the scene as early as they were instructed to.

#FailedState #Omicron #WuhanPneumonia

Source: Channel C HK, Pazu's Facebook page; #Feb10
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=497816655048956&id=100044618761088

#PressFreedom #NationalSecurityLaw
21 nations condemn Hong Kong press freedom crackdown and closure of news outlets

The #MediaFreedomCoalition, 21 countries including the U.S., U.K., Australia, Germany, Canada and Japan said in a statement released by the U.S. State Department on February 8 that they “express their deep concern at the Hong Kong and mainland Chinese authorities’ attacks on freedom of the press and their suppression of independent local media in Hong Kong.”

The statement said authorities have pursued independent media outlets such as the recently closed #StandNews and #CitizenNews since China’s imposition of a national security law, adding these “actions further undermine confidence in Hong Kong’s international reputation.”

Read full Statement
https://www.state.gov/media-freedom-coalition-statement-on-closure-of-media-outlets-in-hong-kong/

Source: Bloomberg; #Feb9
https://www.bloombergquint.com/politics/u-s-led-coalition-slams-attacks-on-hong-kong-press-freedom

Dear friends,

We are now moving to another channel for Guardians of Hong Kong (GoHK): https://t.me/BeWaterHK

The current and the new channel will update at the same time for at least 3 months to see the situation.

Guardians of Hong Kong

Chinese hacking shows clear ‘geopolitical goals,’ targets Taiwan, Hong Kong universities

Hackers from China have targeted political issues and universities in Taiwan and Hong Kong, Microsoft said in its 2021 Digital Defense Report, which covers the period between July 2020 and June 2021.

Cristin Goodwin, head of Microsoft’s Digital Security Unit, noted China’s geopolitical goals, reported AP. According to the October 2021 report, the “Chromium” cyber activity group targeted “sensitive social, economic, and political issues surrounding Hong Kong and Taiwan” in addition to China’s neighbors, such as India, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, and Thailand.

Source: Taiwan News #Oct08

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4309568

#China #Chinese #Hacking #Hacker #Microsoft #HongKong #Taiwan

Dear friends,

We are now moving to another channel for Guardians of Hong Kong (GoHK): https://t.me/BeWaterHK

The current and the new channel will update at the same time for at least 3 months to see the situation.

Guardians of Hong Kong

#Arrest #PoliticalOppression
An Australian-Chinese dual citizen was accused of violating National Security Law
HK authorities : No obligation to grant consular visitation to dual nationals

Source: Radio France Asia; #Feb8

#PrimaryElection #Primaries #Legcopetition #Australia #SecurityBureau #GorgonNg #NgChingHang

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#Arrest #PoliticalOppression
An Australian-Chinese dual citizen was accused of violating National Security Law
HK authorities : No obligation to grant consular visitation to dual nationals

On February 8, Australian Broadcast Company (#ABC) quoted the federal government that an Australian-Chinese man was charged under the National security law (#NSL).

Although the authorities did not reveal his identity, a spokesperson at Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (#DFAT) indicated that the defendant was arrested on Jan 6, 2021, for "conspiring to subvert state power".

He was released on bail the next day but was then re-arrested on March 1 when attending court, and charged with "subversion".

With reference to the date of arrest and the accusation, the man is said to be one of the #47Democrats, Gordon Ng (#吳政亨).

Yet, ABC cannot confirm whether the defendant mentioned by DFAT is Gordon Ng.

DFAT has also revealed that Australian officials have been repeatedly refused consular access to the man, because Hong Kong authorities no longer recognise dual citizenship.

"The Australian Consulate-General in Hong Kong was notified by Hong Kong authorities of the arrest of a dual Australian-Chinese citizen under its National Security Law in January 2021," a DFAT spokesperson said.

The report continued that the Hong Kong Security Bureau declined to provide any further details about the prosecution, saying that it could not comment on individual cases; and that the Hong Kong government was not obliged to grant consular visitation rights to dual nationals.

ps. Gordon Ng is the founder of Legcopetition, a voluntary group for primaries. He is also known as "#Liberal (#李伯盧)" on social media platforms.

#PrimaryElection #Primaries #Legcopetition #Australia #SecurityBureau #GorgonNg #NgChingHang

Source: Radio France Asia; #Feb8
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/htm/hk-aus-02082022055359.html

Dear friends,

We are now moving to another channel for Guardians of Hong Kong (GoHK): https://t.me/BeWaterHK

The current and the new channel will update at the same time for at least 3 months to see the situation.

Guardians of Hong Kong

#DemocracyIndex
Global democracy Index 2021: Taiwan attains #8 vs Hong Kong remains at #85

Source: Radio France Internationale; #Feb10

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#DemocracyIndex
Global democracy Index 2021: Taiwan attains #8 vs Hong Kong remains at #85

Global democracy continued its precipitous decline in 2021, according to the latest edition of the Democracy Index.

The annual survey, which rates the state of democracy across 167 countries finds that more than a third of the world’s population live under authoritarian rule while just 6.4% enjoy a full democracy.

Compared to 2020, ranking for Taiwan surged drastically by 11 places to No. 8 in 2021. The surge showed that the state of democracy in Taiwan is better than that of Australia.

In 2020, Hong Kong has already fallen short from the “flawed democracy” to “hybrid regimes” as it tumbled sharply from No. 75 to No. 87.

A slight improvement has been found in 2021 as Hong Kong climbed up 2 places to No. 85.

Meanwhile, the democracy index for China continued to slip from 2.97 in 2006 to 2.21 in 2021.

The annual index rates the state of democracy of 167 countries out of 10, using 60 indicators grouped in five different categories. These categories are electoral process and pluralism, the functioning of government, political participation, democratic political culture and civil liberties.

Source: Radio France Internationale; #Feb10
https://www.sbs.com.au/chinese/cantonese/zh-hant/afghanistan-myanmar-rank-worst-in-world-democracy-index-as-australia-keeps-ninth-place?cid=alc:soc:bau:con:SBSChineseTelegram::na

Big V’s speech being banned: Ren, Ze-Ping, the Chinese famous economist, speech being banned for involving publication of “printing money to encourage births”

Source: RFA #Jan13

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Big V’s speech being banned: Ren, Ze-Ping, the Chinese famous economist, speech being banned for involving publication of “printing money to encourage births”

Ren, Ze-Ping, the Chinese famous economist published the theory of “printing money to encourage births” which asserted the Central Bank to print 2 trillion RMB and spend 10 years’ time to encourage the society to birth 50 million babies to solve the labour and economic problem in China nowadays, the relevant speech triggered tremendous dispute. Chinese media found on Wednesday that Ren’s weibo and weixin public account were banned. Some analysis thought that his speech not only unassisted to solve the economic problem in China and would affect the stability of the society.

Ren, Ze-Ping, the former Heng Da Group Chief Economist who has 3,756,000 fans published the the theory of “printing money to encourage births” which asserted disputes. China media found on Wednesday that his weibo account showed “the account was in the status of being banned speech because of violating relevant laws and regulations” and his weixin public account, “ze-ping macroscopic” was banned as well. According to the report from Securities Times, Ren Ze-ping’s weibo and weixin public’s speech were banned two weeks, and other accounts from alternative media platforms were not affected.

Analysis: speech not only unassisted to solve the economic problem in China but also influences society stability

China Finance scholar pointed out that nowadays the economic downward pressure is very big and the Trioka which pulls economic growth (i.e. consumption, investment and import & export) lost their power, in addition with the severe trend of population aging, the eligible labour force is far behind the expectation from external general anticipation. But he thought the speech of Ren not only unassisted to solve the current problem and influences the society stability of China.

Source: RFA #Jan13

https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/baby-01132022062917.html

#RenZePing #Economic #Banned #Weibo #Weixin

#PressFreedom
US-funded news service suspends Cantonese commentary over National Security “redlines”

#FreedomofSpeech #NSL

Source: Radio France Internationale; #Feb10

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#PressFreedom
US-funded news service suspends Cantonese commentary over National Security “redlines”

US-funded news outlet Radio Free Asia (#RFA) has announced the suspension of its Cantonese programmes and commentaries, citing concerns about press freedom in Hong Kong and the “red lines” of the national security law.

“Given the dire situation in Hong Kong, locally-based commentators and hosts face increased risks. It has been clear over the past year that the ‘national security red lines’ are everywhere in Hong Kong,” the memo read. “The freedom of speech accorded to commentators and hosts under Hong Kong’s basic law is not protected by Hong Kong and Chinese laws.”

The broadcasts would be suspended from March 1 “until further notice”.

Founded in 1996, RFA is a non-profit news service funded by the US government to provide news about events in Asia. The outlet publishes in nine languages – including Burmese, Khmer, Korean, Uyghur and Vietnamese.

Source: Radio France Internationale; #Feb10
https://www.rfi.fr/tw/中國/20220210-指-國安紅線-無處不在-自由亞洲-撤香港本地評論節目

#PressFreedom #FreedomofSpeech #NSL

#AcademicFreedom
U.S. LGBTQ scholar denied visa to Hong Kong, possibly due to ties with Human Rights Watch

Source: RFI #Feb02

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#AcademicFreedom
U.S. LGBTQ scholar denied visa to Hong Kong, possibly due to ties with Human Rights Watch

U.S. law scholar Ryan Thoreson, who studies the social and legal issues of #LGBTQ, was denied having a teaching visa from the University of Hong Kong (#HKU) as a tenured Assistant Professor. The scholar did not receive any reason for the denial.

Read related article
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/32082

As there was no official explanation, Ryan Thoreson could not say whether it was because of his ties with Hong Kong Watch. "I don't think my studies have special criticisms on China as my main focus is on LGBTQ rights."

RFI said that the incident increased concerns about academic freedom in Hong Kong.

#RyanThoreson #HongKongWatch #AcademicFreedom

Source: RFI #Feb02

https://bit.ly/3GJVdej