📡Guardians of Hong Kong
9.59K subscribers
21.6K photos
1.88K videos
27 files
9.99K links
We provide translation of news in English from local media and other sources, for academic use.
Facebook: http://bit.ly/BeWaterHongKong
Instagram: @guardiansofhk
Website: https://guardiansofhk.com/
Download Telegram
#DoYouKnow
A Multiple Choice Question According to Police's Behaviour

The Epoch Times devised a mock multiple choice question for the Liberal Studies subject in Honh Kong regarding police's behaviour on July 1, 2021 in Hong Kong:

"On which occasion (see photo) is the Social Gathering Ban Cap. 599G being violated?

A) Two people going shopping
B) Dozens of people watching a Pro-Beijing Show
C) Several Hundreds of people working together

Tips: According to Cap. 599G Prevention and Control of Disease (Prohibition on Group Gathering) Regulation: except for the exempted group, the 14-day prohibition on group gathering remains at no more than four persons in the public area from June 23 to July 7.

Source: Epoch Times #July1

#GatheringBan #July1Protests
#FailedState
Police Bust Dinner Gathering due to Rape Report; Hong Kong's Top Government Officials Violate Gathering Ban

Several top government officials including some heads of disciplinary forces in Hong Kong were found violating the gathering ban, as Stand News revealed on July 7, 2021.

Commissioner of Customs and Excise, Hermes Tang; Director of Immigration, Au Ka-wang; and the Undersecretary for Security, Sonny Au were all fined in a dinner event that took place in Wan Chai on March 2, 2021.

According to two sources, among the 9 people involved, at least one top manager of a China-owned property developer that is listed in Hong Kong Stock Market was present at the dinner. The related company, however, did not respond to the inquiry of Stand News.

The said dinner was discovered when the police investigated a rape case. According to sources, the rape took place in the same venue as the dinner, which is a residential unit in Wan Chai.

The man who was arrested and charged for attempted rape worked for a China-owned enterprise and had participated in the dinner gathering.

On July 8, 2021, the heads of customs and immigration department issued two separate but identical statements, claiming that they have paid the fine.

However, they refused to answer the journalists questions with regard to the nature and the purpose of the dinner and the conflict of interests. The government officials did not revealed whether they were treated.

Source: Stand News #Jul8
https://bit.ly/3AIMA27

#GovernmentOfficial #GatheringBan #599G #Rape #Dinner
#FailedState
Carrie Lam Defends Top Officials for Violating Gathering Ban in Extravagant Banquet with Property Developer: "You can't just turn away after seeing abalone"

Read more
⬇️⬇️⬇️
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/30485
#FailedState
Carrie Lam Defends Top Officials for Violating Gathering Ban in Extravagant Banquet with Property Developer: "You can't just turn away after seeing abalone"

On July 11, 2021, Hong Kong Chief Executive #CarrieLam spoke in a #CommercialRadio program and defended three top government officials who had violated the #GatheringBan by participating in an extravagant dinner with another 5 people in March 2021.

One of the five people comes from the top management of Evergrande Real Estate Group, a China-owned property developer headquartered in Shenzhen.

Read more:
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/30467

The three top officials are Commissioner of Customs and Excise #HermesTang; Director of Immigration #AuKaWing; and the Undersecretary for Security, #SonnyAu. The banquet cost at least HKD 2,380 per head.

Lam claimed that “they didn’t know what was on the menu" and they couldn’t just "stand up and leave when they saw abalone."

Lam called on people to look at the incident in a "more humanised way”.

In the same program, Lam also openly said that she 'does not expect" #JohnLee, former Secretsry for Security and the new Chief Secretary, to do much, other than national security issues. Lam added that Lee, the second highest government official in the city, was not familiar with "poverty alleviation, youth or ethnic minority works".

Source: RTHK; Stand News #Jul10

https://bit.ly/3yS0xc2

#Abalone #Banquet #599G #AsiasFinest #Inequality #PropertyDeveloper #Evergrande
#FailedState #Discrimination
Discriminatory Treatment: HK Authorities Approve Pro-Beijing Events while Banning Pro-democracy March

In 2021, the annual July 1 March was for the first time banned by the police. While the authorities used epidemic prevention as a reason to ban public events, the flag raising ceremony and the cocktail reception celebrating the establishment of the HKSAR were exempted.

According to the Home Affairs Department, celebrating the "Hong Kong-China reunification" is a key event.

Source: Stand News, #Jun30

https://bit.ly/3yVCuJq

#GatheringBan #FlagRaising #July1 #July1Protest
Overpassing gathering restrictions, more HK Government Officials found in private dinner with #CCP officials and businessmen

In a tip-off story published in late August 2021, the Under Secretary for Security #SonnyAu Chi-kwong, Director of Immigration #Au KaWang and Commissioner of Customs and Excise, #HermesTang Yi-hoi were found attending a controversial private dinner with senior executives of #ChinaEvergrande in March this year in Wanchai.

Police reportedly fined the three top officials for violating the COVID-19 gathering restriction.

Sources further revealed that more high-ranking CCP officials have also attended the private dinner, including officials from the Liaison Office of the Central Government in Hong Kong, and the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China in Hong Kong.

At the time of this report, the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China in Hong Kong has not responded to press inquiry. The Security Bureau, on the other hand, did not deny that assistant Commissioner Song Ru’an has attended the dinner.

The Bureau, however, stressed that only three Hong Kong officials were involved. It refused to divulge further, citing privacy and ongoing criminal case investigation as reasons.

Hong Kong Police did not reply whether a fine ticket will be issued to the assistant commissioner, Song.

Other attendees of the private dinner were Lai Wai-ha, Deputy Director of China Affairs of the University of Hong Kong; a commissioner of Fire Department and current senior executives of four Chinese enterprises in Hong Kong.

Responding to press inquiry, the University of Hong Kong (#HKU) denied that it was an official event saying that Lai was "invited by her friends" to the dinner.

The Fire Department said the concerning official has left the Department so it could not comment on personal matters.

All four Chinese enterprises have yet to respond.

Source: Stand News; #Aug30
https://www.thestandnews.com/politics/%E9%AB%98%E5%AE%98%E7%8A%AF%E8%81%9A%E9%A3%AF%E5%B1%80%E9%A7%90%E6%B8%AF%E5%85%AC%E7%BD%B2%E5%89%8D%E5%89%AF%E7%89%B9%E6%B4%BE%E5%93%A1%E5%AE%8B%E5%A6%82%E5%AE%89%E8%A2%AB%E6%8C%87%E6%9C%89%E4%BB%BD%E5%87%BA%E5%B8%AD-%E4%BF%9D%E5%AE%89%E5%B1%80%E6%9C%AA%E5%90%A6%E8%AA%8D-%E6%B8%AF%E5%A4%A7%E8%AD%89%E9%AB%98%E5%B1%A4%E5%87%BA%E5%B8%AD

#Gathering #GatheringBan #Officials #FailedState
#FailedState #COVID19
Dozens of Hong Kong top officials and legislators attended birthday party of a CCP representative violated pandemic restriction

13 senior government officials and 19 legislators in Hong Kong were among the 170 attendees sent into a 21 days quarantine in Penny’s Bay after they attended a birthday party of a CCP representative on January 3, 2022 despite the government’s own pandemic warning.

They included police chief Raymond Siu, immigration chief Au Ka-wang, Home Affairs Secretary Caspar Tsui and Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Christopher Hui.

In nearly identical wording, senior officials sent out their statements of apologies in past couple of days. However, only 3 among the 13 officials mentioned that they used the mandatory “Leave Home Safe” tracing App when arriving the premise.

Lawyers who examined photographs of the event said the signs indicating criminal offences included guests chatting unmasked, the failure to use the “Leave Home Safe” exposure alert application and the large crowd that was present.

The party, held on January 3, 2022, was to celebrate the 53rd birthday of Witman Hung Wai-man, a delegate to China’s top national legislature. The well-connected politician invited a long list of the city’s political establishment, ranging from the home affairs secretary to the security chief.

The embarrassing incident came as concerns had been raised in recent weeks after a number of Omicron cases were identified in Hong Kong. Health officials openly asked citizens to avoid large gatherings in the middle of an Omicron outbreak.

Days before the incident, Lam summoned top officials from Cathay Pacific airlines and said they must take responsibility for their aircrew breaching self-isolation rules even if “they may not know their employees’ every act”.

Source: inmediahk; #Jan9
Image: WhatsNew Media
https://bit.ly/3Fasij1


#Covid19 #Pandemic #GatheringBan
====
Related article

Hong Kong Government Officials and Politicians Breach Gathering Ban, Carrie Lam dodges responsibility
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/31863
#Poll #PublicOpinion
57% Hongkongers tend to "live with COVID" as "zero-COVID" is unreachable

The Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (#HKPORI), a research institution in Hong Kong, conducted a survey by asking 7,000 Hong Kong citizens to evaluate the existing COVID19 measures.

57% of the respondents believe that "living with the virus" is more realistic than having zero COVID19 cases. Almost 90% of the pro-democratic citizens shared this view.

Among the non-democratic supporters, 40% supported the view of "living with the virus" and while another 40% looked for a "zero case" scenario.

The supporters and the opponents to the implementation of population-wide compulsory testing are divided into 41% in respective fraction; however, the opposition to other COVID-19 measures was more than half.

55% of the respondents oppose "3-dose vaccination". 53% of them disagree to shut down more venues. At last, 54% of them do not want gathering regulation to be tightened.

The survey reveals that the people opt for "living with the virus" as having "zero COVID cases" is almost impossible due to the continuous mutation,

The spokeperson of the institute Dr Chung Kim-Wah pointed out that there is a gap between "believing that the policy is helpful" and "supporting the policy". This reflects the tendency of Hong Kong people to take risks in order to return to their normal life.

Source: Inmedia #Feb11

https://bit.ly/3I06o49

#zeroCOVID #ChungKimWah #Covid19 #GatheringBan #PolicyMaking
Hong Kong Police Arrest #StandWithUkraine Citizens

A netizen uploaded a 11-second video on Twitter. The video showed a man and a woman, wrapped in Ukrainian flags, being taken away by police on March 24, 2022 in Central.

Hong Kong Police confirmed that they ticketed 5 people for violating the anti-gathering ban.

Video: https://mobile.twitter.com/virginiaylau/status/1506931402247671813

Source: Twitter; Ming Pao #Mar24

https://m.mingpao.com/ins/%e6%b8%af%e8%81%9e/article/20220325/s00001/1648136995410/%e4%b8%ad%e7%92%b0%e8%88%89%e6%94%af%e6%8c%81%e7%83%8f%e5%85%8b%e8%98%ad%e6%a8%99%e8%aa%9e-5%e7%94%b7%e5%a5%b3%e6%b6%89%e9%81%95%e9%99%90%e8%81%9a%e9%81%ad%e7%a5%a8%e6%8e%a7

#PoliceState #Suppression #GatheringBan #HongKongProtest
$90 Million HKD Collected in Anti-Pandemic Fines, Govt Data Shows

In response to the outbreak of #WuhanPneumonia in early 2020, the government enacted a series of social distancing measures, including a #GatheringBan, #MaskMandate, and mandatory use of the "#LeaveHomeSafe" contact tracing app. These regulations are part of the Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance, also known as Cap. 599.

From April 1, 2021 to Feb 28, 2022, police had issued 21,613 tickets against more than 1,100 individuals for Cap. 599 violations, collecting $89,980,000HKD in fines for the government.

The number of tickets issued, by regulation, are:

Gathering ban (599G): 13,525 tickets
Mask mandate (599I): 6102 tickets
Business and premises regulation (599F): 1986 tickets

Since the 5th wave of outbreak earlier this year, the number tickets for violating the mask mandate more than doubled, rising from January's 550 to February's 1909.

Source: In-Media HK
https://bit.ly/37enUnZ

Related news: a few instances when 599G and 599I tickets were issued:

Hong Kong Police Ticket 14 Pro-democracy Elderly for violating gathering ban, each fined for HK$5,000
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/27235

Hong Kong Police Accuse Civilians Queueing Up to Enter Courtroom of Breaching the Gathering Ban
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/28952

Carrie Lam Defends Top Officials for Violating Gathering Ban in Extravagant Banquet with Property Developer: "You can't just turn away after seeing abalone"
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/30485

#SocialDistancing #COVID19 #PoliceState
Report: Gathering Penalty Ticket has no effect on the Controlling Coronavirus Outbreak


Mingpao, a Hong Kong newspaper, compared the monthly enforcement figures of the "Prohibition on group gatherings" (Cap. 599G*) and "Compulsory mask-wearing" rule (Cap. 599I**).

It was found that the Hong Kong police issued 2,460 fixed penalty tickets on 599G in April 2021, highest in a single month, but there was only 60 confirmed local cases of Covid-19 infection in that month.

On the other hand, the maximum number of fixed penalty tickets on 599I was issued in March last year, when the 5th wave of the pandemic peaked.

Dr. Ho Pak-leung, President of the Carol Yu's Centre for Infection at the University of Hong Kong, believes that the variation in fixed penalty tickets issued is not correlated with that of infection cases, and the fixed penalty is not an effective way to control the pandemic.

According to Dr. Ho Pak-leung, the government stepped up the enforcement of the compulsory mask-wearing rule during the 5th wave of the pandemic, which led to a significant increase in the number of fixed penalty tickets. However, the variation in the group gatherings prohibition ticket issued is not correlated to the pandemic but is probably more related to places and police verbal warnings rather than pandemic risk assessment.

Ramon Yuen Hoi-man, a member of the Sham Shui Po District Council and the spokesman of the Democratic Party on medical policy, questions if it is necessary to issue fixed penalty tickets so relentlessly when the pandemic subsides, "the government should not make an impression that there's a hidden agenda proceed in the name public health".

* Prevention and Control of Disease (Prohibition on Gathering) Regulation

** Prevention and Control of Disease (Wearing of Mask) Regulation

Source: Mingpao #May19

#599G #599I #GatheringBan #FailedState

https://life.mingpao.com/general/article?issue=20220519&nodeid=1652897733454