Category: South Asia

National security police in Hong Kong have arrested four people including Cardinal Joseph Zen and pop star Denise Ho on suspicion of “collusion with foreign powers” after they acted as trustees for a legal defense fund for democracy protesters. Hui Po-keung, another trustee of the now-disbanded 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, which helped arrested protesters pay for their legal and medical bills, was arrested at Hong Kong’s international airport on Tuesday. Zen, a 90-year-old retired Catholic bishop who has long been an outspoken defender of human rights, democracy and civil liberties, Cantopop singer Denise Ho and barrister Margaret Ng were also arrested on the same charge. Some reports said former pro-democracy lawmaker Cyd Ho, who is currently on remand awaiting trial in a different case, and who was also a trustee, would also likely face the same charge. The national security police confirmed they had arrested two men and two women aged 45 to 90, on suspicion of “conspiracy to collude with foreign powers.” Zen was released after several hours of questioning, the Hong Kong Free Press said via its Twitter account. The Vatican said in a statement reported by the Catholic News Agency that it was following the case closely. “The Holy See has learned with concern the news of the arrest of Cardinal Zen and is following the development of the situation with extreme attention,” the Holy See press office said. The 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund was set up on June 15, 2019, at the height of the anti-extradition movement that broadened to include demands for fully democratic elections and greater official accountability. Its aim was to provide humanitarian relief in the form of funding for medical, psychological, legal and other necessary assistance to those injured or arrested during the police crackdown on the protest movement. The fund disbanded in August 2021 because it no longer had access to a bank account because the Alliance for Democracy that had processed its funding had been suspended. Both groups were later ordered to provide information to national security police on their sources of funding and their donors, under a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020. Cardinal Joseph Zen attends the Episcopal Ordination of the Most Reverend Stephen Chow in Hong Kong’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 4, 2021. Credit: AFP. ‘Brutal crackdown’ The law criminalized calls on the international community for sanctions on Hong Kong and Chinese officials, overseas lobbying or fundraising on behalf of the pro-democracy movement, and criticism of the authorities deemed to incite public anger or “hatred” against the government. The U.K.-based rights group Hong Kong Watch said four trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund had been arrested, naming Ng, Denise Ho, Cardinal Zen and Hui. “We condemn the arrests of these activists whose supposed crime was funding legal aid for pro-democracy protesters back in 2019,” the group’s chief executive Benedict Rogers said in a statement on the group’s website. “Today’s arrests signal beyond a doubt that Beijing intends to intensify its crackdown on basic rights and freedoms in Hong Kong,” the statement said. “We urge the international community to shine a light on this brutal crackdown and call for the immediate release of these activists.” The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) also hit out at the arrests, which came days after pro-Beijing security hardliner John Lee was anointed leader of Hong Kong in a one-candidate election that analysts said erased most significant differences between the once free city and the Communist Party-run mainland. “These arrests mark a new and deeply worrying phase in the crackdown upon what remains of Hong Kong’s civil society,” it said in a statement. “John Lee, Hong Kong’s new chief executive, is posing a direct challenge to the international community and the autonomy promised to Hong Kong under international law,” IPAC said, calling for the immediate release of those arrested. “Mere words are no longer enough,” it said. “We also call upon our governments to impose targeted sanctions on John Lee, and others involved in these persecutions.” New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) also called for the immediate release of those arrested, and for the charges against them to be dropped, China researcher Maya Wang said via her Twitter account. Meanwhile, a U.S.-based rights group went ahead with the 2022 Human Rights Press Awards after they were canceled by the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC), citing legal risks under the national security law. “On #WorldPressFreedomDay, we declare that the freedom of the press will NOT be canceled,” Campaign for Hong Kong founder and president Simon Chu said via Twitter. “Help recognize journalists who told the truth courageously and those who can no longer report freely.” Hong Kong Cantopop singer, actress and LGBT activist Denise Ho posing for a photograph with protesters during a #MeToo rally calling on the Hong Kong police to answer accusations of sexual violence against pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, August 28, 2019. Credit: AFP Xi is a ‘pathetic coward’ A petition calling on FCC president Keith Richburg to have a more public conversation about the controversial decision had garnered some 170 signatures its organizers said were journalists, including many former winners of the awards. (Disclosure: Richburg is a member of RFA’s board of directors). “More than 170 journalists signed the petition, 25 are reportedly this years’ awardees & over 20 of us are the former winners of the Awards. We emailed the FCC on 29 April, 3 May and today,” a Twitter account called @lettertofcc said on May 10. “I think we need to at least acknowledge that there are still journalists in Hong Kong who stick to their day-to-day reporting, and say that we stand with them, that we take note of them and their work, and thank them for that,” Yuen Chan, a senior lecturer on London’s City University journalism program, told RFA. She said simply saying that press freedom was dead was too pessimistic an approach for people who are still working as journalists in the…

Ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) censors rushed to delete comments by the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) criticizing its zero-COVID policy as unsustainable from social media platforms in China on Wednesday. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on China to change its approach, saying CCP leader Xi Jinping’s favored policy “will not be sustainable” in the face of new fast-spreading variants of the virus. Tedros’ comments were deleted from Weibo and ignored by China’s tightly controlled state media. But foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian hit back at a news conference on Wednesday. “We hope the relevant individual can view Chinese COVID policy objectively and rationally and know the facts, instead of making irresponsible remarks,” Zhao said. CCP commentator Hu Xijin said Tedros should “respect China.” “When he speaks specifically about China, he should think whether his words will have a positive effect on promoting solidarity in the fight against COVID-19 in China,” Hu, a former editor-in-chief of the CCP-backed Global Times, said via his Twitter account. Keyword searches on Weibo for “Tedros” in Chinese, as well as the equivalent abbreviation to WHO yielded no results on Wednesday, while users were unable to share an article about his comments from an official U.N. account, Agence France-Presse reported. Prior to their deletion, Tedros’ comments had drawn a number of positive responses, with people wanting to know if the government would listen. The censorship came as the majority of Shanghai’s 26 million residents remained under a grueling lockdown, walled into their apartment buildings and homes with steel fencing, with major transportation routes and services shut down, as many still struggled to access food, essential supplies and urgently needed medical treatment. China insists that its zero-COVID strategy is the only way to prevent a massive death toll from COVID, as has been seen in other countries. Researchers at Shanghai’s Fudan University published a paper in the scientific journal Nature on Tuesday saying that allowing the omicron variant to tear through the population would likely result in 1.6 million deaths and the collapse of rural healthcare systems. A worker disinfects the queue area of a swab test collection site for Covid-19 coronavirus in Beijing, May 11, 2022. Credit: AFP. Distancing from China But critics say the policy is the result of Xi wanting to boost his domestic image as a leader who can succeed by doing things differently from liberal democracies ahead of the CCP’s 20th National Congress later this year. Lee Lung-teng, a high-ranking health minister in Taiwan’s government during the 2003 SARS epidemic, said Tedros appeared to be distancing himself from his previously cozy relationship with Beijing. “He had been helping them clean up their image and acting as if they were doing it right, but maybe he is coming under pressure from someone else, who could be threatening to withdraw their support for him if he continues to be so biased in favor of China,” Lee told RFA. “Maybe he can’t bear [not to speak out] any longer.” “Everywhere else is gradually opening up, so isn’t it a bit strange that they are still talking about zero-COVID … when a situation with no infections would be impossible,” he said. Ren Ruihong, former head of the medical assistance department at the Chinese Red Cross, said Xi is keen to tout his “victory” over the COVID-19 pandemic when he seeks an unprecedented third term in office at the 20th party congress. “The 20th CCP National Congress is happening soon,” Ren said. “International focus is on whether or not Xi Jinping can get another term in office.” “If he abandons the zero-COVID policy now, it will be tantamount to abandoning his own political platform … basically everyone understands that it’s a political necessity [for Xi].” A Shanghai resident surnamed Ma agreed, saying the city’s officials seem to be constantly changing how they implement the zero-COVID directives from higher up. “The decrees are changing daily, sometimes twice a day,” Ma said. “Different instructions are coming from different leaders.” “Nobody can figure out the rules. There aren’t any,” she said. “First they said we have to do a PCR test every five days, then it was seven.” “We were supposed to be out of lockdown by May 1, but now it’s mid-May and we’re still not out of it; nobody knows when it will end now,” Ma said. Losing patience in Shanghai Shanghai residents are increasingly unwilling to toe the line on mass testing amid a string of false positives reported on social media. “People aren’t scared of the virus at all now, but the rule of law has been completely destroyed,” Ma said. “The law is what the officials say it is.” “There’s no humanity, even if you’re sick or elderly: I think it’s worse than during the Cultural Revolution,” she said. In one video clip uploaded to social media, residents of Beicai township in Shanghai’s Pudong New District yell at officials for trying to get them to go to a makeshift “hospital” that was actually rows of tents. “Is this a place to house human beings?” one person shouts. “These tents would blow over in a strong wind.” Social media reports said private taxis are currently charging 3,000 yuan per pickup; 12,000 for airport transfers, after the city’s subway network was shut down. People also posted video showing officials in full PPE removing food from a large refrigerator in an apartment they had allegedly come to “disinfect.” Many social media accounts have been shut down permanently during the Shanghai lockdown. Retired Shanghai teacher Gu Guoping said several of his accounts have been shut down after he criticized the government. “My WeChat account has been blocked by the internet police and Tencent six or seven times, even after I changed my phone number,” Gu told RFA. “This means that I have been cut of from various sources of information, and I have very limited access to information that is local to Shanghai,” he said. The shutdowns came as the Shanghai Cyberspace Administration repeated calls for social media content users…

Hong Kong’s one-horse leadership poll, which selected former security chief John Lee — the only candidate — for the city’s top job at the weekend, has wiped out any distinction between the city and the rest of mainland China, commentators said on Monday. Lee, a former police officer who oversaw a violent crackdown on the 2019 protest movement, was “elected” by a Beijing-backed committee under new rules imposed on the city to ensure that only those loyal to the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can hold public office. Ninety-nine percent of the 1,500-strong committee voted for Lee, who was the only candidate on the slate. Lee, who takes office on July 1, the anniversary of the 1997 handover to China, vowed to “start a new chapter” in Hong Kong, which has seen waves of mass, popular protest over the erosion of the city’s promised freedoms in recent years. He also denied that anyone had been detained or imprisoned for “speech crimes” under a draconian national security law imposed on the city by Beijing from July 1, 2020, saying that people were only taken to court because of their “actions.” Incumbent chief executive Carrie Lam said Saturday‘s “election” showed why a citywide crackdown on dissent and political opposition, which included the changes to electoral processes, was needed. “[The] chief executive election was very important, because … it meant we were able to fully implement a political system in which Hong Kong is ruled by patriots,” Lam told reporters. She thanked Beijing for restoring “stability” in Hong Kong with the national security law and the electoral changes. The national security law ushered in a citywide crackdown on public dissent and criticism of the authorities that has seen several senior journalists, pro-democracy media magnate Jimmy Lai and 47 former lawmakers and democracy activists charged with offenses from “collusion with a foreign power” to “subversion.” “National security education” — a CCP-style propaganda drive targeting all age-groups from kindergarten to university — is also mandatory under the law, while student unions and other civil society groups have disbanded, with some of their leaders arrested in recent months. Chan Po-ying (2nd R) of the League of Social Democrats waits as police question two of her colleagues before they hold a protest against the selection process of the city’s chief executive in Hong Kong , May 8, 2022. Credit: RFA. ‘Steady erosion of political and civil rights’ In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. criticized Lee’s “election” as “part of a continued assault on political pluralism and fundamental freedoms.” “The current nomination process and resulting appointment … further erode the ability of Hongkongers to be legitimately represented. We are deeply concerned about this steady erosion of political and civil rights and Hong Kong’s autonomy,” they said. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Lee’s selection had “violated democratic principles and political pluralism in Hong Kong.” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Beijing believed that Lee would lead a new administration and the people of Hong Kong to “a new prospect of good governance.” A Taiwan-based Hongkonger who have only the surname Wong said the city had entered a “new era,” referencing the political ideology of CCP leader Xi Jinping. “What is this era? It is one of rule by a military regime and of white terror of a kind that Taiwan has seen before; an era of dictatorship,” Wong said. “I don’t think there is any more room for breakthroughs or changes to the way things are developing for civil society in Hong Kong, or to the system,” he said. “There’s no going back from this.” A former 2019 protester who gave only the nickname Joker said he had also left his home city for democratic Taiwan, and has no prospect of going back there any time soon. “It makes no difference to me whether John Lee comes to power or not; the government has had no respect for us since [the protests],” he said. “For me, Hong Kong is no longer the Hong Kong I once knew. It is no longer our home.” Former Causeway Bay bookstore manager Lam Wing-kei, also exiled in Taiwan, said the process had accelerated quicker than he had expected. “Things are worse in Hong Kong than I had previously thought they would get,” Lam told RFA. “It’s just like … [the rest of China] … The main thing now is obedience; obeying orders from central government,” ‘A tragedy for Hong Kong’ Taiwan-based current affairs commentator Sang Pu said Lee is likely to take an even harder line on matters deemed “national security” by Beijing than Carrie Lam. “John Lee is a security chief, not a decision-maker; he’s the white glove [concealing the iron fist] of the CCP,” Sang told RFA. “It’s clear from his record that he has a tough style, and may be even more vicious than either Carrie Lam or [her predecessor] Leung Chun-ying.” “[For example,] I understand that prisons in Hong Kong are becoming more and more indistinguishable from prisons in China,” he said. “I think CCP will seize even more control of Hong Kong in future, with religion, families and communities deeply impacted … no different from Xinjiang or the Soviet Union.” “This is a tragedy for Hong Kong.” Huang Chieh-chung, associate professor of international affairs and strategy at Taiwan’s Tamkang University, said Lee will also likely preside over even harsher national security legislation under Article 23 of Hong Kong’s Basic Law. He said it was a move in the wrong direction. “The best thing would be for Beijing to govern Hong Kong as little as possible, and let the people of Hong Kong decide what the [differences between Hong Kong and China are],” Huang said. “The more Hongkongers have a right to speak up, the better.” Fan Shih-ping, professor at the Institute of Politics at Taiwan Normal University, said any distinction between Hong Kong and mainland China has been eroded with Lee’s accession to power. “Hong Kong…