“A human rights emergency”. Amnesty International’s judgment on the situation in Hong Kong one year after the entry into force of the disputed “national security law”, which provides for up to life imprisonment for those found guilty of the crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. According to the non-governmental organization, the law “has decimated the freedoms of the city and created an increasingly unprotected landscape on the human rights front.” The organization’s Asia-Pacific regional director, Yamini Mishra, said the law “is a pretext to justify censorship, arrests and prosecutions” and that it “has put Hong Kong on a quick path to becoming a police state ‘. He also added that “the indiscriminate and repressive legislation promoted by Beijing risks making Hong Kong a wasteland that increasingly resembles China in terms of respect for human rights”.
The Chinese government has denied the allegations, denouncing Amnesty’s claims of malice and defamatory intent. Foreign Minister spokesman Wang Wenbin further warned that “any attack aimed at discrediting the national security law will not stop Hong Kong’s general trend from chaos to order and order to prosperity.” Beijing’s priorities were also reiterated: “The Chinese government – added the spokesman – is determined to safeguard China’s sovereignty, security and development interests”.
Second Reuters, in the last year more than 100 people have been arrested in application of the law and over 60 those indicted for various reasons. Among them is Jimmy Lai, tycoon and a prominent pro-democracy activist in prison since last December on charges of “collusion” with foreign forces. Lai is the founder of Apple Daily, the tabloid that ceased publishing on June 24 following the arrest of 6 journalists and executives of the newspaper and a police raid in the editorial office. After the newspaper closed, another reporter was arrested at Hong Kong airport while trying to catch a plane to the UK.
Tomorrow, the media group to which Apple Daily belongs, Next Digital, will also cease its activities. In a note from the company, released by Reuters, we read: “Even if the road ahead of us is difficult, we will continue to move forward!”. A cry of hope, however, that comes on the day of the announcement of the cancellation, for the second consecutive year, of the pro-democracy demonstration on July 1st, which celebrates the return of the former British colony to China in 1997. The authorities they rejected the permit citing the risk of contagion, but the organizers protest arguing that “a compromise should be found between the right to health and the right to demonstrate, and not to suppress one of the two”.