NEWSLETTER: CFHK to co-host two panel events with the Henry Jackson Society and the Index on Censorship on the 25th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong
Welcome to the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK) weekly newsletter.
Every week, this newsletter will bring you the latest updates and developments concerning freedom in Hong Kong.
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Every week, this newsletter will bring you the latest updates and developments concerning freedom in Hong Kong.
To subscribe to our newsletter, click here.
Committee News
On Monday 27th of June, the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK) and the Henry Jackson Society will be co-hosting a panel event at the House of Commons, ’25 Years On: Hong Kong and the Suppression of Freedom’, in association with the Inter Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC). Speakers include Christine Jardine MP, CFHK President Mark Clifford, Finn Lau, an advocate-in-exile and one of the 2019 movement leaders, and Timothy Lee, a Hong Kong activist-in-exile and former elected politician. Register for the in-person event here.
On Tuesday 28th of June, CFHK and the Index on Censorship will be hosting a discussion in the House of Commons on the future of freedom of expression in Hong Kong. The panel includes people who all once called Hong Kong home, including CEO of Hong Kong Watch Benedict Rogers, Hong Kong journalist Kris Cheng, CFHK President Mark Clifford, Evan Fowler, a writer and researcher on Hong Kong and China, and activist and author Nathan Law. The discussion will be chaired by Index on Censorship’s current magazine editor, Jemimah Steinfield, who has previously lived in China. Register for the in-person event here.
Prisoners of Conscience
This week the Financial Times, published a powerful, lengthy profile piece on Claudia Mo, a prominent pro-democracy advocate, who alongside 46 other pro-democracy Hong Kong activists, has had her case sent to the High Court, 16 months after she was arrested. They have all been accused of “conspiracy to commit subversion” under the draconian National Security Law. If Mo, 64, is given the maximum sentence available there is a chance she could die in jail. Being left to die for simply standing up for democracy sounds absurd, but this is the reality for many pro-democracy activist currently imprisoned in Hong Kong.
Press
A report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), exposes how top women journalists and analysts, particular Chinese women, are facing an “ongoing, coordinated and large-scale online information campaign” on Twitter, reported VOA News. The think tank, which is based in Canberra, determined that the Twitter accounts behind the operation are likely another repetition of “Spamouflage,” a pro-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) network that Twitter attributed to Beijing in 2019.
John Lee
Incoming Hong Kong leader John Lee has threatened to adopt a more aggressive approach to countering “fearmongering and badmouthing” by critics of the CCP’s actions in city, noted the South China Morning Post. Lee, who is set to take office on July 1st, has been sanctioned by the US but has said that this will not stop him from promoting Hong Kong overseas, urging his incoming government to “go on the offensive”.
A number of overseas Hong Kong groups and former Hong Kong lawmakers have launched a joint online signature campaign against Hong Kong’s incoming leader John Lee. The Epoch Times reported that the campaign reasserts that Lee does not have the people’s mandate and is simply a puppet appointed by Beijing, and therefore should not be recognised as the Hong Kong Chief Executive.
In Other News
Over 8,500 Hong Kong students have applied for school places in the UK since last summer in an influx attributed to the BNO visa scheme which allows Hong Kongers to resettle in the UK, reported the South China Morning Post. Nottinghamshire, Kingston and Solihull are all cited in a report by the UK Government as the top three choices for resettlement.
Hong Kong has plunged further in a human rights ranking report published by the Human Rights Measurement Initiative. The Guardian reported that the fall in rankings now brings Hong Kong on par with Saudi Arabia in some indicators, and closer to converging with China as the Communist Party government deepens its control of the city. The report also highlighted that Hong Kong has some of the world’s lowest rankings for civil and political rights.
Lawyers representing Uighur Muslims who have fled abroad presented evidence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) this week. The evidence suggested that the CCP is undertaking a campaign of kidnappings across the globe to forcibly return Uighurs to China for indefinite detention, reported The Times. Rodney Dixon QC, the British barrister leading the case said, “evidence should be assembled and reviewed by the ICC for Uighurs and others being forced into China from ICC territories.”
Britain’s last governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten, has hit out at Chinese dictator Xi Jinping for vengefully cracking down on civic freedoms across the city and wielding the National Security Law to comprehensively breach the terms of the Sino-British Declaration, reported France 24. Lord Patten criticized the “big changes have come since 2012, 2013, 2014 since Xi Jinping’s been the dictator.”
Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University has become the fifth university to disavow its top democratic student body, leaving the group without “function or power”. The University decided to ban the Union from its campus citing the Beijing-imposed National Security Law framework, reported the Hong Kong Free Press. The student group has sadly now determined that disbandment may be the best option, following legal advice.
On Monday 27th of June, the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK) and the Henry Jackson Society will be co-hosting a panel event at the House of Commons, ’25 Years On: Hong Kong and the Suppression of Freedom’, in association with the Inter Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC). Speakers include Christine Jardine MP, CFHK President Mark Clifford, Finn Lau, an advocate-in-exile and one of the 2019 movement leaders, and Timothy Lee, a Hong Kong activist-in-exile and former elected politician. Register for the in-person event here.
On Tuesday 28th of June, CFHK and the Index on Censorship will be hosting a discussion in the House of Commons on the future of freedom of expression in Hong Kong. The panel includes people who all once called Hong Kong home, including CEO of Hong Kong Watch Benedict Rogers, Hong Kong journalist Kris Cheng, CFHK President Mark Clifford, Evan Fowler, a writer and researcher on Hong Kong and China, and activist and author Nathan Law. The discussion will be chaired by Index on Censorship’s current magazine editor, Jemimah Steinfield, who has previously lived in China. Register for the in-person event here.
Prisoners of Conscience
This week the Financial Times, published a powerful, lengthy profile piece on Claudia Mo, a prominent pro-democracy advocate, who alongside 46 other pro-democracy Hong Kong activists, has had her case sent to the High Court, 16 months after she was arrested. They have all been accused of “conspiracy to commit subversion” under the draconian National Security Law. If Mo, 64, is given the maximum sentence available there is a chance she could die in jail. Being left to die for simply standing up for democracy sounds absurd, but this is the reality for many pro-democracy activist currently imprisoned in Hong Kong.
Press
A report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), exposes how top women journalists and analysts, particular Chinese women, are facing an “ongoing, coordinated and large-scale online information campaign” on Twitter, reported VOA News. The think tank, which is based in Canberra, determined that the Twitter accounts behind the operation are likely another repetition of “Spamouflage,” a pro-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) network that Twitter attributed to Beijing in 2019.
John Lee
Incoming Hong Kong leader John Lee has threatened to adopt a more aggressive approach to countering “fearmongering and badmouthing” by critics of the CCP’s actions in city, noted the South China Morning Post. Lee, who is set to take office on July 1st, has been sanctioned by the US but has said that this will not stop him from promoting Hong Kong overseas, urging his incoming government to “go on the offensive”.
A number of overseas Hong Kong groups and former Hong Kong lawmakers have launched a joint online signature campaign against Hong Kong’s incoming leader John Lee. The Epoch Times reported that the campaign reasserts that Lee does not have the people’s mandate and is simply a puppet appointed by Beijing, and therefore should not be recognised as the Hong Kong Chief Executive.
In Other News
Over 8,500 Hong Kong students have applied for school places in the UK since last summer in an influx attributed to the BNO visa scheme which allows Hong Kongers to resettle in the UK, reported the South China Morning Post. Nottinghamshire, Kingston and Solihull are all cited in a report by the UK Government as the top three choices for resettlement.
Hong Kong has plunged further in a human rights ranking report published by the Human Rights Measurement Initiative. The Guardian reported that the fall in rankings now brings Hong Kong on par with Saudi Arabia in some indicators, and closer to converging with China as the Communist Party government deepens its control of the city. The report also highlighted that Hong Kong has some of the world’s lowest rankings for civil and political rights.
Lawyers representing Uighur Muslims who have fled abroad presented evidence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) this week. The evidence suggested that the CCP is undertaking a campaign of kidnappings across the globe to forcibly return Uighurs to China for indefinite detention, reported The Times. Rodney Dixon QC, the British barrister leading the case said, “evidence should be assembled and reviewed by the ICC for Uighurs and others being forced into China from ICC territories.”
Britain’s last governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten, has hit out at Chinese dictator Xi Jinping for vengefully cracking down on civic freedoms across the city and wielding the National Security Law to comprehensively breach the terms of the Sino-British Declaration, reported France 24. Lord Patten criticized the “big changes have come since 2012, 2013, 2014 since Xi Jinping’s been the dictator.”
Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University has become the fifth university to disavow its top democratic student body, leaving the group without “function or power”. The University decided to ban the Union from its campus citing the Beijing-imposed National Security Law framework, reported the Hong Kong Free Press. The student group has sadly now determined that disbandment may be the best option, following legal advice.