Hong Kong Security Law

Hong Kong media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to one year in prison. The sentence was handed down on Friday. The reason is the media entrepreneur's role in the mass protests in the Chinese special administrative region, in which an estimated 1.7 million people took part in the summer of 2019. It is the first time Lai has been sentenced to prison.

The prominent activist Nathan Law left the country nine months ago because he faces political persecution in Hong Kong, Now he has been granted political asylum in Britain.

The 27-year-old former opposition MP reported on Twitter that his application had been approved after four months of consideration. "The fact that I am being sought under the National Security Act shows that I face severe political persecution and am unlikely to be able to return to Hong Kong without risk."

China continues to expand its influence over Hong Kong. An electoral law reform gives Beijing control over candidate selection in the Special Administrative Region's parliamentary elections, allowing it to exclude candidates who are not considered loyal.

President Xi Jinping ordered the publication of the electoral law change on Tuesday, the Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported. The changes to the Special Administrative Region's electoral system were approved by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Tam Yiu-chung, Hong Kong's sole delegate, told the AFP news agency.

China's People's Congress had launched the amendment to the Special Administrative Region's electoral law in mid-March. It is intended to ensure that Hong Kong can only be run by "patriots". In this way, Beijing wants to gain control over the selection of candidates. Among other things, the Chinese leadership is to be given veto rights to be able to exclude certain candidates.

The Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang announced on Tuesday that Hong Kong will introduce new requirements for district councilors to take an oath swearing to uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to the government. Behaviours that would be deemed incompliant include committing acts that endanger national security, as well as any refusal to recognise China's sovereignty over Hong Kong.

Up to 5.4 million people in Hong Kong could apply to the new visa and relocate to the UK. The government estimates 300,000 might apply in the next five years.

Hong Kong media reported that 53 pro-democracy activists have been arrested in connection with the unofficial primaries held last year by opposition forces ahead of the election to the Legislative Council, Hong Kong's parliament, which was later canceled due to the Corona pandemic. According to the report, those arrested were accused of endangering the state by participating in the primaries and the goals pursued there, and thus of violating the security law introduced at the end of June.

The Hong Kong Police Force has announced via their Twitter account that nine people have been arrested for alleged breaches of the national security law.

One of the arrested people is the freelance journalist Wilson Li who works for the UK-based television channel ITV. A spokesperson from ITV News has stated that: "We can confirm that Wilson Li works for ITV News in a freelance capacity. We are concerned to hear of his arrest and are urgently seeking clarification of the circumstances."

In addition to the arrests, the Hong Kong Police Force has raided and searched the office the media outlet Apple Daily.

The Hong Kong police have arrested Jimmy Lai on grounds of the new national security law in Hong Kong. According to a close aid of his, he has been arrested at 7am and lawyers have been sent to the police station.

The news agency AFP has stated that a police source has stated that Lai had been arrested for the alleged collusion with foreign forces and fraud. His house has been searched by the police, as well as the house of his son. Multiple other members of his group have reportedly been arrested.

Under the new national security law Hong Kong has issued multiple warrants for pro-democracy activists. Included in these warrants is one for managing director of the Hong Kong Democracy Council based in D.C., Samuel Chu.

Chu stated on his Twitter account that he heard about the arrest warrant from the media and that Hong Kong is searching for him for the alleged crimes of "inciting secession" and "colluding with foreign powers". He added that he is and has been for 25 years an American citizen.

Six other pro-democracy activists have gotten outstanding arrest warrants according to Chinese state media including the activist Nathan Law.

The German foreign minister Heiko Maas has announced that Germany will suspend the extradition treaty between Hong Kong and Germany as a consequence of the postponed Legislative Council General Election in Hong Kong.

Maas has stated that "the Hong Kong government’s decision to disqualify a dozen opposition candidates for the election and postpone the elections to the legislature is another infringement on the rights of the citizens of Hong Kong" adding that China needs to ensure international law and to provide free and fair elections.

According to a spokesperson of the Hong Kong government, twelve people have been disqualified from participating as candidates in the upcoming legislative election in September, including Joshua Wong.

The person stated that these people did not uphold basic law and that they aren't allowed to promote the independence of Hong Kong, seek intervention from foreign governments and show misdemeanour against the national security law.

In addition, the spokesperson said that "returning Officers are still reviewing the validity of other nominations according to the laws. We do not rule out the possibility that more nominations would be invalidated".

The pro-democracy activist and politician Joshua Wong has announced via his Twitter account that he has been disqualified from running in the upcoming 2020 Legislative Council General Election in Hong Kong. The elections are set to happen on the 6 September.

In a second tweet, Wong states that his criticism of the national security law is the reason why he has been disqualified despite getting over 30,000 votes in the democratic primary.

The real-estate tycoon Ivan Ko has proposed plans to build a city from scratch on Ireland between Dublin and Belfast for 50,000 emigrants from Hong Kong.

Originally he had planned to find a 500 sq km site to build his vision for 500,000 Hongkongers but drastically scaled that down after he talked to the Irish government. He stated that "we found out that replicating the Hong Kong model was not suitable, as if we were imposing something, and that Hong Kong people would be seen as segregated from the rest of the population. So we changed to another model".

The new city will be called Nextpolis and follow the political system of the host country and should integrate with local business as he wants to build a "new city to let Hong Kong people live together" and "maximise the benefits to both sides".

The United Kingdoms foreign secretary Dominic Raab has stated in an address to the parliament that the newly passed and enacted national security law is "a clear and serious violation of the UK-China joint declaration" and adding that the United Kingdom "will hold China to its international obligations".

The suspension of the extradition deal with Hong Kong is indefinitely and the arms embargo against China has been extended to include Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam has stated that "If this so-called primary election’s purpose is to achieve the ultimate goal of rejecting to, resisting every policy initiative of the Hong Kong SAR government, then it may fall into the category of subverting the state power" in regards to the pro-democracy camp’s primary election that happened over the past weekend. She added that coordinated efforts to subvert the state power is "is now one of the four types offences under the new national security law".

Despite a rising number of Covid-19 cases in Hong Kong over 600,000 citizens hat turned up to vote in the primaries. The result will be used as a reference for the selection of candidates of the democratic camp in five geographical constituencies of Hong Kong.

In response to the new security law imposed by China Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia will halt its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and visas will be extended by five years for Hong Kongers already in Australia.

This announcement comes right after Canada's suspension of their treaty with Hong Kong and Britain considering a similar move.

TikTok plans to pull out of the Hong Kong market after China imposed a new security law on the city that gives authorities sweeping new powers, raising concerns about data privacy.

A spokesman for the company told BBC: "In light of recent events, we've decided to stop operations of the TikTok app in Hong Kong,".

Other companies including Google, Facebook, Telegram and Twitter have suspended processing government access requests for user data in Hong Kong.

After being arrested for knocking over multiple police officers at the pro-democracy demonstration in Hong Kong last Wednesday, Tong Ying-kit has been denied to get out of jail on bail. The Hong Kong court referenced Article 42 of the new national security law in denying bail, claiming that the protester could continue to endanger national security. Tong Ying-kit had previously protested with a "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times" banner and then drove a motorbike into police officers.

Following the enactment of a new security law in Hong Kong, Facebook and its messaging service WhatsApp are suspending government requests for user data in Hong Kong.

A spokesperson from WhatsApp said that they are pausing such requests pending further assessment of the impact of the national security law, including formal human rights due diligence and consultations with human rights experts.

According to Hong Kong Free Press the messenger app Telegram has decided to temporarily not fulfill data requests of its users made by Hong Kong courts. The head of marketing for telegram, Mike Ravdonikas, has stated that "Telegram does not intend to process any data requests related to its Hong Kong users until an international consensus is reached in relation to the ongoing political changes in the city". The decision follows the enactment of the new national security law in Hong Kong.