Day: February 9, 2022

Hong Kong’s government on Wednesday “strongly condemned” criticism from 21 governments of its crackdown on independent media under the national security law.

“The [Hong Kong] government … strongly condemned a totally erroneous statement issued by the United Kingdom government … under the so-called “Media Freedom Coalition” concerning the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law,” it said in a statement.

The Media Freedom Coalition, which groups 21 governments including Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the U.K. and the United States, hit out at a recent national security raid on the offices of Stand News, the arrests of its staff, and the subsequent self-closure of Citizen News.

“Since the enactment of the National Security Law in June 2020, authorities have targeted and suppressed independent media in … Hong Kong,” the statement said. ” This has … caused the near-complete disappearance of local independent media outlets in Hong Kong.”

“These ongoing actions further undermine confidence in Hong Kong’s international reputation through the suppression of human rights, freedom of speech and free flow and exchange of opinions and information,” the group said, calling on the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Hong Kong authorities to respect freedom of press and freedom of speech, which were promised under the terms of the 1997 handover to Chinese rule.

The Hong Kong government said the claims were typical of “fact-twisting and opinionated attacks” on the law, which was imposed on the city by the CCP from July 1, 2020, and which it said had “restored stability in society.”

Media experts said the closure of Stand and Citizen News is already having an impact on the free flow of information in Hong Kong.

Francis Lee, dean of the school of journalism and communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), said many people feel as if their flow of news has been cut off, not least because they were used to subscribing to certain feeds and receiving push notifications to their mobile devices.

“When Stand News and Citizen News were still around, not that many people actually typed the … URL into their browser or clicked on it: very few people, actually,” Lee told RFA. “So now people are feeling as if there is no news being pushed to their device, and they’re not used to taking the initiative to go and seek out the news.”

Red lines

Another casualty of the crackdown is likely to be investigative journalism, Lee said.

“When people dig up [dirt], it’s usually, to a certain extent, to prevent the abuse of power,” he said. “When you have investigative reporting, it functions as a social mechanism … to let those in power … know that someone is watching them.”

“When the media loses its monitoring power, then society loses it too, and then there are fewer checks and balances on those in power, and more problematic behaviors,” Lee said. “Then you have more abuse of power and more corruption.”

A journalism student who gave only the name Peter said he hadn’t given up on his ambition to become a journalist in Hong Kong, however.

“I don’t think one should give up on that idea just because of things change for the worse,” Peter said. “The worse things get, the more there is to write about.”

“Nobody knows exactly where the red lines lie, but there are a lot of topics that need to be reported on.”

But former Stand News freelancer Alvin Chan, who has started his own personal journalism page, said part of the problem is the lack of platform, and the increasing difficulty of earning a living.

“Relying on my page isn’t going to be much use [for readers],” Chan said. “I only have two hands, and I don’t know how long I can carry on like this.”

“I keep wondering if they’re going to delete my page … All I’m doing is giving out placebos for a short period of time, so people feel as if somebody is still trying,” he said. “I can’t be the solution, though.”

Fewer sensitive stories

Lee agreed, adding that an entire media ecosystem is necessary for genuine press freedom, citing the role of the now-shuttered pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper in breaking such stories.

“The most critical media organizations will generally report the most sensitive stories,” Lee said. “So when Apple Daily broke a story, the Ming Pao, the South China Morning Post and the Hong Kong Economic Journal were forced to follow up.”

“They couldn’t just pretend it didn’t exist.”

He said he fully expects there to be less reporting of court cases linked to the 2019 protest movement now that Stand and Citizen News have shut down.

The Media Freedom Coalition statement came after hundreds of Hong Kong activists took to the streets of London and 10 other U.K. cities to protest against ongoing suppression of press freedom.

Former trade union leader Mung Siu Tat, who is now living in the U.K., said he had fled the city to escape the crackdown on dissent under the law, which bans speech deemed to “incite hatred” against the government.

“It was like a fire exit for me,” Mung said of the U.K.’s British National Overseas (BNO) visa scheme allowing up to three million eligible Hong Kong residents a pathway to emigration in Britain. “Hong Kong was like the burning building, and the fire is just getting worse and worse; it was a chance to get away from a disaster zone.”

He said Hongkongers’ identities would remain, regardless of their location.

“This identity is irreplaceable,” Mung told RFA in a recent interview. “It’s not determined by the color of your passport or where you live. It’s based on what you think and what you believe; on your culture and values.”

“I may no longer be in Hong Kong, but I still want them to know that my attitude hasn’t changed: I still want to fight alongside them,” he said.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

A Uyghur who studied in Japan as a graduate student and worked at a restaurant chain in China’s far-western Xinjiang region after he returned home was detained at his residence by local police in late 2021, local Uyghur sources said.

At the time of his disappearance, Abduhelil Abdurehim lived in the Lijing residential complex on Union Road in Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi (in Chinese, Wulumuqi) and was working at the Uyghur restaurant chain Herembagh, where he was responsible for updating information on the company’s website.

His brother, Abdusemi Abdurehim, who now lives in Japan, said he lost contact with Abduhelil in November 2021 and began to worry about his safety when he noticed that Herembagh’s website was no longer being updated.

Abdusemi suspected that authorities may have detained his brother because Abduhelil also stopped communicating via his WeChat messaging app.

The last time he was in contact with his brother on WeChat was on June 12, along with their sister, Abdusemi said.

“He said he was fine and working,” said Abdusemi. “On June 26, when we sent him a WeChat message, he didn’t respond.”

When Abdusemi and the sister contacted Abduhelil’s wife to inquire about his brother, she told him that his phone was not working and he took it to be repaired.

“If it takes longer, then he might get a new one and he will contact you then,” she told Abdusemi.

“After hearing that explanation, we felt suspicious because a similar incident happened to him in 2020,” Abdusemi told RFA.

“I also found out that Herembagh stopped putting new information on its website since Dec. 10 of last year,” he said. “I then suspected that something happened to my brother.”

Chinese authorities have arrested numerous Uyghur intellectuals, prominent businessmen, and cultural and religious figures in Xinjiang as well as Uyghurs who have lived abroad for years as part of a campaign to control members of the mostly Muslim minority group and, purportedly, to prevent religious extremism and terrorist activities.

The purges are among the abusive and repressive Chinese government policies that have been determined by the United States and other countries as constituting genocide against the Uyghurs.

When RFA contacted Herembagh, an employee in the company’s human resources department, who did not provide a name, said he could not recall that someone named Abduhelil Abdurehim worked there. The employee said he would check the department files, but did not resume the call.

RFA also contacted security personnel at Abduhelil’s residential complex and was told that he had stopped working and was being held in detention.

“He stopped working his job,” said a security staffer who did not give his name. “It’s been quite a while, I believe. From last winter on.”

The staffer also said that Abduhelil had been detained by police from the Ghalibiyet (Shengli) police station in Urumqi, though they did not state the reason for his arrest when they met with security personnel at the residential complex.

The staffer declined to discuss details about what information the police asked for.

“I can’t talk about this,” he said.

Local police had summoned Abduhelil to the police station several times prior to his detention in November 2021 and were checking his mobile phone, his brother told RFA.

After Abduhelil graduated from Xinjiang University in 1998, he worked for a television station in his hometown of Kelpin (Keping) county, Aksu (Akesu) prefecture in southern Xinjiang, for a year, Abdusemi said.

A year later, Abduhelil went to Japan to study for a master’s and a doctoral degree at Chiba University in the city of the same name. There he pursued computer studies and was involved in Uyghur-language research in Japan.

Abduhelil returned to Xinjiang in 2010, settling in the region’s capital Urumqi where he worked for several computer companies in the following years before his stint at Herembagh.

Translated by RFA’s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Authorities in Hong Kong on Wednesday announced a ban on public gatherings of more than two people, with the “LeaveHomeSafe” tracker app required to get into supermarkets, public markets, hair salons and places of worship, prompting long lines to form on the streets as people rushed to get a haircut before the restrictions took effect.

The gathering ban followed a “drastic deterioration of the epidemic situation in Hong Kong,” the government said in a statement, which will effectively only allow those who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and who are willing to use the tracker app to go shopping or use other businesses.

“The … restriction on the number of persons allowed per group gathering in a public place will be reduced from four to two,” the statement said, adding that private gatherings involving more than two households will also be banned, while cafes, restaurants and other catering businesses will be limited to takeout only unless they operate the LeaveHomeSafe tracker system.

The owner of a Tsuen Wan district barber shop said she would be forced to close during the restrictions.

“My main feeling is that I want to say something rude … because we shouldn’t be affected by this,” the owner, who gave only the name Elisa, said. “It doesn’t take very long to serve a customer, and they don’t stay her for very long, so … I don’t think the measures need to be this tight.”

She hopes the emergency restrictions will only last for their initial 14-day period.

“We can just about wait it out for two weeks, but not for another two weeks after that,” she said.

A customer surnamed Fong agreed.

“I don’t think the risk is that big,” he said. “They sterilize everything … and I wear a mask, so I don’t think the risk of infection is that great.”

Under the new rules, masks will be mandatory on public transportation, although the majority of people were already wearing them anyway.

“Any person who participates in a prohibited group gathering; organizes a prohibited group gathering; owns, controls or operates the place of such a gathering; and knowingly allows the taking place of such gathering commits an offense … are liable to a maximum fine of H.K.$25,000 and imprisonment for six months,” the government warned, although fixed-penalty tickets of H.K.$5,000 may be paid instead.

‘Zero-COVID’

The restrictions came as the city’s government struggled to contain community transmission of the omicron variant of COVID-19 despite the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) insistence on a “zero-COVID” policy nationwide.

Local cases were reported at 1,161 on Wednesday, with only eight cases known to be brought in from overseas, with two deaths, two in a critical condition, and three seriously ill, the Hospital Authority said.

The rise in cases has prompted the evacuation of some care homes, while the public is being warned not to go to emergency rooms at public hospitals if they have tested positive for COVID-19, with occupancy rates already around 90 percent in many hospitals.

Long lines have also been forming this week outside testing centers, amid a citywide testing program that has tested some 1.7 million people so far.

Many of those tested have been subject to compulsory testing orders as part of targeted lockdowns of residential complexes in different neighborhoods around the city.

Zhao Yantao, an adjunct associate professor at the School of Biomedical Sciences at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and founder of testing contractor Xiangda Biotechnology said the testing regime has so far been too inefficient to catch all of the cases.

“There is a risk of reinfection because people move around, and the viral load varies greatly over time, so it can show as negative today and positive tomorrow,” Zhao told RFA. “This is more of a pilot for the nationwide testing program, to educate people.”

The strategy is in stark contrast with that of Singapore, where the authorities have long since abandoned any hope of a “zero-COVID” strategy, although there are still some restrictions on the size of groups dining at restaurants.

Some 90 percent of adults have already received two doses of vaccine, as proof of vaccination is a requirement for many activities, including attending some workplaces and dining in at restaurants.

Nonetheless, Liang Wannian of the National Health Commission in Beijing has said that the “zero-COVID” strategy is still the best approach for Hong Kong.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.