Day: March 7, 2023

Battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, the military coup and an ensuing civil war, Myanmar’s school system is in shambles. The number of high school students taking a key exam has plunged 80%, parents, teachers and educational experts say.

To protest against the February 2021 coup, some 300,000 teachers and other school staffers walked off their jobs at government-run schools as part of the Civil Disobedience Movement, leaving schools severely understaffed. In response, the junta has suspended more than 11,000 academic staffers and about 125,000 teachers and professors, according to U.S. government data.

Subsequent fighting between the army and rebel groups has displaced thousands, making schooling extremely difficult. Many other families have stopped sending their children to school because they don’t trust the junta, or have sent them to schools run by the shadow National Unity Government.

“People no longer trust their education system,” said a teacher who, like others in this report, refused to be named for security reasons. “And now with the online federal schools and other non-military-operated schools, children can consider what is better for them and which education system can give them more knowledge and skills.” 

“That’s why we see that there are fewer and fewer students who are taking the tenth-grade exam in the junta’s schools,” he said.

During the 2019-20 academic year, when the civilian-led National League for Democracy was still in power, nearly 970,800 students sat for the 10th grade matriculation exam, a benchmark for the country’s educated workforce for decades.

The following year, that number slipped to 312,300, and during the current 2022-23 year, fewer than 179,800 students took the exam, according to the junta’s education data.

Reforms on hold

The coup also put on hold educational reforms that were being carried out by the former NLD government, including increasing budgets for schooling and implementing a strategic plan to transform the country’s education system and improve learning at all levels.

In June 2022, when the Ministry of Education ordered the reopening of primary, middle and high schools across the country for in-person classes for the 2022-2023 academic year, over 7 million of the country’s roughly 12 million students returned to the classroom, according to junta Education Minister Nyunt Pe. 

Some of the remaining 5 million students across the country do not attend the schools run by the junta, while some primary, middle and high school teachers say they have not returned to their schools because they do not want to work under the military administration. 

Ongoing fighting between the military and ethnic armed groups in conjunction with anti-coup People’s Defense Forces in some of Myanmar’s states and regions have prevented students from attending school.

In response, the shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, had set up its own schools throughout the country. 

“As many areas of several states and regions are war zones, exams cannot be held and there are no students to take them,” said Kyaw Ye Lwin, a committee member of NUG’s Federal Democratic Education Cooperation Network. 

“Another thing is that NUG has strengthened its educational system on the ground,” he said, with students who attend federal schools trying to take the basic education completion assessment test administered by the NUG’s Ministry of Education. “Due to these factors, the number of students in schools under the junta administration has decreased.”

Separate exam

NUG Education Minister Zaw Wai Soe said that the shadow government is implementing an interim education system throughout the country, and about 90,000 students are taking its own tenth-grade exam. 

“We hold practical exams for students in the areas where NUG is in control,” he told RFA. “We hold digital and internet-based exams in the areas where we are not in control yet. We are trying to implement online, practical and digital classes and exams for students in the areas away from our control, too.”  

Residents in Sagaing and Magway regions, where fighting has intensified, have set up their own community-based schools so that local teachers can prepare students for the matriculation exam.

“Since the education system here in our area is in accordance with the federal education system, schools here can offer their own lessons,” said a teacher at a community-based school in Magway. 

“It’s rather independent,” she said. “There are several different exam designs, too. There are many NUG-recognized schools in Magway, [but] there are hardly any students studying for the exams in the junta schools.”

A parent of a student from Magway’s Yesagyo township told RFA that he enrolled his children in community-based schools because teachers there provide extra help to students. 

“The difference between the junta’s schools and our community-based schools is that our community-based schools focus on the people and teach students very well,” he said. “If students need more help, teachers give them more revision time and teach them at their homes, too.” 

‘Conflict zone’

Residents of a village in Sagaing region, a hotbed of resistance in northwestern Myanmar, set up a primary school there for children who could not attend state-run schools due to the hostilities, said the school’s founder.

She and four permanent teachers as well as other educators from the Civil Disobedience Movement teach about 150 students at the primary school which opened in June 2022 under the auspices of the NUG, she said.

“Since we are in a conflict zone and a war refugee zone, there are no other schools here,” she told RFA. 

“We can now teach music, art and the curriculum to our children,” she said. “Many stationery and teaching accessories are donated to us by well-wishers from faraway places.”  

So far, parents of schoolchildren do not seem daunted by an announcement by the junta via state-run media networks on March 1 that authorities will take action against them under the Counterterrorism Law if they enroll students in online schools managed by the NUG. The junta also said that parents must enroll their children only in the junta schools and private schools recognized by the military.

But the teacher at the primary school in a village in Sagaing said children know they have a right to education no matter where they live, regardless of such threats.

“Issuing politicizing orders to stop such rights of the schools and children from benefiting is a very vulgar act,” she said.

Meanwhile, junta-run schools are coping with manpower shortages by piling up work on educators. 

“We have to teach eight classes a day,” one high school educator said. “In the past, we could rest for two or three class periods as break time during which we could prepare the lesson plans for the next classes. We used to have extra time to study and preview the lessons before we went into each class.  But now, we have very little extra time.”

And new teachers entering the profession are not receiving adequate training, she said.

“With only two days of skill training, teachers cannot be qualified to teach,” the educator said. ‘They do not know their subjects very well. Now we have to coordinate with each other and learn to teach these classes.”

Translated by Myo Min Aung for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

The White House has announced its support for a new bipartisan bill to allow the U.S. secretary of commerce to ban foreign-owned technology like TikTok. The announcement came Tuesday as the bill was being introduced by a group of eight senators from both parties.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement that the Biden administration backed the “urgent” passage of the Senate’s new “Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act,” or RESTRICT Act, which would grant the executive branch the legal authority to ban TikTok.

Such a bill, Sullivan said, would “empower the United States government to prevent certain foreign governments from exploiting technology services operating in the United States in a way that poses risks to Americans’ sensitive data and our national security.”

Speaking during the press conference to introduce the bill, Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia and chair of the Senate intelligence committee, said the RESTRICT Act would not only target TikTok.

“Everybody’s talking about TikTok and the ability of that platform to be used by the Communist Party both to take on data, but also potentially as a malign influence and propaganda tool,” Warner said.

“But before there was TikTok, there was Huawei and ZTE – and before that, there was Russia’s Kaspersky Labs. So what we are trying to deal with here is the risk of insecure information and communication technologies,” he said. 

He also stressed the bill, if passed, would introduce a “rules-based process” to assess foreign-owned technology, and that the commerce secretary would be granted tools less heavy-handed than bans.

The Senate bill is the latest in a series of pieces of proposed legislation aimed to ban TikTok, with House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, a Republican from Texas, most recently introducing his own bill last week. It was opposed by Democrats.

Whack-a-Mole

The strong White House and bipartisan support for the RESTRICT Act in the Senate suggests it might succeed where others have failed.

The bill was also introduced on Tuesday by three other Democratic senators – Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Michael Bennet of Colorado and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin – and four Republicans – John Thune of South Dakota, Mitt Romney of Utah, Jerry Moran of Kansas and John Sullivan of Alaska.

Each of the senators noted the bill was not aimed just at TikTok, with a few saying they wanted the bill’s rules to help authorities avoid a game of “Whack-a-Mole” with copycat services arising.

But each senator also struggled to keep their focus off TikTok.

“Truth is, with 100 million Americans daily on TikTok, on an average of 90 minutes a day, this is an issue,” Warner said after stressing TikTok was not the bill’s sole target. “I imagine most of you would like your networks to get 90 minutes a day from 100 million Americans.”

Thune, who is also the Senate minority whip, said the bill “does away with this Whack-a-Mole” where U.S. authorities are forced to evaluate new foreign-owned technology companies month after month. 

Its rules would make clear what types of security issues could lead to a ban, he said, and in doing so prevent such technology taking off.

“I’ve long been concerned about how every social media company uses the data it collects on users,” Thune said. “But I’m particularly concerned about TikTok’s connections to the Chinese Communist Party, which repeatedly – repeatedly – spies on American citizens.” 

He said that “China-based employees of [TikTok owner] ByteDance have repeatedly accessed nonpublic data” of U.S. citizens “despite TikTok saying to the contrary,” and added he did not trust any pledges given by the Beijing-based company about TikTok’s safety.

“The Chinese Communist Party has proven over the last few years that it is willing to lie about just about everything,” Thune said.

Bipartisanship

Brooke Oberwetter, a spokesperson for TikTok, said the executive branch already had the power to force TikTok to change its operations, and noted the social media platform was in talks with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

“The Biden Administration does not need additional authority from Congress to address national security concerns about TikTok: it can approve the deal negotiated with CFIUS over two years that it has spent the last six months reviewing,” Oberwetter told Radio Free Asia.

“We appreciate that some members of Congress remain willing explore options for addressing national security concerns that don’t have the effect of censoring millions of Americans,” she added. “A U.S. ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide.”

Bennet, the Democrat from Colorado, said that he believed the bill would pass given its bipartisan support, and would end what he said was 50 years of light treatment of Beijing from Washington. 

Romney, a former presidential candidate, said such bipartisanship “says that Congress has recognized that China is not our dear friend.”

Sullivan, the Republican from Alaska, echoed that view.

“Yeah, there’s a lot of dissension and partisanship here,” he said. “One area where there’s very little partisanship is the recognition, in a bipartisan way, of the serious nature of the Chinese Communist Party threat. We are very united as senators on this topic.”

Edited by Malcolm Foster

High school students dressed as Red Guards from the Cultural Revolution took to the streets in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangxi over the weekend to sing the praises of model worker Lei Feng, in a move that shocked many who were reminded of the decade of political violence under late supreme leader Mao Zedong.

In a display described by some as a “red loyalty dance” in honor of the opening of the National People’s Congress’ in Beijing, hundreds of students dressed in full military uniform, bearing placards of calligraphy and wearing red armbands, marched through the streets of Shangrao on Sunday, singing songs of praise for Lei Feng. They were escorted by rows of uniformed police, a video clip provided to RFA showed.

Local media reports said officials in the town had agreed to let the display go ahead because March 5 marked both the opening of China’s rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress, in Beijing, as well as being National Lei Feng Day.

Radio Free Asia was unable to reach any of the students or staff who took part in the heavily choreographed parade, and several schools in the city denied having taken part when approached about the event.

Shangrao officials also seemed keen to distance themselves from the “loyalty dance.”

An official who answered the phone at the municipal bureau of education on Monday said the event had nothing to do with them, and was organized by the Xinzhou district education and sports bureau.

An official who answered the phone at the Xinzhou district education and sports bureau said they didn’t know which schools had taken part in the event, adding that some of the schools in the district are administered by the city education bureau.

“This wasn’t organized by us … there are district-run schools and city-run schools, and I don’t know which schools you are referring to,” the official said.

“Learning from Lei Feng is normal … it’s quite normal for schools to organize activities that promote it,” the official said. “Maybe copying the clothes worn by Lei Feng is part of red education, but it’s not formalistic.”

Calls to the Xinzhou district government and Shangrao city government hadn’t responded to requests for comment by the time of publication.

No nostalgia

A Shangrao resident who gave only his surname Xu, for fear of reprisals, said the parade was held on Dongmen Road, that has the reputation for being “retro,” but that local people hadn’t welcomed the display of nostalgia for the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, a decade of factional street fighting and political turmoil that saw teachers and doctors locked up in cowpens and their places taken — sometimes to disastrous effect — by revolutionary youths.

“March 5 was ‘Everyone Learn from Lei Feng Day’,” so they were trying to create some momentum for that,” Xu said. “They set up Dongmen Road to look as if it was back in the 1980s.”

“But this Red Guard craze will blow over,” he predicted. “It can’t become a trend in the absence of orders from people at the highest level.”

A Guangdong-based lawyer who requested anonymity said the display had aroused feelings of disgust on social media, with many worrying that China will accelerate its move towards leftist ideology and wind up back in a situation similar to the Cultural Revolution, a concern that was also reflected in slogans hung from a Beijing traffic flyover ahead of the 20th party congress on Oct. 13.

“It’s unclear whether this was spontaneous, or whether it was Xi Jinping’s intention [for it to happen],” the lawyer said. “I really don’t think it can develop into the red fever that we saw under [now jailed former municipal party secretary] Bo Xilai in Chongqing.”

“But things have changed a lot in the past 10 years … and [Xi] certainly seems to hope that everyone can be brainwashed into loyalty dances and singing red songs,” he said. “But it’ll probably be hard for him to achieve that in a short time frame after 40 years of market economics.”

Red songs were temporarily banned in Chongqing and Beijing after Bo Xilai’s fall from power, amid unconfirmed rumors that he and his political allies had been planning a coup in Beijing.

A Shanghai-based entrepreneur warned however that a society that hasn’t fully reflected on the tragedy of Maoist politics will inevitably wind up repeating it.

“Back in the days of economic development, everyone could make some money, but those days are gone forever,” the entrepreneur warned. “If there is no money to hand out, then there is going to be a serious problem, like in North Korea — it’s inevitable.”

“Things are getting worse — if there are no monuments to the Cultural Revolution or to the Great Famine, then they will both happen again,” they warned.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

A former student leader of the 1989 democracy movement on Tiananmen Square has joined growing calls on the organizers of the Oscars to revoke an invitation to Hong Kong martial arts star Donnie Yen to present an award, after he took Beijing’s side over the 2019 protest movement in Hong Kong.

Yen, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference of non-government advisers ranging from party elders, intelligence officers and scholars to movie stars, CEOs of major companies and other celebrities, had “slandered the popular resistance movement” in Hong Kong when he called it “a riot” in a recent media interview, Wang said in a statement emailed to Radio Free Asia on Tuesday.

“Donnie Yen’s remarks … represent a challenge to mainstream civilization and universal values,” Wang said. “He … may be able to make a fortune in an autocratic country like China, but it would be extremely inappropriate for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to have him present an award.”

“It would trample on the concepts of freedom and democracy, and would be kowtowing to the Chinese dictatorship,” he said, calling on the Oscars organizers to revoke Yen’s invitation.

Yen told GQ Hype magazine in a recent interview after being asked about the boycott of his movies and his view of the 2019 protest movement: “It wasn’t a protest, okay, it was a riot.”

“A lot of people might not be happy for what I’m saying, but I’m speaking from my own experience,” said Yen, using very similar language to official descriptions of the protests.

Wang’s comments came after tens of thousands of people signed a petition on Change.org calling on the Oscars’ organizers to take a stand for “human rights and moral values, rather than support for actions that violate them.”

“Donnie Yen is a supporter of the Chinese Communist regime and has made several remarks in support of the Chinese government’s policies, including supporting the implementation of the National Security Law in Hong Kong and accusing Hong Kong protesters of being rioters,” the petition text said.

“These remarks not only violate the spirit of freedom of speech but also deny the rights of the people of Hong Kong to fight for their freedom and democracy,” said the petition, which had garnered more than 68,000 signatures by 2000 GMT on Tuesday.

The decision to invite Yen to take part in the awards ceremony “shows contempt for the people of Hong Kong,” the petition said.

“We demand that the Oscars Committee reconsider this decision and cancel the invitation of Donnie Yen as a presenter for the Oscars,” it said.

Many Hong Kongers started boycotting Yen’s movies over his pro-Beijing stance during the 2019 protests against the erosion of Hong Kong’s promised freedoms and judicial independence that saw pitched battles between protesters armed with bricks, Molotov cocktails, catapults and other makeshift weapons against fully equipped riot police who fired huge quantities of tear gas, rubber bullets, chemically treated high-pressure water cannon and occasionally live rounds of ammunition at protesters and journalists.

Rights groups criticized the unsafe and indiscriminate use of tear gas and other forms of police violence during the months-long protest movement that left nearly two million adults suffering from post-traumatic stress symptoms and depression, according to The Lancet medical journal.

Police violence against young and unarmed protesters early in the movement brought millions onto the city’s streets and prompted the occupation of its international airport, while unarmed train passengers were attacked by armed riot police at Prince Edward MTR and by white-clad mobsters at Yuen Long MTR, who laid into passengers and protesters with rods and poles while police took 39 minutes to answer hundreds of distress calls from the scene.

Comments under the Change.org petition said Yen was not a good choice for the Oscars.

“He doesn’t stand up for freedom and democracy, which could violate the values of Oscar prizes,” user Jenny Lam wrote, while Matthew Leung said Yen was a “CCP clown” who would “contaminate the show.”

“A hypocri[te] who supports the totalitarian state to exploit people’s freedom does not deserve to be a representative of the Oscar ceremony!” added Kwok Shun Ng, while Cindy Au commented: “Against those who … support dictatorship.”

Taiwan-based petition co-author Tong Wai Hong, who was acquitted of “rioting” charges linked to his role in the 2019 protest movement, said that what unfolded in that year couldn’t be described as “rioting.”

“For me and for a lot of other people, it was a fight against tyranny,” Tong told Radio Free Asia. “He has gotten this wrong. The Chinese Communist Party has carried on restricting our freedoms and suppressing our human rights ever since the 2019 protests.”

Tong cited the banning of documentaries and other cinematic works linked to the protests, under a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing from July 1, 2020, which ushered in an ongoing crackdown on peaceful dissent and political opposition that has seen dozens of former pro-democracy lawmakers stand trial for “subversion” for taking part in a primary election to maximize their seats in the Legislative Council.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie.

Authorities stopped a Buddhist monk during his peace march across Cambodia, questioning him for several hours and accusing the 72-year-old of being affiliated with the opposition Candlelight Party, before letting him continue.

Venerable Soy Sat has been marching toward Banteay Meanchey province, near the Thai border, to urge the government to restore social ethics and resolve national issues. 

Authorities in Pursat province’s Bakan district detained him for several hours on Tuesday and asked him about the purpose of the march. They also accused him of participating in an opposition party meeting organized by Candlelight Party Vice President Rong Chhun. 

Earlier on Tuesday, Rong Chhun held a meeting with party officials in Pursat. Afterward, he went to meet the monk to offer him food, a common practice in Cambodia.

Soy Sat said he told officials that did not participate in Rong Chhun’s party meeting. He also said the march wasn’t tied to any political party. 

“Authorities asked me to go back if I don’t want any problem,” he said. “I said, ‘I won’t go back. I will march until the national crisis is resolved.’”

After three hours of intense talk, the authorities allowed him and a few villagers to continue the march, he said.

The provincial governor, Khoy Rida, didn’t respond to a request for comment from Radio Free Asia on Tuesday. The spokesman for the Ministry of Cults and Religions, Seng Somony, said he wasn’t aware of the incident but would look into it. 

Expelled from pagoda

Last month, Soy Sat marched along with Rong Chhun and other demonstrators from Phnom Penh to Pursat. They had permission for the march from the Interior Ministry. 

Several days later, he was expelled from his pagoda in Kampong Speu province by the pagoda’s chief, who accused him of incitement and of trying to destroy peace.

He was supposed to appear before the court March 6, but didn’t appear because he was marching in Pursat. The court only brought up an old land case from 2021 because of the current march, he said.

The case raises suspicions, said Am Sam Ath of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, or Licadho. 

“The court’s action will lead to criticism that it is designed to persecute the monk,” he said. 

Buddhist monks, who occupy their own social class in Cambodia and are given a great deal of respect by the public, frequently participate in demonstrations, but ousting them from a temple is unusual. 

Soy Sat began his latest march by himself on March 1 in Phnom Penh. There are now about six people marching alongside him. 

“I am participating because of Venerable’s heart,” said Sim Mao, a villager who is marching with Soy Sat. “He is thinking for all of us so I must participate.”

The monk’s true-hearted wishes are to call attention to what’s wrong with the country, and his march shouldn’t be interrupted, said Soeung Sengkaruna, spokesman for the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association.

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Matt Reed. 

A women’s labor organization in Hong Kong canceled a march last weekend to mark International Women’s Day amid threats from police that they would arrest key activists.

The move comes despite the lifting of bans on public gatherings in Hong Kong and criticism by a United Nations rights expert about curbs on civil society and rights activism under a draconian security law.

“We have regretfully decided to cancel the Women’s Day rally and demonstration that were scheduled for tomorrow,” the Hong Kong Women Workers’ Association said in a brief statement on its Facebook account on Saturday, without giving a reason for the change. “Apologies for this!”

The League of Social Democrats, a pro-democracy political party led by veteran rights activists that would have taken part in the event, said police had claimed that “violent elements” had been planning to join the rally.

“We are sure the reasons behind the decision are patently obvious to the public,” the group said in a statement on its Facebook page, adding: “Two days before the march, four LSD members were warned by the National Security Police that they must not join the march, or else they will be arrested.”

League Chairperson Chan Po-ying said she and three other members were hauled in by national security police on March 3 and warned that they would be arrested if they took part in the event.

“They called last Friday … and sent a car to take me to the police station,” Chan told Radio Free Asia. “They got straight to the point and told us that we couldn’t take part in the demonstration, without giving the reason.”

“They just said that we are well-known figures … When I asked what would happen if I insisted on going, he told me very clearly that I would be arrested,” she said. “He wouldn’t answer my questions … just told me not to go.”

Chan said it’s possible that the authorities are trying to avoid any public protest or dissent during the annual session of China’s rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress in Beijing.

‘Deeply infuriated’

The League of Social Democrats said on Facebook that it was “deeply infuriated that our joining of a legal protest was met with intimidation and obstruction by the National Security Police,” it said. 

“Under such pressure, we decided not to attend. Yet we still hoped the march would go ahead, and the flags of gender equality and the rights of women from the grassroots would fly high on the streets.”

It said Hong Kongers’ freedom of expression and right to protest were now in “shreds.”

Human rights experts at the United Nations seemed to agree, issuing a report that was highly critical of human rights protections in Hong Kong following a review of economic, social and cultural rights in Geneva last month.

“The Committee is concerned about reports of arrests, detentions and trials without due process of civil society actors, journalists, human rights defenders, lawyers working on human rights, disbarment of such lawyers, and others working to defend economic, social and cultural rights,” the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights said in concluding comments following the review process.

It called for a review of a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the ruling Chinese Communist Party from July 1, 2020, and for a national security hotline taking tip-offs from informers about breaches of the law – which criminalizes criticism of the authorities – to be abolished.

“The Committee … concerned that the national security hotline is used extensively and might have detrimental effects on the work and expression of civil society, trade unions, teachers and other actors, including those mentioned above, working on human rights,” it said.

‘Mobs in black’

Hong Kong Chief Executive and former police chief John Lee said the organizers of public events have a legal responsibility to ensure it doesn’t break the law.

“Anyone who is not confident, is incompetent, or is worried about whether they can do this should not organize public activities, because they have to bear the legal responsibility,” he warned.

“We have felt the pain caused to Hong Kong by mobs in black to Hong Kong,” Lee said, in a reference to the 2019 protest movement that won broad popular support at the time for its calls for fully democratic elections and better official accountability.

Former pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui, who fled into exile amid the citywide crackdown that followed the 2019 protests, said police now appear unwilling to allow any kind of political activity in public.

“My analysis is that the police want to ban demonstrations, and they’re not going to give them any opportunity,” Hui said. “The police didn’t reject the application for the demonstration, so next time they go to the United Nations or face [criticism from] Western countries, they can say they approved it, but that the group canceled it.”

“Threatening to arrest people unless they refrain from taking part in a demonstration is very indicative [of the authorities’ attitude] and a blatant violation of the Basic Law,” he said.

Current affairs commentator Sang Pu said Beijing is continuing to manipulate civil society and political participation in Hong Kong, citing the recent cancellation of the Democratic Party’s spring fundraiser by the venue, which said it had an issue with its gas supply.

“This is the Chinese Communist Party … fully implementing the model it uses [to control] the Chinese people in Hong Kong,” Sang said.

“It’s very similar to the methods they used to suppress lawyers caught up in the July 9, 2015 crackdown [on rights attorneys, public interest law firms and rights activists],” he said.

He said claims by the Hong Kong government that the city is getting back to normal were misleading, and that normalcy can’t happen with the national security law still in place.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster