Hong Kong Officials Threaten British Activist With National Security Law - The Wall Street Journal

HONG KONG—A London-based group that campaigns for human rights in Hong Kong said national security officials from the Chinese city have threatened its leader with imprisonment and demanded it take down its website, a sign the city is extending its battle with critics globally.

Hong Kong Watch on Monday shared a letter addressed to its co-founder and chief executive Benedict Rogers that said that its activities—such as lobbying other countries to impose sanctions on China or the city—are jeopardizing China’s national security and that offenders could be sentenced to at least three years or up to life in jail.

Hong Kong authorities have no jurisdiction in the U.K. or ways to enforce the threat there, as Britain suspended its extradition arrangement with its former colony in July 2020, soon after China imposed a national security law on the city. Mr. Rogers, who currently lives in London and co-founded the British Conservative Party’s human rights commission, was refused entry into Hong Kong in 2017.

The human-rights nongovernmental organization condemned the letter as further evidence of diminishing freedoms in Hong Kong and said that it will continue its advocacy. The group has called for Hong Kong officials to be punished, saying they have destroyed the city’s autonomy and people’s freedoms during a sweeping crackdown on dissent.

“By threatening a U.K.-based NGO with financial penalties and jail for merely reporting on the human rights situation in Hong Kong, this letter exemplifies why Hong Kong’s National Security Law is so dangerous,” Mr. Rogers said.

The Hong Kong Police and the Security Bureau declined to comment on specific cases. The police said the purpose of the law is to prevent and suppress offenses endangering national security, and that “the public can continue to use the internet lawfully and will not be affected.” The letter, according to a version published on Hong Kong Watch’s website, was signed by the government’s Security Bureau.

Hong Kong Watch’s website is currently blocked by several internet service providers in the Asian financial hub, but is still accessible through virtual private networks, which allow users to bypass local internet controls. Reports about the site being blocked in parts of Hong Kong first surfaced last month.

The letter shows how Hong Kong officials are extending their efforts globally to stamp out critical voices against the government. In Hong Kong, dozens of leading pro-democracy activists have been imprisoned or driven into exile, newsrooms have shut under pressure and civil society groups have disbanded.

Critics of the national security law have warned of its potentially long reach because it contains an extraterritorial provision that says the legislation applies to people outside the city and who aren’t its permanent residents.

Eric Lai, a research fellow specializing in Hong Kong law at Georgetown University, said the government’s letter signaled that Mr. Rogers or his colleagues could be arrested by the national security police in Hong Kong. It is possible that countries with extradition agreements with Hong Kong or mainland China could also be requested to extradite them through Interpol, Mr. Lai added.

Hong Kong still has extradition treaties with 10 countries including Portugal and South Korea, though jurisdictions including the U.S., France and Australia suspended their arrangements in the wake of the security law.

In the letter, the bureau said Mr. Rogers was held fully responsible for the group’s activities and liable for the crime of collusion under the national security law. It also ordered Mr. Rogers to remove the advocacy group’s website, warning that failure to comply with the request, issued by the police, could result in a fine of 100,000 Hong Kong dollars, equivalent to $12,770, and one year in prison.

Hong Kong Watch is backed by foreign politicians including Britain’s last former colonial governor Chris Patten and exiled activists from Hong Kong.

“The unjustifiable action taken against the U.K.-based NGO Hong Kong Watch is clearly an attempt to silence those who stand up for human rights in Hong Kong,” U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Monday. “Attempting to silence voices globally that speak up for freedom and democracy is unacceptable and will never succeed.”

Mr. Rogers, who has contributed to publications including the opinion pages of The Wall Street Journal, has been a frequent target of Chinese state-run media in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s internet is outside China’s vast censorship controls, and residents in the city are able to access websites and apps such Google, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram that are banned on the mainland.

Concerns about censorship have grown under the national security law, which allows Hong Kong’s police to order publishers and service providers to remove online material deemed sensitive. Several websites linked to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and exiled activists have since been blocked locally.

Write to Elaine Yu at [email protected]

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source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-officials-threaten-british-activist-with-national-security-law-11647261793

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