Sunday, October 29, 2023

Hong Kong’s First Protest in Years Under New Rules by Residents

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Hong Kong police have given the green light for a small protest march, subject to strict conditions, in one of the first demonstrations to be approved since the introduction of a sweeping national security law in 2020. The police granted organisers a “no objection” letter on the condition that they ensured the protest would not violate national security laws, including seditious displays or speech. The demonstration was against a proposed land reclamation and rubbish processing project in the eastern district of Tseung Kwan O, where the project is slated to be built. Several dozen demonstrators were required to wear numbered lanyards and were barred from wearing masks, as police monitored their march.

The city’s Development Bureau said the project was intended to “support the daily needs of the community”. It said it would “respect the right to freedom of expression” and would study the possibility of reducing the scale of the land reclamation. However, some criticised the restrictions on their protest, which included limiting the number of participants to 100, according to a seven-page letter from the police to organisers. James Ockenden, 49, who was marching with his three children, said: “We need to have a more free-spirited protest culture. But this is all pre-arranged and numbered and it just destroys the culture and will put people off from coming for sure.”

Applications for other protests, including a candlelit vigil on June 4 to commemorate the victims of China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, have been denied on grounds related to COVID social distancing. The last of Hong Kong’s COVID restrictions was scrapped this year, following China’s decision to end its “zero-COVID” policies. Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, guarantees the right to public assembly. Since the China-imposed national security law, enacted in June 2020 in response to protracted pro-democracy protests in 2019, authorities have clamped down on freedoms and arrested scores of opposition politicians and activists.

Some Western governments have criticised the law as a tool of repression but Chinese authorities say it has restored stability to the financial hub. Political observers and some Western diplomats are watching to see if authorities will allow a resumption of major demonstrations in Hong Kong, namely on June 4 and July 1, which had been a mainstay of the city’s once vibrant civil society scene and attracted thousands of people. Earlier this month, the Hong Kong Women Workers’ Association planned a march to call for labour and women’s rights but cancelled it at the last moment without specifying why. Days later, the association said on its Facebook page that the police had invited it for further meetings after granting it the approval and that it had tried its best to amend the agreement. But it still could not launch the protest as it had wished, it wrote at that time.

The introduction of the national security law has led to concerns about the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms. The law criminalises secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, with penalties ranging up to life imprisonment. It also allows mainland Chinese security agents to operate in Hong Kong for the first time. Critics say the law has been used to target pro-democracy activists and politicians, with dozens arrested since its introduction.

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