Hong Kong not becoming ‘police state’, says city’s top cop
A man walks past a vacant shoplot in Hong Kong, June 7, 2022. The Chinese business hub is preparing for an upcoming leadership change as well as the 25th anniversary of the city’s handover from Britain, for which President Xi Jinping is widely expected to visit. — AFP pic
HONG KONG, June 7 — Hong Kong is not becoming a “police state”, the city’s top law enforcement officer said today, days after his officers stamped out the city’s once-permitted commemorations marking Beijing’s deadly Tiananmen crackdown.
The Chinese business hub is preparing for an upcoming leadership change as well as the 25th anniversary of the city’s handover from Britain, for which President Xi Jinping is widely expected to visit.
Speaking to local outlet HK01 about beefed-up security activity around the event, commissioner Raymond Siu Chak-yee rejected criticism that the police were becoming too powerful.
“A police state is where the government forcibly controls various aspects of people’s life with administrative measures and without going through legal procedures. Do people think Hong Kong is like that?” he said.
“Hong Kong is a society of rule of law, not a police state.”
His comments come after police arrested six people on Saturday as authorities pounced on any attempt to publicly remember China’s 1989 crackdown on peaceful protesters.
Amnesty International has accused authorities of “harassment and indiscriminate targeting” for the arrests.
Police closed the site of a once annual Tiananmen vigil and jampacked the surrounding area, one of the busiest shopping districts in Hong Kong, with officers.
People were stopped and searched for carrying flowers, wearing black and, in one case, carrying a toy tank box.
Today authorities rolled out a “counter-terrorism reporting hotline” for residents to report “violent acts, suspected terrorism-related activities, in particular extremist plots”. People would be paid for “reliable” information, they said.
Protest documentary
Since Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 after large and sometimes violent pro-democracy demonstrations, authorities have cracked down on dissent.
In another interview with the South China Morning Post, Siu “advised” residents they should not watch or download an award-winning documentary about the 2019 protests if they are uncertain about the legal risk.
The film, Revolution of Our Times, has recently become widely available on US streaming platform Vimeo.
Siu did not however specify whether the movie or the production team had violated any law or had been investigated by the force’s national security unit.
“If they’re not sure whether this would commit [offences under] the national security law, then I would advise them to try to distance themselves from doing such acts,” Siu told the Post.
Produced by Hong Kong director Kiwi Chow, the movie takes its name from a then popular — but now outlawed — protest slogan.
It debuted at the Cannes film festival last July and in November won best documentary award at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Award, an event dubbed the Chinese-language “Oscars”.
It has never been shown commercially in Hong Kong as the city toughened film censorship after the passage of the security law, and Chow sold the rights to his work overseas to avoid scrutiny. — AFP
Wakakaka... The Emperor has No Clothes..
ReplyDeleteOnly a moron still believe in the lie that there was Tiananmen massacre after 33 years when for 33 years there was not a single photo or video recording any soldier/police shooting death any protestor, no tank roll over any protestor/student, no river of blood on the square, but, there was a photo of the protestors hanging and burnt to death a soldier/policeman, a video of a tank manoeuvring avoiding to knock down a protestor but no footage of any run over of him, if indeed it happened, there cannot be no footage since they have the earlier part showing the manoeuvring avoidance part. There was also a video showing after a standoff not sure for how long, some protestors brought a big tray of buns for the soldiers, apparently there were no hatred nor animosity between the opposing parties even with the standoff.
DeleteTherefore it is right and a correct thing to do that the authority ban any commemorations marking the “evil lie propagated by the west” which constitute slander, spreading malicious rumour, constituting subversive intention to induce terrorist and separatist movements like the Arab Spring (which evidently became Arab Winter now).
Wake up or rebut me moron!
The fact of the matter is that the Chinese authorities in Beijing realised that leaving HK for another 25 years unfettered would result in further breakdown in central control.
ReplyDeleteAnd in this respect, China is honour bound to exert control over Taiwan.
I foresee the Chinese government exerting more pressure on Taiwan with the aim of eventual reunification of Taiwan with the motherland.
China cannot and will not wait too long because the longer it waits, the more estranged the younger Taiwanese will be from China.
Meme-ed 奴性 & induced anmokausai aspirations have cultivated a generation of 崇洋媚外 的 恨国外奴.
DeleteThey r hard to reeducate & readapt to an environment free from western influences. They SHOULD be let go like those BNO dickheads!
https://youtu.be/hA4iKSeijZI
ReplyDeleteJune 7, 1989
Lest We Forget.
As can be seen from the video, evidences show the violence were perpetuated by the rioters. They attacked the army with sticks, stones, whatever they can grabbed hold on, They rioted, burning army trucks and vehicles. The army throughout was appealing for rioters to put down whatever sticks, pipes iron bars weapons and leave the place peacefully and promised no harm would be done to them. Where are the photos and videos of the army charging at the rioters and army tanks rolling over rioters? Where was the massacre?
DeleteThis remind us that there were recent western videos circulating purportedly showing plentiful of Ukraine victims in body bags, but suddenly we saw a corpse opening the body bag putting out his head to breath, yet another stealing a moment to smoke. And another showing a Russian soldier kissing his daughter goodbye before leaving to the war front to fight the Ukraine but was propagated as Ukraine soldier before leaving to fight in the war instead. Such faked videos and misinformation reporting are not limited to the above, they include so called stories on the Xinjiang genocide.
These malicious smearing of Chinse government propagated by US and the west remain as pure allegation. Where is the proof?
Lest We Forget!
DeleteIndeed, that know-nothing (ooop… brainwashed) dickheads would perpetually reenact a known lie to justify their fart!
https://youtu.be/hA4iKSeijZI June 7, 1989
Has been debunked umpteen times & yet could still resurface!
Evil knows no bound for these mfers.