Riot police disturbed shoppers on public holiday, pointing pepper spray at a family with young kid

On Dragon Boat Festival today (June 25), netizens called for a “Shop with you” protest at Yoho Mall in Yuen Long. Riot police entered the mall to disperse the protesting crowd and they left the scene shortly afterwards. Plain-clothed officers, however, hung around in the mall and stood guard.

At around 3pm, while plain-clothed officer stopped and searched citizens on the scene, a team of riot police also barged into the mall to clear out citizens. One father, holding a box of toy on his hand, and accompanying his son started to argue with one officer who raised pepper spray at him and demanded them to leave. The second floor of the mall was later cordoned-off by police.

Source: Stand News
https://bit.ly/2YuJFJ1

#25June #June25 #PoliceState #FailedState

China surveillance expands to Twitter and Facebook – Chinese students’ family arrested after students posted news against China in overseas

//The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controls all internet traffic and bans access to foreign websites. Chinese netizens can only access banned sites via Virtual Private Network (VPN) illegally.

//Chinese people post on overseas platforms without using their true names but they were still monitored and detected by CCP watchdogs.

//The CCP police (Public Security Bureau) also records the frequency of posts and how many had read the posts for every target they identified and investigated.

//While posing on social media deterrence the China people, CCP had already expanded the monitoring around the world. A China student surnamed LOU, who studied in the United States in 2018 and satirized CCP General Secretary XI Jinping on Twitter, was arrested and convicted for “picking and provoking trouble” with 6 months imprisonment when he returned to China in 2019. This incident was deeply concerned by certain American Senators.

//It is extremely scary and controversial – those students post on Twitter without using their real name, how can CCP able to trace them and get to their family?


Full Translation Here: Hong Kong Echo

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan)

#China #Surveillance #PoliceState #MonitorInternet

#CCP #PoliceState #Freedom #HumanRight #LiWangyang

#PoliceState #PoliticalProsecution
HK Police Arrests More #AppleDaily Editors

On the evening of June 27, 2021, Hong Kong Police arrested one more editor who used to write in the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily.

#FungWaiKong, aged 57, was the editor-in-chief of the English news of Apple Daily and a columnist for the Chinese-language edition under thd pen name Lo Fung.

The police accused of him "conspiring to collude with foreign countries or foreign forces to endanger national security". The arrest was made at the airport.

Fung Wai-kong is the seventh employee of the now-closed Apple Daily who was arrested under #NationalSecurityLaw. The founder #JimmyLai, a pro-democracy media tycoon, has been jailed since Janurary 2021.

The 26-year-old Apple Daily was forced to shut down on June 23, 2021 after the police raided the headquarters, arrested 3 editors and 2 executives, and froze the key assets and bank accounts of the newspaper. On the day when the last edition was announced, police arrested one more new commentator.

The Hong Kong Journalists' Association (#HKJA) condemned the police for targeting journalists.

Source: Stand News #Jun27
https://bit.ly/2SAUrgY

#Journalism #PressFreedom #SupportAppleDaily #PoliticalPrisoner

===
Related news:

Hongkongers Stay Up Overnight to Buy Apple Daily for One Last Time

https://publielectoral.lat/guardiansofhongkong/30233

#Court
Hong Kong Court-apported liquidator attempts to take control of the #AppleDailyTaiwan Assets

On November 26, 2021, the Taiwan based Economic Democracy Union (#EDU) warned potential breaches of human rights and national security ramifications after a Hong Kong court-appointed liquidator sought permission to order Taiwan-based #AppleDaily and #NextMagazine to turn over all of their assets.

The union, a consortium of non-governmental organizations, urged the Taiwan government to take immediate action to ensure that Hong Kong’s #NationalSecurityLaw would have no foothold in #Taiwan.

According to a lawyer of the EDU, Taiwan would be in its rights to ignore the demands because they have not been reviewed by Taiwanese courts, and because Taiwanese courts can decline to enforce foreign laws.

Likewise, the EDU has framed the issue as significant in needing to prevent the Hong Kong National Security Law from encroaching upon Taiwanese sovereignty. The EDU also emphasized the potential dangers if the Apple Daily turned over information to Hong Kong authorities as a result of the seizure of its assets.

The liquidator is court-appointed, following the Apple Daily’s closure in June 2021. Hong Kong courts also froze 18 million Hong Kong dollars in company funds, preventing it from paying its workers, not long after courts moved to freeze assets of company CEO #JimmyLai.

Source: RFI; #Nov26

https://www.rfi.fr/cn/%E6%B8%AF%E6%BE%B3%E5%8F%B0/20211126-%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E6%B8%85%E7%9B%A4%E5%AE%98%E4%BF%83-%E5%8F%B0%E8%98%8B-%E4%BA%A4%E8%B3%87%E7%94%A2-%E6%B0%91%E5%9C%98%E6%86%82%E6%B3%84%E6%96%B0%E8%81%9E%E6%9D%90%E6%96%99-%E6%9B%B4%E6%81%90%E5%9C%8B%E5%AE%89%E6%B3%95%E5%9C%A8%E5%8F%B0%E6%8F%92%E8%B6%B3

#PoliceState #Assets #Liquidation #Arrest #CrossStraits

#Taiwan Condemns Hong Kong Authorities' Crackdown on #StandNews

On December 29, 2021, Taiwan's three major political parties all issued statements in response to Hong Kong Police's crackdown on Stand News, expressing their concern and condemnation.

Taiwan's ruling party, the Democratic Progressive Party (#DPP), expressed "indignation and resentment" at the Hong Kong police's flagrant actions, searching media offices and arresting promoters of freedom and democracy. They consider these acts as strangling Hong Kong's freedom of expression and creating a chilling effect among media and public opinion. The DPP calls on the international community and Taiwan to continue observing Hong Kong's development.

The statement by New Power Party (#NPP) calls the actions by Hong Kong's national security police "disproportional", causing serious damage to the freedom of press, and effectively nullifies the rights laid out in the Basic Law: "Hong Kong residents shall have freedom of speech, of the press and of publication; freedom of association, of assembly, of procession and of demonstration; and the right and freedom to form and join trade unions, and to strike."

#Kuomintang, Taiwan's current opposition party, expressed deep concern that the authorities shut down a media company that spoke up for different public opinions and upheld principles of democracy, freedom, and human rights. They called on Chinese authorities to respect the younger generation's view of democratic values and freedom of speech. As Hong Kong had been the revolutionary headquarter of Dr Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of modern China, Hong Kong's democracy and freedom are deeply tied to the pursuit of democracy and freedom on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Source: Citizen News; Liberty Times #Dec29
https://www.facebook.com/366243453719070/posts/1618965958446807/

https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/politics/breakingnews/3784313

#Media #PoliticalOppression #PressFreedom #Arrest #Regime #PoliceState #PoliticalProsecution

#WinterOlympics #MassSurveillance
Official #Beijing 2022 Olympics #MobileApp Is Marred by Security Flaws, Researchers Say

//In a report released Tuesday, Citizen Lab also said the app didn’t properly encrypt sensitive metadata transmitted through the app’s messaging function, which meant any eavesdropper operating a Wi-Fi hot spot could discover who users are communicating with and when.

The Beijing 2022 handbook for athletes and officials says My 2022 is intended to ensure the safety of all Games participants and “is in accordance with international standards and Chinese law.”//

Read the full article:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/official-beijing-2022-olympics-mobile-app-is-marred-by-security-flaws-researchers-say-11642511957

Source: WSJ #Jan19

#BigData #Regime #Cybersecurity #ChineseInternet #PoliceState #ChineseLaw

#FreedomOfSpeech #PoliceState
Dutch journalist manhandled off camera by a Communist guard while reporting live outside the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony

//Dutch journalist Sjoerd den Daas was halted by Chinese guards as reported live on air.  

He was dragged away while his camera was also blocked as he covered the Olympic opening ceremony. His boss described the incident as a "a painful illustration" of the media is treated in China.//

Read full article:
https://www.insider.com/video-dutch-journalist-manhandled-off-camera-by-guards-at-olympics-2022-2

#WinterOlympics #CCP #Totalitarianism #Journalist #SjoerdDenDaas #NOSJournaal

#Arrest #Suppression #PoliceState
75yo activist remains in custody until April on inciting subversion charge

Hong Kong activist Koo Sze-yiu appeared before a national security judge in the Kowloon City Magistrates’ Courts on February 5, the day after he was arrested for inciting subversion.

Read more on his arrest:
Hong Kong National Police arrested social activists before a planned Winter Olympics demonstration
https://publielectoral.lat/BeWaterHK/61

As Koo stepped into the defendant’s dock, he tried to wave and thank his supporters in the courtroom, but was immediately stopped by court security.

Later on when the magistrate asked Koo whether he understood the charges against him, Koo shouted, “Human rights rank above the right of states, and the people are more important than the state. I am not guilty.”

He was soon interrupted by the judge and ordered to cease shouting.

Without a legal representative, Koo applied for bail on his own, and was denied. He was not required to enter a plea as the Judge adjourned the case to April 1, 2022. Koo would be remanded in custody until then.

#KooSzeYiu #NSL #Subversion #BeijingWinterOlympics

Source: InmediaHK; #Feb6
https://bit.ly/3rsxwmp

Voices of April: Video Protesting Shanghai Lockdown Goes Viral in China, Despite Chinese Censors

On April 22, A 6-minute protest video about Shanghai's locked-down residents went viral on Chinese social media.

The video featured audio snippets from various videos recorded in #Shanghai throughout April, when the city was plunged into a month-long #COVID lockdown since late March. The recordings, played over black-and-white drone footage of the city, documented the residents' ordeal over the past month: food and supply shortages, quarantine separating parents from their children, pets being beaten to death, hospitals turning away patients, makeshift hospitals missing essential supplies and even lacking a roof, and so on.

China's government censors moved quickly to block the video, but netizens continued to tenaciously spread the video on social media and instant messaging platforms in China.

Netizens have added English translations and reposted the video on Youtube. Watch here: (turn on English captions)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWW6r2iOwzU

For a more detailed recap of the video, see also:
The Voices of April – The Short Online Life of a Shanghai Protest Video
https://www.whatsonweibo.com/the-voices-of-april-the-short-online-life-of-a-shanghai-protest-video/

The video ends with a simple message for the city's suffering residents: "Shanghai, get well soon."

#HumanitarianCrisis #ShanghaiLockdown #PoliceState #WuhanPneumonia

Source:
Zoanhae Vision 上海眼界 Youtube channel, What's On Weibo

#PoliceState
根據紐約時報報道，在遭到輿論壓力而取消之前，東莞市一座強制市民上公廁用廁紙時要先經過人臉識別。報道未有提及當時急住抺屎的市民，有否被強制每用一格廁紙「擦臉」一次。

“Starting in late 2020, several Chinese cities began banning neighborhood committees from forcing residents to undergo biometric monitoring to enter their compounds. Around the same time, toilet paper dispensers using facial recognition were removed from public bathrooms in the southern Chinese city of Dongguan following public outrage.”

NYT

#Court
Student Activists from #StudentPoliticism plead guilty to "conspiring to incite subversion"

Four former members of the now-disbanded pro-democracy group "Student Politicism" were charged with "conspiring to incite subversion". Former convenor Wong Yat-chin (aged 21), ex-secretary general Chan Chi-sum (aged 21), and ex-spokespersons Jessica Chu (aged 19) and Alice Wong (aged 20) were presented at the District Court in Hong Kong on July 29, 2022. They pleaded guilty.

Apart from Chu, the other three members have been detained for more than 10 months.

They were prosecuted for holding street booths on seven occasions between October 2020 and June 2021. The prosecution alleged that the group called on fellow citizens to "keep on fighting" and chanted the slogan "Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of our times".

Source: InMedia #Jul29
https://bit.ly/3Q0eZr8

#NationalSecurityLaw #PoliticalPrisoner #PoliceState

#Save12
Chinese Prison Penalises Hongkonger for "Failing" Mindset, Lawyer: May Loss Communication Right

#TangKaiYin, one of the 12 pro-democracy Hongkongers who tried to flee to Taiwan but was captured by the Chinese authorities, is serving a prison sentence in Conghua in China.

His family in Hong Kong said they had not received any letters from him since February, 2022, and he did not collect letters sent to him.

Tang's brother checked the prison's online system yesterday and found that Tang still has a few transactions in June and July, 2021. But his prison score was deducted twice for "violating the rule," including "failing to pass the ideological, cultural and technical learning assessment for that month."

A China human rights lawyer, who has assisted these 12 Hongkongers, told #InMedia that prisoners who are not willing to plead guilty or "accept the mind conversion" might be forbidden from receiving letters and may be further deprived of consumption or communication rights.

According to the lawyer's analysis, not receiving letters, in this case, may not be related to plead of guilt, as Tang had already been sentenced earlier. It is more likely because he doesn't change his mind, "something like indoctrination, perhaps some kind of non-cooperation," he said.

In addition, prisoners sent to prison hospitals due to illness or physical punishment would not be allowed to receive or write letters, "It is also possible that he cannot write letters because of his health condition," the lawyer explained.

Source: InMedia #Jul28
https://bit.ly/3Jcs6mL

#12Hongkongers #China #PoliticalPrisoner #PoliceState #HumanRights #ThoughtPolice