China tightens grip on Hong Kong with passage of strict law punishing dissent

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• Amna Nawaz:

  Beijing criticized the West today for questioning Hong Kong's new national security law known as Article 23.

  The once mostly autonomous city is now led by legislators entirely handpicked by Beijing, who swept aside years of concerns by pro-democracy advocates to pass the bill in record time. Critics say the legislation is a death blow to whatever independence the city still had.

  Here now is Nick Schifrin.

• Nick Schifrin:

  In Hong Kong, this is how liberty dies, unanimously. By a vote of 89-0, Hong Kong's Legislative Council passed a law that authorities say safeguards the city's security.

• Regina Ip, Hong Kong Legislative Council Member:

  I'm sure Hong Kong will do better going forward. We will become more prosperous, more safe, more secure going forward. And this legislation is good for everybody.

• Nick Schifrin:

  In this once liberal gateway to mainland China, Article 23 expands Hong Kong's authorities' ability to punish dissent. Crimes linked to state secrets and sedition can now be punished for 10 years. Espionage can carry a sentence of 20 years, and treason, insurrection and sabotage are punishable with life imprisonment.

• Kelvin Lam, Former HSBC China Economist:

  Article 23, basically, in a business community point of view, is that it will make Hong Kong more similar to China, in terms of operating environments.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Kelvin Lam was a local Hong Kong politician and macroeconomist with HSBC Hong Kong and is now based in London.

• Kelvin Lam:

  How do you define state secrets and how do you define espionage activities? It's up to the prosecutors. And, as you know, judicial independence in Hong Kong is now kind of not completely there anymore, so that's why different businesses are more worried about this kind of new law.

• Nick Schifrin:

  For decades, Hong Kong prided itself on its freedom of speech, and, in 2019, tens of thousands of demonstrators protested a law that required extradition to mainland China.

  In July, the protesters turned violent and occupied the Legislative Council. One protester told me that day he was unrepentant.

• Prostester:

  Some say we broke the glass doors, the entrance, we are breaking the government properties. Yes, we can say this is violence, but the tyrant is there.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Beijing used the violence to pass a national security law that jailed thousands of peaceful protesters, shut down independent media, and imprisoned pro-democracy activists. The U.S. said Article 23 further silences Beijing's critics.

• Vendant Patel, Principal Deputy State Department Spokesperson:

  We believe that these kinds of actions have the potential to accelerate the closing of Hong Kong's once-open society.

• Nick Schifrin:

  But the law's backers don't seem to care about foreign criticism or international financial anxiety.

• Andrew Leung, President, Hong Kong Legislative Council:

  Hong Kong is such a beautiful place for doing business and traveling into Hong Kong. So, if they don't come, if they don't do business here, they miss their chances.

• Nick Schifrin:

  For a perspective on what Article 23 means for Hong Kong, we turn to Anna Kwok, Executive Director Of Hong Kong Democracy Council, which fights for democracy and human rights in Hong Kong. The government of Hong Kong has levied a bounty of one million Hong Kong dollars for her arrest.

  Anna Kwok, thank you very much. Welcome…

• Anna Kwok, Executive Director, Hong Kong Democracy Council:

  Thanks for having me.

• Nick Schifrin:

  … to the "NewsHour."

  The national security law that we described that Beijing — Hong Kong passed a few years ago already stifled protests, already stifled media freedoms, already silenced dissent. So how does Article 23 go further?

• Anna Kwok:

  Well, you're right that the national security law was implemented in 2020, and it was definitely a watershed moment for Hong Kong.

  But if the NSL was a watershed moment, I would say Article 23 is actually a nail in the coffin on Hong Kong as this global international financial hub that we have seen, because, with Article 23, there's this ambiguous theft of state secret. You don't even know what state secret is. And there's also intention to apply the law to Hong Kongers abroad and also to foreigners who work in Hong Kong, foreigners who have some sort of relations of Hong Kong.

  And now even communicating with foreign organizations can also be accused of breaking Article 23. So it really expanded the legal ground for the government to criminalize Hong Kongers for basically just having connection to the outside world. So that would definitely change the future of Hong Kong forever.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Authorities in Hong Kong, as you heard in that story, say the law was necessary because it will make the city safer and because this ends the risk of violence in Hong Kong. What do you say to that?

• Anna Kwok:

  Well, I think we're all very clear about where the violence is in Hong Kong. It's from the Hong Kong police force.

  And I definitely do not think that Article 23 is actually addressing what they want to address. But, instead, I think it's their way to please the Beijing government and also to really double down on the kind of global authoritarian expansion that the Chinese Communist Party has been conducting everywhere in the world, including in Taiwan, including in Southeast Asia, many other countries.

• Nick Schifrin:

  As we said, so many activists, pro-democracy demonstrators are already in prison.

• Anna Kwok:

  Yes.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Could Article 23 be applied retroactively and actually extend their sentences longer?

• Anna Kwok:

  Well, it's the same as the national security law.

  Even though the government clarified that it would not be applied retroactively, but it did happen that the government would use evidence from years ago to say that, oh, this person has been with the intent to treason for a long time. So that's what we're expecting from Article 23 as well.

• Nick Schifrin:

  And could it also be used, as you mentioned, against overseas activists, even perhaps without the people who are living overseas, without their knowledge that Article 23 is actually being imposed or being used against them, whether it's about passports or about anything else?

• Anna Kwok:

  Yes, definitely.

  So, last year, there was the case of a Hong Kong student studying in Japan. She only found out that she was accused of breaking the law once she entered Hong Kong, once she left her flight. And that's what we're expecting to happen more and more with Article 23. So there is a huge chilling effect happening among Hong Kongers that they will censor themselves even if they're abroad.

  And with the passport, in Article 23, it also mentioned that absconders like myself will have my passport invalidated by the government. Now, how they will actually do that, it's not clear, because they cannot come to the U.S. and collect my passport, per se, but they will definitely make it known to other governments around the world that these passports of people will be invalidated.

  And it's also very likely that people will only find out when they try to use that Hong Kong passport to pass customs and pass borders.

• Nick Schifrin:

  We heard the State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel, in the story from before making a statement against the law.

  But what are you asking the U.S. government, the Biden administration, and also Congress to actually do? What actions are you pushing for now?

• Anna Kwok:

  Right.

  I'm urging the Biden administration to impose sanctions on high-ranking Hong Kong officials, prosecutors who are responsible for Article 23 national security law and abusing human rights. The last time that any sanctions was placed was already three years ago, in…

  (Crosstalk)

• Nick Schifrin:

  So, the Trump administration sanctioned Hong Kong leaders then, right.

• Anna Kwok:

  Exactly. Exactly.

  And now in the past three to four years, we have seen like more than 1,800 political prisoners, but we're still not imposing more sanctions on that. I think that is very alarming.

  So that's why that's one of my asks. And for Congress, I really hope that we can pass the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Certification Act as soon as possible, since that will recertify whether these offices by the Hong Kong government can still have their privileges and rights here in the U.S.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Essentially, Hong Kong diplomats who are based in the United States, not Chinese mainland diplomats, but Hong Kong diplomats, who you believe, what, have been acting inappropriately in the United States?

• Anna Kwok:

  Yes.

  So they definitely receive orders from Beijing, and they have also conducted surveillance against Hong Kong diaspora in the U.S. So that has really posed a lot of danger for us. And we have also seen how Hong Kong government utilized their network here in the U.S. to lobby against legislations that we're pushing forward.

  So that's why having these offices here will be very dangerous in terms of transnational repression as well going forward.

• Nick Schifrin:

  And, finally, a little personally, if you don't mind, you were anonymous back in 2019, when some of those protests that we were showing were spreading.

  You started your public advocacy in 2021. And, as I said, today you have a one million Hong Kong dollar bounty on your head. The U.S. government has accused Beijing of transnational repression. Do you feel safe here?

• Anna Kwok:

  Well, I wish I could feel safe, but, honestly, I don't feel the safest here in the United States.

  A few months ago, in San Francisco, I was protesting against Xi Jinping because he was here to have this bilateral talk with President Biden. And on the streets of San Francisco, there were people following me, tailing me, and there were also a number of pro-Xi protesters attacking Tibetan activists.

  Some of them were beaten with head injuries. So I think there's a lot of things going on, that we're not really trying to look into yet. But transnational repression is definitely happening. And that's why, whenever I walk on the streets, I would always look back to see if anyone is following me, and I would always have to be very careful about my whereabouts.

  And I think that really tells how deep transnational repression and how infiltrated it has become here.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Anna Kwok, thank you very much.

• Anna Kwok:

  Thank you.