Share on Twitter
Dozens of Hong Kong dissidents were charged with subversion on Sunday in the largest use yet of Beijing s sweeping new national security law, as authorities seek to cripple the finance hub s democracy movement.
Police arrested 55 of the city s best-known pro-democracy campaigners in a series of dawn raids last month.
On Sunday, 47 were charged with one count each of conspiracy to commit subversion - one of the new national security crimes - with police saying the group would appear in court on Monday morning.
Hong Kong legal scholar and democracy activist Benny Tai Yiu-ting (R) prepares to report to the Ma On Shan Police Station in Hong Kong, China, 28 February 2021.
Top Ten 2020
Top Ten 2020
The year 2020 was one which many people say they would like to erase from memory. Yet, many good people did many good things in the year 2020, and
Inside the Vatican recognizes here just a few of them
Dr. Johan Ickx
We begin our list with a somewhat unknown Vatican official, a Belgian layman who is also an academic and an author, the Vatican’s chief archivist,
Dr. Johann Ickx. It has been Dr. Ickx’s work, pre-eminently, which has brought the world new understanding of Pope Pius XII’s key role in helping to save countless Jews from Nazi persecution.
De Lima lauds Ressa, Hong Kong pro-democracy movement et al. for Nobel Peace Prize Nomination
Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has congratulated Maria Ressa and two other media organizations for their nominations for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.
De Lima, a social justice and human rights champion, said Reporters Without Borders (RWB), Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Maria Ressa s nominations reflect the commitment of democratic organizations and nations of the world to defend free press, to protect our journalists, and to safeguard the truth. The nominations of RWB, CPJ and Maria Ressa are not only well deserved for their important role and valiant sacrifices to defend press freedom, protect journalists and represent fearless journalism, but also attest to the fact that, indeed, the world is watching and taking an action, she said in her Dispatch from Crame No. 1028.
The Rollback of Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Hong Kong
Publication: China Brief Volume: 21 Issue: 2
February 4, 2021 11:16 AM
Age: 2 months
Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, presides over its 20th session in Beijing on June 30, when the Hong Kong National Security Law was unanimously passed and immediately implemented (Image source: Xinhua)
Introduction
After the Hong Kong protest movement exploded in 2019, the world looked on with both hope and trepidation. Protestors made five demands: that a proposed extradition law be withdrawn; that there be an independent investigation of police behavior; that the protests stop being characterized as riots; that any charges against arrested protesters be dropped and that promised universal suffrage be implemented (HKPF, December 25, 2019).