US Decries ‘Politically Motivated Prosecutions’ in Hong Kong

The State Department expressed superior concerns astir the continued deterioration of freedoms successful Hong Kong, telling Beijing to cease its “politically-motivated arrests” and merchandise the “unjustly detained” successful the regime’s ever-expanding clampdown.

“We enactment successful peculiar the summation successful politically-motivated prosecutions, including done the National Security Law, targeting Hong Kong’s teachers, labour unions, lawyers, journalists, wellness attraction workers, pupil unions, and idiosyncratic citizens,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said successful a statement.

“We again telephone connected the Beijing and Hong Kong authorities to merchandise those unjustly detained and cease their crackdown connected peaceful civilian nine organizations,” helium added.

Price’s remarks came arsenic Beijing quickened its steps to rotation backmost the territory’s freedoms, with observers noting that Hong Kong is connected way to crook into conscionable different Chinese city.

Civil nine groups successful Hong Kong person been dissolving successful speedy succession nether Beijing-imposed national information law that carries a maximum punishment of beingness imprisonment. 

The metropolis saw astatine slightest 29 commercialized unions disbanded since the commencement of 2021. Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, the largest pro-democracy labour national representing 93 organizations, broke up successful October, citing “political uncertainty.” The group’s main enforcement has fled Hong Kong portion a co-founder is successful jail, serving a 14-month word for his relation successful anti-government protests successful 2019.

Over the past 2 months, Hong Kong has besides mislaid its largest teachers union, a large radical advocating for prisoners’ rights, and a 50-year-old student union astatine a apical university.

Police inquire supporters to permission during the tribunal proceeding of Tong Ying-kit, the archetypal idiosyncratic charged nether a caller nationalist information instrumentality adjacent the High Court, successful Hong Kong, connected July 30, 2021. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

A vigil honoring the Tiananmen Square Massacre victims, an yearly contented for implicit 3 decades that attracted arsenic galore arsenic hundreds of thousands of participants, is to go nary much aft Hong Kong authorities arrested organizers and froze their assets implicit vaguely defined nationalist information charges. This forced the radical to disband.

A tribunal ruling connected Wednesday saw judges handing nearly five-year sentences to 5 students for taking portion successful a 2019 anti-government protestation connected their assemblage campus.

Civil servants, including legislators and territory councilors, are losing their positions nether a new patriotic law enacted earlier this twelvemonth that allowed authorities to disqualify anyone they deemed disloyal to Beijing.

Workers rise the Chinese (top-R) and Hong Kong flags extracurricular a gathering successful Hong Kong connected Oct. 16, 2021. (Bertha Wang/AFP via Getty Images)

More than 250 retired of 452 territory councilors—a bulk from the absorption pro-democracy campy that scored a landslide victory successful 2019—have resigned owed to unit oregon nationalist information investigations.

Price connected Thursday criticized the Hong Kong government’s targeting of pro-democracy territory councilors, noting that they had “received their nationalist mandate from escaped and just elections.”

“These retroactive and targeted disqualifications, based connected the Hong Kong authorities’ arbitrary determination that these territory councilors’ loyalty oaths are invalid, forestall radical successful Hong Kong from participating meaningfully successful their ain governance,” helium said.

On Thursday, the U.S. migration authorities besides outlined eligibility criteria for a programme that would widen Hongkongers’ stay successful the state for different 18 months, truthful they tin flight Beijing’s increasing suppression successful their location city.