Control in the name of national security and public health in contemporary Hong Kong

Illegal to chant in Hong Kong since July 2nd

 

Illegal to ask for now too?

Back on July 1st, less than 24 hours after China's security legislation for Hong Kong came into effect late on June 30th, the first arrests under the new law took place -- with probably the youngest having been a 15-year-old girl apprehended by the police for the terrible crime of waving a "Hong Kong independence flag".  That same day, three other females were arrested that day for being in possession of stickers and a banner advocating independence for Hong Kong, and a motorcyclist who collided with some police officers -- accidentally, it looks like when one views an extended video of the incident. 

The 23-year-old motorcyclist, Tong Ying-kit, ended up being the very first person charged under the security law.  Accused of terrorism (presumably because he injured three police officers) and a secessionism (because he was flying a banner with the "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times" slogan (in Chinese and English) while riding his motorbike), he has been in custody since (despite the efforts of his legal team to get him out on bail). 
   
On July 2nd, that famous rallying cry -- whose English variants include "Restore Hong Kong...", 'Revive Hong Kong..." and "Reclaim Hong Kong..." based on the fact that the first two Chinese characters of this slogan (光 gwong and 復 fuk ) can be variously translated as "liberate", "restore", "revive" and "reclaim" along with, when viewed separately, "light" and "returns" -- was also deemed illegal under the newly enacted law, with the powers that be claiming that it's pro-independence, secessionist and subversive.  This declaration caused a greater frisson than those which outlawed calls for Hong Kong independence because a far greater number of Hong Kongers are comfortable calling for Hong Kong's restoration, revival, etcetera than for outright political independence. 

Before anything else: those two calls really are not synonymous to many participants in the extradition bill protests.  Neither, despite what the powers that be seem to want many people to believe, is it the case independence for Hong Kong among the "five demands" that anti-extradition bill protestors have been making for more than a year now.  Instead, for the record, the five demands are as follows:-  

1) Withdraw the Extradition Bill (officially done but...);
2) Revoke the riot claims (originally, this was specifically for the events of June 12th which had seen the police be a greater menace to society than the people who turned up in great numbers at Admiralty that day);
3) Amnesty for arrested protestors;
4) An independent investigation of police conduct; and
5) Genuine Universal Suffrage.

Not all that radical and actually pretty reasonable, right?  Astonishingly, it now appears to be the case that saying "Five demands, not one less” will also get you in trouble with the law -- or, at least, the police officers entrusted with enforcing the law.  For a local politician actually got warned by police officers that he may have -- but note: not certainly -- violated this insanely broad and also vague security law -- or, as some would have it, insecurity law! -- last night after he exchanged "five demands, not one less" chants with a passerby when out distributing face masks to people in Kowloon Bay!   

Speaking of face masks: the prices for them have come down quite a bit now that there's no longer a medical mask shortage in Hong Kong (like was a case in late January).  And with both pro-Beijing and pro-democracy politicians and groups distributing free masks to the public -- and the government too -- there is a clear recognition that the wearing of masks really helps in our fight against the Wuhan coronavirus. 

A piece of good news for Hong Kong: The number of new daily Wuhan coronavirus cases fell to nine today -- the first time we've recorded single digit numbers in this category since July 3rd.  Even with this clear sign that the third wave has not only peaked but has been largely contained though, current social distancing restrictions don't look like they'll be relaxed any time soon.  In fact, it's been reported that health secretary Sophia Chan is threatening to not relax these measures unless people turn up in mass numbers to take the Wuhan coronavirus tests that many local medical experts have said are unnecessary, with at least one of them (Dr Ho Pak-leung) underlining this fact by stating that he, for one, is not planning to take the test!    

The way the Hong Kong government is going about trying to "encourage" people to take these tests can't help but invite suspicion.  And this all the more so when at the same time as they're readying to conduct tests for upwards of five million people, the same group of officials are stating that it's "not feasible" to test the 60,000 or so people living in elderly care homes across the city which have been the sites of Wuhan coronavirus clusters!  Put another way: this does not make sense and can't help but encourage people to suspect that the health measures are being used as covers to increase surveillance and control over the local population.