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Tibetan villagers and Chinese officials clashed this month over the failure of authorities to pay compensation for land taken for a construction project, with at least one scuffle breaking out at the worksite, local sources said.

No injuries were reported in the brawl on Nov. 10 in Domda village in the Yushul (in Chinese, Yushu) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai, historically a part of northeastern Tibet’s Amdo region, a Tibetan living in the area told RFA this week.

“No one was allowed to record any videos or take photos of the commotion, and no one was hurt,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “However, this land issue has become very critical now, and all construction work has been halted for the time being.”

To promote local development, Chinese officials earlier this year seized a large parcel of land from Domda residents, and though authorities promised to pay compensation to the villagers whose land was taken, no money has yet been paid, the source said.

“So some local Tibetans from the village went to the construction site last week to halt the work until they are compensated for their land,” the source said, adding that villagers were threatened when they pressed their claims, leading to the clash.

China has worked for years to move large numbers of nomadic herders and other Tibetans from their ancestral lands without their consent, said Zamlha Tenpa Gyaltsen, a researcher at the Tibet Policy Institute in the Dharamsala, India.

“The Chinese government tries to justify these policies as efforts to rapidly lift the living standards of rural Tibetans and protect the environment. However, these policies have raised a lot of suspicions,” Gyaltsen said.

Tensions have risen in the Domda area, a region known for its scenic beauty and good supplies of water and electricity, since work began four years ago to demolish nomad housing and replace it with housing built for Chinese migrants and tourists, sources told RFA in earlier reports.

In August, Chinese police stopped a group of Tibetans traveling on the road to Domda, pushing one who objected to a random search into a river, where he later died, and shooting another who attempted to intervene, sources said.

Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force 70 years ago.

Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on the region, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity and subjecting Tibetans to persecution, torture, imprisonment and extrajudicial killings.

Responding to the sentencing of Hong Kong activist Ma Chun-man, also known as “Captain America 2.0”, to five years and nine months in prison for “inciting subversion” under the national security law, Amnesty International’s Deputy Secretary General Kyle Ward said:

“In the warped political landscape of post-national security law Hong Kong, peacefully expressing a political stance and trying to get support from others is interpreted as ‘inciting subversion’ and punishable by years in jail.

“It is outrageous that Ma Chun-man has been sentenced to more than five years in prison simply for chanting slogans and sharing his political views online. The Hong Kong government must stop criminalizing mere acts of expression without any demonstrated connection to the use of force or imminent violence.

“This conviction and sentencing clearly shows that restrictions on the right to freedom of expression in Hong Kong are dangerously disproportionate. The two verdicts handed down in national security law cases have not paid due regard to the human rights safeguards the Hong Kong authorities claim exist in the law.

“The Hong Kong government must stop endlessly expanding its definition of ‘endangering national security’ as a means of locking up people who express views it doesn’t like.”

Background

Ma Chun-man, who has also been dubbed “Captain America 2.0” for carrying a superhero shield at protests, was today sentenced to five years and nine months in prison for “inciting subversion of state power” under the national security law (NSL) enacted in Hong Kong in June 2020.

The sentence relates to him chanting slogans, holding up placards and giving media interviews at a series of protests last year.

In convicting him, the judge said it was not relevant whether or not his acts had been peaceful. Meanwhile, human rights safeguards in domestic and international law were barely discussed during his trial.

International standards clearly state that governments cannot cite national security grounds to restrict legitimate expression, which includes peacefully discussing and supporting independence movements. Even where national security may be used to limit human rights, it must be done through clear laws and in a way that is specific, necessary and proportionate to a demonstrated threat.

The Hong Kong authorities’ sweeping definition of “national security”, which follows that of mainland China, has been used arbitrarily as a pretext to restrict the human rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, association, fair trial and liberty, as well as to repress dissent and political opposition.

Between 1 July 2020 and October 2021, police arrested or ordered the arrest of at least 154 people in relation to the NSL. As of October 2021, at least 82 people have been formally charged, of whom 59 are presently in pretrial detention.

An Amnesty International research briefing released earlier this year found that the NSL has decimated Hong Kong’s freedoms and created a landscape increasingly devoid of human rights protections.

On 26 October 2021, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam ordered that the Hong Kong Alliance be removed from the Companies Register on the basis that "the operation of the Alliance which seeks to end the Chinese Communist Party's leadership amounts to seeking to overthrow" the political system of the People's Republic of China and subverting state power. The Alliance's five operational goals were: freeing pro-democracy activists; rehabilitating the 1989 pro-democracy movement; holding perpetrators accountable for the 1989 Tiananmen massacre; ending one-party dictatorship; and building a democratic China.

On 24 September 2021, members of the Alliance had already voted to dissolve the organisation and the liquidation process has been on-going. A former leader of the Alliance who is in charge of liquidation said the Chief Executive's order is difficult to understand, regrettable, and unnecessary, stating further that the Alliance disagrees with and does not accept the government's conclusion that the Alliance's goals and its operations endangered national security, public safety and public order.

Fourteen activists who planned to participate in the Beijing provincial assembly election have withdrawn four days ahead of the November 5 vote, saying their personal safety is at risk.

Many of the activists are related to people arrested in a July 9, 2015, purge. Authorities arrested more than 300 lawyers and activists in what has become known as the 709 Crackdown.

The 14 activists declared their candidacies on Oct. 15 only to issue a joint statement on Nov. 1 saying that out of consideration of freedom and personal safety, all 14 decided to withdraw from the race.

Wang Qiaoling, whose husband, lawyer Li Heping was arrested in the 709 crackdown, sent the statement via Twitter. It stated that 10 of the candidates had been placed under strict government supervision since declaring. Some were taken to the police station to “drink tea,” a tactic used by Chinese secret police to intimidate dissidents. Some were constrained to their neighborhoods.

The provincial assembly focuses on street-level functions, such as establishing local policies and approving local budgets and expenses.

According to the statement, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau set up a special case team and “[the candidates] will know the result in two months.”

To become a formal candidate, a hopeful must pass a political screening process. According to an article in China Daily by the state-owned Xinhua News Agency, a citizen “must first register and win confirmation of his or her qualifications for lawmaker candidacy. Then receive a nomination as ‘deputy candidate’ by political parties, social organizations, or 10 or more voters in one constituency.”

The article also said, “There is no such a thing as an ‘independent candidate,’ as it's not recognized by law.”

Wang Qiaoling told VOA Mandarin that “it’s not convenient” for her to say anything beyond the statement.

When asked whether she’s under pressure to refrain from making further comments, she answered “definitely yes.”

VOA Mandarin contacted one of the candidates, Ye Jinghuan, who replied to say because authorities are monitoring her phone, she takes calls only from close relatives.

VOA Mandarin contacted her sister, Ye Jingchun, who is also a rights activist. She said the 14 candidates had no choice but to withdraw.

“There is also pressure from their relatives and friends,” she told VOA Mandarin. “The authorities usually talk to those around you to put pressure on you, making it hard to bear the mental burden.”

Ye Jingchun, who participated in the 2011 and 2016 Beijing provincial assembly elections as an independent candidate, said this time there’s even more pressure from the authorities.

She said in 2011 and 2016, independent candidates would receive police attention only for their campaign activities. “But this year, everyone is placed under surveillance. They are no longer free to take a call from outside of the country. ... Some were forced to ‘travel,’ some were forced to stay home. I think it will last until Nov. 5, the election day,” she told VOA Mandarin. Authorities employ forced chaperoned travel to send dissidents away from events of domestic or international importance.

Ye Jingcho endorsed the high-profile announcement the 14 candidates used to declare their candidacies and then withdraw. “So, when you quit, people understand why,” she said.

Local elections will be held in the Beijing municipal area on Nov. 5 to select about 5,000 district People’s Congress representatives and more than 11,000 township People’s Congress representatives.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said at a central conference focused on work related to people's congresses held on Oct. 13-14 that "Democracy, a shared value of humanity, is a key tenet unswervingly upheld by the CPC and the Chinese people.”

The local level elections are the only ones in China that use a direct election system, where candidates who win a majority of votes will be elected as local representatives.

"We all know the chances of being elected are very small,” Ye said, “but even if I didn’t win, my neighbors, my friends get to know a little bit more about the meaning of voting, so I have no complaints or regrets.”

Hong Kong student activist Tony Chung was sentenced to three years and seven months in prison on Tuesday after pleading guilty to secession and money laundering charges under the city’s national security law.

Chung, 20, is the youngest person to be convicted under Hong Kong’s national security legislation since China’s imposition of the measure last year.

He pleaded guilty to one count of secession and one count of money laundering as part of a plea bargain. Under those terms, authorities dropped a second money laundering count as well as a sedition count.

Upon pleading guilty on Nov. 3, Chung said, “I have no shame in my heart,” local media reported.

On Tuesday, his plea bargain got him a 25% reduction of his sentence, meaning Chung will serve 40 months for secession and 18 months for money laundering concurrently, with only three months of the latter sentence served separately.

Political scientist Joseph Cheng, who is formerly of Hong Kong but now lives in New Zealand, says he believes the 43-month sentence is too severe.

“I certainly believe that the sentence is overly harsh. There appears to be an intention to create a deterrence effect. Advocacy for independence even in the absence of concrete action will attract severe penalties,” Cheng told VOA via email.

Activist Chung is the former convener of youth activist group Studentlocalism, a pro-independence student organization that was founded in 2016. During his national security trial, prosecutors said Chung had made social media posts calling for people to join protests and get rid of Chinese colonial rule.

Authorities arrested the activist in October 2020 outside the U.S. Embassy in Hong Kong. He was the first political figure to face charges under the security law.

Weeks before he was detained, Chung, then 19, spoke to VOA, outlining his fears that Hong Kong authorities would soon arrest him. Last December, the youth activist received a four-month jail term after being sentenced under Hong Kong’s Basic Law, for insulting China’s national flag during anti-government protests in 2019. The Basic Law is the city's default legal system.

Joseph Cheng said speaking out in Hong Kong has become too dangerous.

“Already people do not want to speak out. Journalists have difficulty finding people to comment on sensitive topics; however, there are many activists in exile, and they will continue to articulate their views. In Hong Kong, people remain silent but the anger is there,” he added.

Finn Lau, a Hong Kong activist in exile in Britain, told VOA that Tony Chung’s sentencing would only spur Hong Kong activists.

“His sentencing would drive Hong Kong activists in exile, especially myself, to go the extra mile to counter the Chinese Communist Party’s influence around the globe. It would not deter Hong Kongers.”

“Since the pro-democracy voices in Hong Kong, including newspapers, have been stifled, it is inevitable that the genuine opinion of Hong Kongers has to be channelled through overseas Hong Kongers,” he said.

Britain returned control of Hong Kong to China in 1997 under the Sino-British Joint Declaration, under which the city would enjoy a “high degree of autonomy” for 50 years. But activists in the city have complained that China has long encroached on those freedoms. China maintains Hong Kong is an inalienable part of the country and that calls for independence have no legal basis.

After 2019’s anti-government protests, Beijing implemented the national security law on Hong Kong, prohibiting secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, and its details can be widely interpreted.

Since then, dozens of opposition activists and lawmakers have been arrested and are awaiting trial, while others have fled overseas. Slogans have been banned, while pro-democracy books have been removed from libraries and schools. In June, pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily closed its doors after 26 years of journalism with its founder Jimmy Lai in jail. At least 50 civil society groups have also disbanded since the security law came into force.

Chung is the third person to be sentenced under the security law for secession.

Activist Leon Tong Ying-Kit, 24, was the first person sentenced under the law. In July, he received a nine-year sentence following his conviction for terrorism and secession.

Activist Ma Chun-man, nicknamed “Captain America 2.0,” was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for inciting secession.

Both defendants had pleaded not guilty.

Eric Yan-ho Lai, a law and political analyst and fellow at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, said that Chung’s sentence was significantly lower after a guilty plea, and could influence the pleas of future defendants facing trial under the security measure.

"The sentence imposed on Tony Chung would give an example to the following national security law defendants to consider whether to plead guilty or not, as the length of sentence is lighter than Ma and Tong who didn't plead guilty.”

Lai added that defendants are already feeling the pressure to plead guilty because of the costs of legal representation.

“The change of the surrounding environment, including the new legal aid system that defendants can no longer choose their own legal representation if they apply legal aid, so, also create a combined effect of pressuring defendants to consider pleading guilty or defending their words and deeds in the courtroom.”

The law analyst questioned whether the crackdown on younger opposition voices benefits Hong Kong in the long term.

“The governments shall ask themselves whether criminalizing the young people with draconian laws can really win back the public trust towards the court or the governments,” he added.

Mainland Chinese authorities have deregistered a third human rights lawyer involved in the defence of Hong Kong fugitives caught by the national coastguard while trying to flee to Taiwan last year.

Lin Qilei revealed on Sunday that the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice had written to him saying it had decided to revoke his licence.

The lawyer was hired by the family of university student Kok Tsz-lun, one of 12 Hongkongers arrested and jailed by mainland authorities after trying to flee prosecution in August 2020 over their roles in anti-government protests the year before.

According to the letter, the bureau said the decision to revoke Lin’s licence was due to his inability to secure a job at another firm after the one he headed, Beijing Rui Kai, was deregistered by the authorities for six months.

It said Lin could apply to review the decision within 60 days or launch a legal bid at Tongzhou District People’s Court within six months.

Lin tweeted he was scornful of the authorities’ suggestions and noted he had previously been ignored by the Tongzhou court after attempting to appeal against the move to deregister his law firm.

“The court neither received [my] submission nor responded,” he said. “I have preliminarily lost my confidence in law.”

There was nothing he could do, Lin said, when “even laws could not stop shameless acts”.

Two other lawyers, Lu Siwei and Ren Quanniu, who represented family’s of the fugitives, also lost their licences.

Both said they were subjected to an unprecedented level of pressure throughout the four months they were involved with the Hong Kong defendants, including being urged to quit the case, told to refrain from speaking to the media and even had the premises of their law firms searched.

The authorities previously accused Ren, based in Henan province, of breaching lawyers’ regulations in a 2018 case in which he represented a follower of Falun Gong, a spiritual group banned on the mainland as it was deemed a “cult organisation”.

Lu, meanwhile, was accused of “repeatedly making inappropriate remarks on the internet” for a long period of time and in May was barred on national security grounds from leaving the country to attend an American fellowship programme.

In December last year, mainland authorities returned two young suspects who were among the 12 to Hong Kong without charge, with a Shenzhen court jailing the remaining 10 for between seven months and three years following a closed-door trial.

Eight of those were sent back to Hong Kong in March, while two others are still serving their sentences on the mainland.

Nine of the 10 fugitives who were sent back to Hong Kong were charged with an additional count of perverting the course of public justice for trying to flee, on top of the charges they already faced in connection to their roles in the civil unrest.

Amnesty International will close its two offices in Hong Kong by the end of the year, the organization announced today.

The local ‘section’ office will cease operations on 31 October while the regional office – which is part of Amnesty’s global International Secretariat – is due to close by the end of 2021. Regional operations will be moved to the organization’s other offices in the Asia-Pacific.

“This decision, made with a heavy heart, has been driven by Hong Kong’s national security law, which has made it effectively impossible for human rights organizations in Hong Kong to work freely and without fear of serious reprisals from the government,” said Anjhula Mya Singh Bais, chair of Amnesty’s International Board.

“Hong Kong has long been an ideal regional base for international civil society organizations, but the recent targeting of local human rights and trade union groups signals an intensification of the authorities’ campaign to rid the city of all dissenting voices. It is increasingly difficult for us to keep operating in such an unstable environment.”

There are two Amnesty International offices based in Hong Kong: a local membership section focused on human rights education in the city; and a regional office which carries out research, advocacy and campaigning work on East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific. All of the regional office’s work will continue from new locations.

“We are deeply indebted to Amnesty members and staff who over the last 40 years have worked tirelessly to protect human rights in and from Hong Kong. From successfully pushing for the full abolition of the death penalty in Hong Kong in 1993, to exposing evidence of excessive use of force by police during the 2019 mass protests, Amnesty in Hong Kong has shone a light on human rights violations in the darkest of days,” said Agnes Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

“In the wider region, our research and campaigning has tackled subjects including freedom of expression in North Korea, conscientious objection to military service in South Korea, the right to housing in Mongolia, Japan’s wartime atrocities against “comfort women”, and the crackdown on human rights lawyers in China.

“Moreover, Amnesty International Hong Kong’s education programmes – from classroom talks to a documentary film festival – have enhanced awareness of human rights not only in the city’s schools but among the general public as well. No one and no power can demolish that legacy.”

The national security law, imposed by the Chinese central government, was enacted on 30 June 2020. It targets alleged acts of “secession”, “subversion of state power”, “terrorist activities” and “collusion with foreign or external forces to endanger national security”.

Its sweeping and vaguely worded definition of “national security”, which follows that of the Beijing authorities, has been used arbitrarily as a pretext to restrict the human rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, as well as to repress dissent and political opposition.

Amnesty documented the rapid deterioration of human rights in Hong Kong one year after the enactment of the national security law in a June 2021 briefing.

“The environment of repression and perpetual uncertainty created by the national security law makes it impossible to know what activities might lead to criminal sanctions. The law has repeatedly been used to target people who have upset the authorities for any number of reasons – from singing political songs to discussing human rights issues in the classroom,” said Anjhula Mya Singh Bais.

“The pattern of raids, arrests and prosecutions against perceived opponents has highlighted how the vagueness of the law can be manipulated to build a case against whomsoever the authorities choose.”

A government crackdown targeting activists, opposition politicians and independent media has recently expanded to include civil society organizations. At least 35 groups have disbanded since the law was enacted, including some of the city’s largest unions and activist groups.

“There are difficult days ahead for human rights in Hong Kong, but Amnesty International will continue to stand with the people of Hong Kong. We will fight for their rights to be respected and we will be vigilant in our scrutiny of those who abuse them,” said Agnes Callamard.

“While leaving the city that we have called home for decades is devastating, we do so proud of our achievements over that time, and confident that the strength of Amnesty’s 10 million-plus supporters worldwide will enable us to continue our work together to end human rights abuses everywhere.”

Background

Amnesty International is a global human rights movement of 10 million people, with operations in more than 70 countries. The organization holds governments around the world accountable to equal standards under international law.

Amnesty’s local Hong Kong section works principally on building awareness of human rights issues in the city and is funded primarily by individual donations from the Hong Kong public.

The Hong Kong regional office – which has a sister location in Bangkok – conducts research, campaigning and advocacy work across the region including on mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Mongolia, Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Singapore, Timor-Leste, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific islands.

The overwhelming majority of Amnesty’s income comes from individuals the world over. These personal and unaffiliated donations allow the organization to maintain full independence from any and all governments, political ideologies, economic interests or religions. Amnesty neither seeks nor accepts any funds for human rights research from governments or political parties.

After four years in detention, human rights lawyer Li Yuhan stood trial in the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning on Wednesday for "fraud," and "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," a charge often used to target peaceful critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Li, 60, who had previously defended high-profile rights attorney Wang Yu amid a nationwide crackdown on rights lawyers, stood trial at the Heping District People's Court in Shenyang, where an ambulance was parked, amid concerns over Li's poor health.

Wang, who showed up to support Li with fellow rights lawyer Xie Yang, said police had denied access to diplomats from six countries, who asked to observe the proceedings.

"There were diplomats from six countries including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the United States, the Netherlands, and Switzerland," Wang told RFA from the scene. "Some were diplomats from consulates in Shenyang, and some were diplomats from Beijing."

"They asked to observe, but the court said there were no available seats, so there weren't allowed in."

She added: "They are very concerned about this case. I also think that ... the abuse of lawyer Li Yuhan has been inhumane."

Wang said guards had thrown a security cordon some 50 meters from the front gates, and didn't allow her or Xie Yang to pass.

"We saw a lot of lawyers and litigants from other cases trying to get through to submit materials or meet with a judge, but they weren't allowed in either," she said. "Court business was totally suspended."

"We took a few photos from outside the security cordon, then we got driven away by the security guards, state security police and court police," she said.

One of Li Yuhan's two defense lawyers was able to attend the trial. Her other defense lawyer can no longer represent her because his own law firm's operating license was arbitrarily invalidated in January 2021 and he has been unable to secure employment at another law firm. Human rights lawyer Wang Yu, who arrived in Shenyang the day before, attempted to submit credentials to represent Li Yuhan but was rejected by the presiding judge.

Retaliation

Earlier this year, the European Bar Association wrote to CCP general secretary Xi Jinping, expressing concerns over Li Yuhan's poor health and situation in detention.

Wang said the charges against Li are retaliatory.

"What the picking quarrels and stirring up trouble charge refers to is that Li Yuhan had made many complaints [about the Heping district police department]," Wang said. "The fraud charge was in retaliation for Li Yuhan representing me during the July 9, 2015 crackdown."

Wang said the authorities have also violated Li's human rights by holding her in detention for more than four years, and delaying an earlier trial slated for April 2018.

"This is a total violation of her human rights," she said. "The detention center has been putting pressure on Li to plead guilty, and the police and court have also used various methods including threats, bargaining and abuse."

Lu Tingge, a lawyer from the northern province of Hebei, agreed.

"Her lawyer told the authorities about her poor health and applied for medical parole, but they never approved it," Lu said. "If [her age and poor health] had been taken into consideration, the trial would have been held long ago."

Li has been visited by her defense attorney in the Shenyang No. 1 Detention Center, and found to be in poor health. She has been hospitalized twice and given a number of medications, but applications for medical parole were denied.

She initially went missing on Oct. 9, 2017, and has been "at risk of torture and other ill-treatment" in the police-run detention center, London-based Amnesty International said at the time.

Fellow activists said her detention came after she was particularly courageous in the wake of a nationwide police operation targeting rights lawyers, legal firms, and rights activists since July 2015.

Wang Yu was the first of a group of lawyers at the Beijing Fengrui law firm to be detained on the night of July 9-10, 2015, kicking off a nationwide police operation that detained or questioned more than 300 lawyers and their associates.

On October 7, Luo, who previously served as the deputy editor-in-chief of Beijing-based economic magazine Caijing, was summoned by a public security bureau in Sanya, a city in China’s Hainan Province, and later placed under detention.

According to the police notice, Luo was accused of ‘defaming heroes and martyrs’ because he referred to Chinese soldiers depicted in a recently released war propaganda film, “The Battle at Lake Changjin,” as ignorant. The comments were posted to Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, on October 6.

Luo came under fire for his remarks, with several state media outlets criticising Luo for ‘casting a smear on deceased war heroes’. On October 7, Luo apologised for the comments, describing them erroneous and acknowledging that they may have been offensive. His Weibo account has since been suspended. China has a history of quashing dissent by coercing journalists to publicly confess or apologise for actions against the state.

Luo, 40, has previously worked with China Business Herald and The Beijing News, and currently runs a legal consultancy firm. In 2013, he was awarded the Integrity Award by the non-governmental organisation Transparency International in recognition of his “courage to expose corruption.”

A court in Hong Kong on Tuesday handed down jail terms of nearly five years to five students in connection with the siege by riot police of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in November 2019.

Lau Chun-yuk, Ko Chi-pan, Chan Lik-sik and Hui Yi-chuen, aged 20 to 23, were sentenced to four years and nine months' imprisonment by the District Court, which jailed Foo Hoi-ching for four years and eleven months, government broadcaster RTHK reported on Tuesday.

The court found them guilty of rioting and breaching a face mask ban in place at the time, while Foo and Hui were also convicted of possess offensive weapons or items that could be used in such a way.

Deputy district judge Kathie Cheung said she had handed down the heavy sentences as a deterrent, because the students had engaged in violence against law enforcement officers, RTHK said.

The students had been wearing the black clothing of the 2019 protest movement, including gear to protect them against the tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and police beatings that characterized that year's protests.

Cheung said this showed they had intended to join in, and likened the scene to a "battlefield."

CUHK students put up an organized defense when police tried to enter the CUHK campus, setting up makeshift barricades with furniture, trash cans and umbrellas, and throwing Molotov cocktails and other projectiles at police, as police rained tear gas and other "non-lethal" munitions down on them, leaving the entire campus wreathed with CS gas.

'Pillar of Shame'

Riot police went on to lay siege to the Polytechnic University, meeting with similar levels of resistance, later in the month.

Meanwhile, the row over the University of Hong Kong (HKU)'s plan to remove the "Pillar of Shame" sculpture commemorating the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre has intensified with the withdrawal of Chicago-based law firm Mayer Brown from its representation of the university after an international outcry.

The firm had written to the now-disbanded Tiananmen vigil organizers, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, requesting the sculpture's removal by 5.00 p.m. on Oct. 13, sparking the anger of its creator Jens Galschiøt, who said he has hired a lawyer to protect his property, which was only on loan to the Alliance.

Following Mayer Brown's withdrawal, former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying took to his Facebook account on Oct. 18 to denounce the firm as having been "infiltrated by foreign foreign powers" and calling on all "Chinese" clients to withdraw their business. It was unclear whether he meant people of Chinese descent or citizens of the People's Republic of China.

Leung, now a high-ranking official in a ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) political advisory body, said the firm had abandoned HKU and bowed to political pressure coming from the U.S., and called for an investigation by the Hong Kong Law Society.

Political denunciations by Chinese officials and CCP-backed media have often preceded investigations by the authorities in Hong Kong, where the imposition of a draconian national security law by Beijing from July 1, 2020 has ushered in a citywide crackdown on public dissent and democratic political opposition.

Mayer Brown has declined to comment further since announcing its withdrawal as HKU's representative on Oct. 15.

Ethical conflicts

Danish sculptor Jens Galschiøt welcomed Mayer Brown's withdrawal, which came after more than 20 groups wrote an open letter protesting its involvement, and said Leung's diatribe was "completely crazy," and had pushed the incident to a whole new level.

He said it was important to keep alive the memory of the June 1989 massacre by the People's Liberation Army that ended weeks of student-led protests, hunger-strikes and calls for democracy and the rule of law, and for the world to continue to pay tribute to those who died.

Benedict Rogers, founder of the U.K.-based rights group Hong Kong Watch, which signed the letter, said the campaign had been successful, and said Leung's call for a boycott of Mayer Brown showed how companies that do business with China are increasingly being forced to face up to ethical conflicts.

Zhou Fengsuo, a former 1989 student leader and founder of the U.S.-based rights group Humanitarian China, which also signed, said China is now openly trying to manipulate foreign companies and change the rules of doing business internationally.

"The CCP has made a deliberate choice to stand in opposition to the international community," Zhou told RFA. "It's actually a kind of decoupling."

"International companies, including lawyers, have a tendency to cave in to Beijing for profit, but now that this kind of confrontation is getting more and more direct, they may be forced to make a choice in the end," he said.

"These law firms that sit on the fence need to be more vigilant about the risks of doing business in China," Zhou said. "U.S. companies need to pick a side; they can't be on both."

Seven Hong Kong democracy campaigners, including former lawmakers, were sentenced on Saturday to up to 12 months in jail for their role in a protest last year against a sweeping national security law imposed by China.

The seven had pleaded guilty to charges that included organising the unauthorised assembly on July 1, 2020, when thousands of protesters took to the streets. Police, who had banned the demonstration citinbg coronavirus restrictions, fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse them.

The activists included Figo Chan, a former convenor of the now-disbanded Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF); Tsang Kin-shing and Tang Sai-lai of the League of Social Democrats; former district councillor Andy Chui; and former legislators Wu Chi-wai, Eddie Chu and Leung Kwok-hung.

Chan was jailed for 12 months, while the others were given sentences from six to ten months.

"The nature of incitement was serious," said the judge, Douglas Yau, noting that it created the risk of violence.

Beijing imposed a national security law on June 30 last year as a response to widespread anti-government protests in 2019 that roiled the city. The law, drawn up by China, sets out to punish subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.

The protest took place the next day - the first full day under the new law, though civil society groups had held deminstrations on July 1 for years to champion various issues, including democratic rights.

Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 with the promise its wide-ranging freedoms and high degree of autonomy would be preserved. Beijing and Hong Kong authorities have repeatedly denied curbing human rights and freedoms.

"We could only choose civil disobedience… a peaceful, rational and non-violent way to express our demand against the national security law," Figo Chan said in mitigation.

"In order to uphold the belief of civil disobedience, I decided to plead guilty, admitting that I violated the "evil public order law"."

At least 370 people were arrested that day for illegal assembly and other offences, with ten involving violations of the security law, according to police.

Tong Ying-kit, the first person convicted under the national security law, was sentenced in July to nine years in prison for terrorist activities and inciting secession.

He was accused of driving his motorcycle that day into riot police while carrying a flag with the now-banned protest slogan "Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our times".

According to the Security Bureau, more than 150 people have been arrested under the national security law. Among them, 100 people have been formally charged.

Hong Kong's largest independent trade union disbanded on Sunday, further stoking concerns over the space for civil society groups as a national security law and the sweeping powers it gives the police stifle dissent in the global financial center.

Founded in 1990, the 145,000 member Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) voted to disband, bringing an end to the organization as authorities exert greater control on groups and unions in the business hub.

While anti-government protests in 2019 generated a new wave of labor activism in Hong Kong and triggered a 35% jump in registered trade unions, groups have been scrambling to disband since Beijing imposed the security law last year.

Fears of falling foul of the law and facing terms of up to life in jail have seen at least 29 trade unions disband since the start of this year, according to a tally by Reuters.

HKCTU vice-president Leo Tang said members of the group had received threats to their personal safety, without elaborating.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has denied that the government is carrying out a crackdown on civil society, and authorities say all law enforcement actions have been based on evidence and have nothing to do with the political beliefs of those arrested.

National security police in Hong Kong have frozen the assets of a group that organized vigils for Tiananmen massacre victims, as the city's public broadcaster was warned on Wednesday that its reporting must 'safeguard national interests.'

"This morning, the liquidator of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, Mr. Cheng Yiu-cheong, received a notice from the national security police notifying him that all of the Alliance's assets, including those of the June 4th Memorial Hall, were frozen," the Alliance said in a post on its Facebook page on Wednesday.

National security police officers took Cheng Yiu-chang to the June 4th Memorial Hall and handed him the letter of notification, the group said.

"Cheng expressed surprise and disagreement with the [move]," it said, adding that Cheng planned to go to the national security police headquarters to request the assets be unfrozen pending the dissolution of the group.

The Alliance voted to disband at an extraordinary general meeting on Sept. 25, following an investigation by Hong Kong's national security police under a law imposed on the city by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020.

The Alliance stands accused of acting as the agent of a foreign power, with leaders Chow Hang-tung, Albert Ho, and Lee Cheuk-yan arrested on suspicion of "incitement to subvert state power," and the group's assets frozen under the national security law.

At a special general meeting held at the June 4th Memorial Hall under heavy police watch in Mong Kok district, members voted 41-4 to disband after 32 years of supporting victims of the Tiananmen killings, demanding accountability, and advocating for an end to one-party rule.

The national security law ushered in an ongoing and citywide crackdown on all forms of public dissent and political opposition, with election rules changed to ensure only pro-CCP candidates can run and with the government insisting that further legislation on espionage is needed to continue the crackdown on what Beijing insists was an attempt by hostile foreign powers to foment a "color revolution" in Hong Kong.

Journalists warned

Government broadcaster RTHK on Wednesday issued a new set of guidelines to its staff, warning them that their work must always serve China's national interests, on pain of disciplinary action.

Journalists have also been warned to be careful what they say on social media, "to protect the station's integrity and reputation," RTHK reported on its English-language news page.

The rules mean that opposition or critical voices are likely to be unwelcome on RTHK programs.

“Under no circumstances should our programs provide a platform to encourage, incite, promote, glorify, endorse, or sympathize with any act or activity endangering national security or otherwise contain any contents which are contrary to the interests of national security," the station quoted the guidelines as saying.

RTHK programs must not provoke or deepen hatred, discrimination, or hostility towards the central government or the Hong Kong government, the rules say.

Staff must also avoid any contact with foreign governments or political organizations, and should take at face value Beijing's territorial claim on the democratic island of Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the CCP, nor formed part of the People's Republic of China.

In an apparent reference to reporting linked to the 2019 protest movement, staff must make sure they don't sympathize with, justify or glamorize "criminal acts."

'Inciting secession'

The warnings came as a former protester stood trial under the national security law in Hong Kong's District Court, for "inciting secession."

Ma Chun-man, known by his nickname Captain America 2.0, is accused of inciting others to commit secession by shouting "Hong Kong independence is the only solution," and "Free Hong Kong, revolution now!" at protests and in shopping malls between August and November 2020.

Motorcyclist Tong Ying-kit was jailed for nine years in July for "inciting secession" and "terrorism" after he flew a flag with the "Free Hong Kong, revolution now!" slogan while riding his bike at a protest against the national security law on July 1, 2020, the day it took effect.

National security police have also charged seven other people including a 16-year-old with "conspiracy to incite the commission by other persons of the offence of subversion."

The group, aged 16-25, are members of the pro-independence group Returning Valiant, and were arrested in July on suspicion of terrorism and amid allegations of a bomb plot.

Authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong have applied to arrest a human rights lawyer after holding him under residential surveillance for six months, his friend told RFA.

Rights lawyer Zhou Xiaoyun, who formerly worked as a senior editor at the cutting-edge Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper in Guangzhou, was initially detained by police in the northeastern province of Liaoning around six months ago on suspicion of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," a charge frequently used to target peaceful critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

He was held incommunicado under RSDL, residential surveillance at a designated location, but now that the six-month limit has been reached, police have applied to the state prosecutor's office for approval of his arrest, a friend of Zhou's who gave only the surname Lu said.

Police in Guangdong's Panshan county submitted the arrest application to the local procuratorate on Sept. 26, Lu said.

He said Zhou was being victimized by the Liaoning police.

"They sent the case to the Panshan county procuratorate on the 26th, to apply for his arrest," Lu said. "It's not clear which leader is in charge, but it is being handled, at least on the face of things, by the Panshan county police, and in actuality by the Panjin municipal police department."

Zhou had met with his lawyer twice during the past week, as well as receiving a visit from his sister, he said.

A veteran lawyer who gave only the surname Zhang said Zhou will remain in detention after his time in "residential surveillance at a designated location (RSDL)" expires if the application is approved.

"This is what used to be called criminal detention, and it requires the approval of the procuratorate for a formal arrest," Zhang said. "This is a critical juncture, because if the procuratorate approves the arrest, it means at the very least that they believe Zhou committed a crime which should be investigated and which deserves a prison sentence."

"[That means they think] he should remain in detention," he said.

Repeated calls to the Panjin municipal police department and to the Panshan country procuratorate rang unanswered during office hours on Tuesday.

Re-educating the media

The CCP is in the process of "re-educating" its already tightly controlled state media, requiring hundreds of thousands of journalists to sit an exam on the political thought of general secretary Xi Jinping to qualify for a new generation of official press cards.

The process started with a 2014 requirement for journalists to study Marxism, and followed up by Xi in 2016, when he warned during visits to state media organizations that state media are part of the CCP family.

All media operating in China must safeguard the authority of the Communist Party central committee, and adhere to "the correct direction" in forming public opinion, Xi said at the time.

Meanwhile, Xu Yan, wife of jailed human rights attorney Yu Wensheng said he has yet to receive adequate medical and dental treatment in Nanjing Prison, where he is serving a four-year sentence after being convicted of "incitement to subvert state power" by a court in the eastern province of Jiangsu.

Family members have long suspected that Yu has been tortured and ill-treated while in custody, as he only has limited use of his right hand, and is unable to write, brush his teeth, or harvest crops as part of prison labor.

He was named as a finalist for the Martin Ennals Award honoring human rights defenders earlier this year.

The Martin Ennals Foundation called him "one of the best-known and most intrepid human rights activists" in China, acknowledging that Yu has been subjected to arbitrary detention, a secret trial, and the removal of his license to practice law.

Hong Kong police on Monday arrested three members of the Student Politicism group on subversion charges under a draconian national security law imposed on the city by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), accusing its members of trying to bring down the regime.

Among the arrestees were convenor Wong Yat-chin and secretary general Chan Chi-sum, the group said in a brief statement on its Facebook page.

The Hong Kong Baptist University student union editorial board named the third arrestee as Jessica Chu, a former spokesperson for Student Politicism who is no longer a member of the group, according to a screenshot posted to Twitter by Agence France-Presse correspondent Xinqi Su.

Police confirmed they had arrested three suspects aged between 18 and 20 for carrying out "subversive acts" including warning people not to use the government's LeaveHomeSafe COVID-19 tracking app, and "inciting hatred of the government" via street booths.

Wong was shown in media footage posted by the Oriental Daily news website, being led away in handcuffs from the group's headquarters in Kwai Chung district, and being taken away in an unmarked grey people carrier.

National security police raided the premises, seizing boxes of goods intended for prison inmates, including chocolates, sanitary products, and crackers, Hong Kong-based translator KTse852 said via their Twitter account.

Senior police superintendent Steve Li told reporters that the group had been imposing its political beliefs on others, and inciting them to overthrow the governments of Hong Kong and mainland China.

Li said the group's goal in sending goods to inmates was to enlist them to aid these efforts, and accused him of exhorting followers to "practice martial arts for when the revolution comes."

"That ... is clearly resistance aimed at the Hong Kong authorities and the CCP government," Li said, accusing the group of intensifying its political activism with street booths in Mong Kok.

The national security law, which has ushered in a city-wide crackdown on peaceful protest and political opposition since it took effect on July 1, 2020, criminalizes contact with and funding from overseas politicians and foundations, public criticism of the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities, as well as opposition activism, which is deemed a bid to overthrow the existing political order.

Forty-seven former democratic lawmakers and activists are currently awaiting trial on "subversion" charges under the national security law after taking part in a democratic primary in 2020 that was designed to maximize the number of LegCo seats won by the opposition.

The targeting of Student Politicism comes after prisoner support group Wall-fare announced it would disband after secretary for security and former police chief Chris Tang accused "certain groups" of endangering national security" in prisons by writing to inmates and "soliciting followers" with gifts of chocolates, hairpins, and other items, making them "hate the government."

It was the latest in a line of civil society groups to disband following public denunciation by officials or by CCP-backed media.

Feminist journalist Sophia Huang and fellow activist Wang Jianbing are incommunicado, believed detained, ahead of Huang's planned departure to study overseas, the Chinese rights group Weiquanwang reported on Tuesday.

Huang had planned to leave China via Hong Kong on Sept. 20 for the U.K., where she planned to take a master's degree in development with a prestigious Chevening Scholarship, the Weiquanwang report said.

Wang, who is a labor and healthcare rights activist, had planned to see her off on her journey, it said.

"According to people familiar with the matter, Wang Jianbing may have been detained under investigation for incitement to subvert state power, mainly due to the daily gatherings of friends at his home," Weiquanwang said, adding that both activists had been incommunicado since Sept. 19.

Repeated calls and messages to Huang's cell phone went unanswered on Tuesday.

Sources told RFA the pair had likely been detained by police in their home district of Haizhu.

An officer who answered the phone at the Haizhu district police department in Guangzhou declined to confirm the report.

"Who? I've never heard of those people," the officer said. "If you believe they are being dealt with, then the relatives need to wait for notification."

"The case officers will only contact [the family]."

Veteran political journalist Gao Yu said Huang's detention may be short-lived, and only intended to prevent her from leaving for the U.K.

"The kind of persecution that his happening now is worse than at any other time ... even when they were going after the 'rightists' they didn't just arrest people on a whim," she said.

"It's unbelievable right now ... they regard these young journalists and non-government organizations as the enemy," she said. "The methods they are using are persecutory and despicable, and without any basis in law."

U.S.-based legal scholar Teng Biao said "disappearances" are increasingly being used by the CCP to suppress any form of dissent or rights activism.

"They keep lowering the threshold for the kinds of people they will persecute," Teng said. "There is now no longer room for activities that may have been tolerated in the past."

Survey of harassment, assaults

Before being targeted by the authorities in 2019, Huang had been an outspoken member of the country's #MeToo movement, and had carried out a survey of sexual harassment and assault cases among Chinese women working in journalism.

Huang was present at a million-strong protest in Hong Kong on June 9, 2019 against plans to allow extradition to mainland China, and was detained for "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble" in October 2019, before being released on bail in January 2020, a status that often involves ongoing surveillance and restrictions on a person's activities.

Her travel documents were also confiscated after her return, preventing her from beginning a law degree in Hong Kong the fall of 2019.

Huang had previously assisted in the investigation and reporting of a number of high-profile sexual harassment allegations against professors at Peking University, Wuhan University of Technology, Henan University and Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou.

Wang started to work in rural development after graduating in 2005, before joining the Guangzhou Gongmin NGO in 2014 and director and coordinator for youth work.

In 2018, he started advocacy and legal support work on behalf of workers with occupational diseases, and was a vocal supporter of China's #MeToo movement.

A Hong Kong group that once campaigned for China's embattled human rights lawyers announced on Tuesday it would disband after being investigated by national security police under a city-wide crackdown on public dissent and peaceful opposition.

The China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group (CHRLCG) said in a statement on its website that it had received a letter of enquiry from the Hong Kong Police dated Aug. 25, 2021.

"The CHRLCG has decided to dissolve in September 2021 and has already activated the voluntary liquidation procedure," the statement said.

"Directors of the CHRLCG are going to resign from their directorships soon."

The group is the latest in string of civil society groups to disband following investigation by national security police.

The pro-democracy Confederation of Trade Unions (CTU) will vote on Oct. 3 on whether to disband after being denounced in the Beijing-backed media, a typical precursor to investigation under the national security law.

The denunciations usually focus on accusations that a given activist group or non-government organization has done something that could be in breach of the law imposed on Hong Kong by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020.

Several organizations, including protest march organizers the Civil Human Rights Front, the Professional Teachers' Union, and Wall-fare, a prison support group for those in custody because of the 2019 protest movement, have disbanded following similar articles, or after being criticized by Hong Kong's leaders.

And the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance said it had recently received a letter from the Registry of Trade Unions alleging that its funds were used for "political purposes."

Three are denied bail

The CHRLCG's decision to disband came as three activists linked to the Hong Kong activist group Student Politicism were denied bail on Tuesday following their arrest on subversion charges under a draconian national security law.

West Kowloon Court principal magistrate Don So rejected bail applications from lawyers acting for group convenor Wong Yat-chin, 20, and former members Chan Chi-sum, 20 and Jessica Chu, 18.

The trio embraced each other and cried in court when they heard bail had been denied, with the case adjourned until November following a request from the prosecution.

Judge So said he didn't believe the defendants would refrain from further actions "endangering national security" if they were released, meaning that the trio will now spend the Mid-Autumn Festival in jail instead of with their families.

Wong and Chan said they would reapply every eight days, while Chu waived her right to further bail hearings.

Their supporters also hugged each other, or wiped away tears when the decision was announced, while others chanted "release political prisoners!" and "Inhumane!"

Wong said in a message posted to social media by his lawyer that his fate was perhaps the result of the times Hongkongers are now living through.

"I hope we can all live bravely and openly, so we can face this together," Wong said. "[Let's] face fear, challenge fear, and conquer fear."

He also told people to "take care of themselves" and enjoy the Mid-Autumn Festival.

According to the indictment, Wong, Chan, and Chu conspired with others in Hong Kong to "organize, plan, implement or participate in acts of force, or the threat to use force, or other illegal means to subvert state power, namely, to overthrow or undermine the current political system of the People's Republic of China ... and overthrow the central government or the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government."

Their alleged actions dated from Oct. 25, 2020 to June 16, 2021, it said.

'Subversive acts'

Police had early alleged the trio had carried out "subversive acts" including warning people not to use the government's LeaveHomeSafe COVID-19 tracking app, and "inciting hatred of the government" via street booths.

Meanwhile, the host of an English-language talk show for government broadcaster RTHK was reportedly pulled from the show following an episode focusing on the ongoing crackdown on civil society groups under the national security law.

"Backchat" co-host Hugh Chiverton confirmed to Stand News on Tuesday that he was still at the station, but hasn't been heard on air since the civil society episode, which hasn't yet been uploaded to the archive section of the RTHK website.

The episode had featured former City University politics lecturer and pro-democracy activist Joseph Cheng.

Chiverton referred all queries about the show to RTHK's communications team, who told the Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) that it wouldn't comment on "internal editorial matters of individual programmes."

"RTHK reviews the programme content from time to time to ensure compliance with RTHK Charter, the Producers' Guidelines and the Communications Authority's Codes of Practice," it said in a statement posted to Twitter by HKFP.

Chiverton and Koh had earlier interviewed Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam about the national security crackdown, during which Lam warned Koh that she was "treading on dangerous lines" after the host asked her about the government's failure to communicate with protesters during the 2019 anti-extradition movement.

Hong Kong’s national security chief recently accused the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), an affiliate of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), of having political preferences and receiving foreign funding. The IFJ expresses grave concern over the official’s remarks and urges the Hong Kong authorities to respect HKJA members’ freedom of association.

Speaking with reporters on September 15, Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung accused the HKJA of having biased political views and thus favouring pro-democracy news organisations such as Apple Daily and Stand News. He also claimed that the HKJA may have received funds provided by foreign political groups, without providing evidence.

Tang urged the HKJA to disclose its membership list and financial status in order to “prove its innocence” and “assuage public concerns.”

In response, HKJA Chairman Ronson Chan saidthe HKJA does not receive funding from overseas groups and has submitted its financial statements annually to the Labour Department, which oversees trade unions, according to Hong Kong’s law.

The group also said it cannot disclose the personal data of its members without their consent. “Any suggestion to make our membership and their employers public in order to ‘assuage doubts’ would appear to incite a breach of the Ordinance,” the HKJA said in a statement, referring to the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance.

In addition, during an interview with local newspaper Ta Kung Pao on September 14, Tang stated that the HKJA is “relying on a large number of student members.” He said the group’s executive committee has been controlled by members of specific media outlets over the years. The situation “makes people question the representativeness of the HKJA” as a journalist trade union, Tang said.

The HKJA said there is no truth to Tang’s comments; as of September 15, the HKJA has 486 members, 56 of whom are students majoring in journalism. This number translates to approximately 11 per cent. A list of HKJA executive committee members is also available on the HKJA website, it added.

Hong Kong newspapers backed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) stepped up their denunciations of independent trade unions in the city on Friday, amid an ever-widening crackdown on civil society under the national security law.

The Beijing-backed Wen Wei Po and Ta Kung Pao newspapers on Friday reported that Hong Kong's pro-democracy Confederation of Trade Unions (CTU) would be the next civil society group to disband following denunciations by CCP media.

"Our information indicates that the CTU will soon disband," the report said. "The executive committee met on Sept. 16 to pass the resolution, but it still needs to be formally approved at a general meeting on Oct. 3."

The report accused the CTU of prompting a "tsunami" of new union registrations during the 2019 protest movement, and of "promoting anti-Chinese sentiment and unrest."

"They have deviated utterly from the purpose of a trade union under the law, steal from industry, and divide society," the paper said, naming veteran labor activist Lee Cheuk-ying, who is currently serving a 14-month jail term for his role in the 2019 protest movement.

It also singled out Winnie Yu, the founder and chairwoman of the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance, a labor union representing Hospital Authority staff.

Political denunciations in CCP-backed media are increasingly being used to target civil society groups and NGOs in Hong Kong.

The denunciations usually focus on accusations that a given organization has done something that could be in breach of a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the CCP from July 1, 2020.

Several groups disband

Several organizations, including protest march organizers the Civil Human Rights Front, the Professional Teachers' Union, and Wall-fare, a prison support group for those in custody because of the 2019 protest movement, have disbanded following similar articles, or after being criticized by Hong Kong's leaders.

The Hospital Authority Employees Alliance said it had recently received a letter from the Registry of Trade Unions alleging that its funds were used for "political purposes."

The group's questioning of the effectiveness of Chinese-made COVID-19 jabs and the government's LeaveHomeSafe app, and its setting up of street booths were also listed as matters requiring explanation, government broadcaster RTHK reported.

"Our alliance's legal status and the past activities we organized, including the strike to fight for reasonable rights, should be protected by international covenants and the Basic Law," it quoted acting chairman David Chan as saying.

He declined to comment when asked if the alliance has any plans to disband, RTHK reported.

Meanwhile, another labor NGO, the Asia Monitor Resource Centre, said an article published in the CCP-backed Ta Kung Pao newspaper was inaccurate.

"For decades, we [have been] a civil society organization independent of any local or international organizations," it said. "We are not a subsidiary unit of any of the organizations as wrongly described in the Ta Kung Pao article."

The group said it plans to shut down its Hong Kong operations by the end of September and relocate elsewhere in the region.

"The pressure on our operation has intensified significantly," the group said in a statement on its website. "Therefore, we feel that we are left with no choice but to cease operating in Hong Kong by the end of September."

Pattern becoming clear

Chung Kim-wah, deputy chief executive of the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI), said the pattern of denunciation leading to investigation by the authorities is becoming increasingly clear in Hong Kong.

"We have seen so many similar occurrences, in which the Ta Kung Pao or the Wen Wei Po post articles listing [alleged] crimes, sometimes photos, and even stalking some people," Chung told RFA.

"Maybe the first thing the secretary for security does when he gets to work in the morning is look at the Wen Wei Po or Ta Kung Pao to see which groups they are targeting, and make a list," he said.

"It looks as if the [pro-CCP] media are running Hong Kong now."

Set up in 1990, the CTU sprang from the work of the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee (HKCIC), a church-backed grassroots labor group active during the 1970s and 1980s.

A coalition of independent and politically unaffiliated union organizations, its membership consisted largely of white-collar unions organizing the civil service and professional or service employees in the public and subvented sectors, including the now-disbanded Professional Teachers' Union (PTU) and the Hong Kong Social Workers General Union.

Both former leaders Lau Chin-shek, a founding member of the Democratic Party, and Lee Cheuk-yan went on to be elected to the city's Legislative Council (LegCo).

The CTU was involved in a number of mass protest movements, including the July 1, 2003 march to oppose national security legislation, which was eventually imposed on the city by the CCP on July 1, 2020.

It was also instrumental in founding Hong Kong's Labour Party in 2005.

Hong Kong's national security police have ordered the organizers of a now-banned candlelight vigil for the victims of the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen massacre to delete all of their online posts, the group said via its Facebook page on Thursday.

The Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China said it would comply with a national security police demand to remove all content from its website and social media accounts under a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020.

"[We] received a letter from the police commissioner on Sept. 10 saying ... that implementation rules provide for the removal of specified messages from electronic platforms within seven days of receipt of notification," the Alliance said in a Facebook post on Thursday.

"[We] will remove all posts from our website, Facebook, and other specified electronic platforms by 10.00 pm tonight," it said.

The organization has been charged alongside three of its former leaders -- Lee Cheuk-yan, 64, Albert Ho, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 36 -- with "incitement to subvert state power" under the national security law.

Chow was arrested on Sept. 8 and denied bail, while Lee and Ho are already serving jail terms linked to their activism.

Four other Alliance members, Tang Ngok-kwan, 53, Simon Leung, 36, Chan To-wai, 57, and Tsui Hon-kwong, 72, have been charged with "failure to comply with a notice to provide information."

The group refused to provide detailed information on its members, activities, and funding sources to national security police, arguing that it isn't an agent of a foreign government, and therefore isn't bound by that part of the national security law.

"By arresting vigil organizers, Beijing and Hong Kong authorities are telling the world they’re not only afraid of the most peaceful protests, but also of their own brutal past," Human Rights Watch (HRW) China director Sophie Richardson said in a statement posted on the HRW website and signed by dozens of rights groups.

"They should end this political persecution and immediately drop the charges and release the vigil organizers," she said.

Call for targeted sanctions

The statement, signed by the U.S.-based Hong Kong Democracy Council, the Christian rights group ChinaAid, Humanitarian China and the U.K.-based Hong Kong Watch, among others, called on concerned governments to impose "coordinated, targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes," on Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, police chief Raymond Siu, secretary for security Chris Tang, and other officials linked to the operation targeting the Alliance.

"Hong Kong and mainland authorities should not be able to ban commemorations, shutter museums, and jail peaceful critics without paying a price," Citizen Power founder and veteran dissident Jianli Yang said.

"Governments appalled by the rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in Hong Kong should make their opposition felt," Yang said.

The takedown order came as seven pro-democracy District Council members were stripped of their seats after their oaths were judged insufficient to prove their loyalty to Hong Kong and China.

Clarisse Yeung, Leung Pak-kin, Wei Siu-lik, So Yat-hang, Chan Wing-tai, Lai Tsz-yan, and Michael Pang were stripped of their council seats on Sept. 15, five days after they pledged allegiance at a ceremony for Hong Kong Island councilors.

"As the oath administrator had questions about the validity of the oaths taken by ... seven District Council members, letters were issued to the ... members concerned on Sept. 10 to require them to provide additional information," the government said in a statement announcing the disqualifications.

"After considering the written replies ... and all relevant information, the oath administrator ... determined that the oaths taken by seven District Council members were invalid," it said.

The councilors were removed from office with immediate effect.

On 13 August 2021, the Linyi Municipal Procuratorate confirmed that the Linyi Municipal Public Security Bureau has sent the case against woman human rights defender Li Qiaochu for review by the prosecution. Under Chinese law, the procuratorate must make a decision on whether to prosecute the case within a month, and it may extend the deadline for another 15 days if the case is deemed “major” or “complicated”. It may also return the case back to the police for supplementary investigation.

On 27 August 2021, Li Qiaochu's lawyer was allowed to meet her. The woman human rights defender said she is suffering from severe auditory hallucinations, and is taking medication to treat the condition. However, she said there are side effects as she has gained weight and experienced amenorrhea for two months.

On 8 September 2021, the deputy chief of the Gaoxin branch of the Baoji Municipal Public Security Bureau informed human rights lawyer Chang Weiping's family that the police have sent the case against the human rights defender for review by the prosecution on 6 September 2021. Under Chinese law, the procuratorate must make a decision on whether to prosecute the case within a month, and it may extend the deadline for another 15 days if the case is deemed “major” or “complicated”. It may also return the case back to the police for supplementary investigation.

Upon hearing the news, Chang Weiping's family telephoned the Feng County Detention Centre, where the human rights defender is detained, and asked the centre to arrange a meeting between him and his lawyer. However, the detention centre said meetings with detainees cannot be arranged due to COVID-19.

CHRD condemns the ongoing persecution against the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of the Patriotic Democratic Movement of China (“the Hong Kong Alliance”), and in particular, the arrest on Thursday of chairman Lee Cheuk-yan, vice-chairs Chow Hang-tung and Albert Ho on the charge of “inciting subversion”, which could carry a maximum sentence of ten years in prison.

The three are scheduled to appear at court in West Kowloon at 9:30am on Friday.

Their arrest stems from the Hong Kong Alliance’s decision not to cooperate with a police request made on August 25 to provide detailed information related to their interaction or material support from several foreign groups and unspecified “foreign or Taiwan political parties and other groups with a political purpose, including at their Hong Kong branches” dating back to 2014. The police charged them under Article 43(5) of the National Security Law (NSL), alleging that the Hong Kong Alliance and its members were “foreign agents”.

Committee member Tsui Hon-kwong was also arrested on Thursday, and on Wednesday, Hong Kong Alliance committee members Simon Leung, Tang Ngok-kwan and Chan To-wai were also arrested due to their non-compliance.

On Thursday, the Hong Kong police also shut down the Tiananmen Massacre Museum, which was run by the Hong Kong Alliance. Police dismantled the displays and hauled away historic photos and exhibits about the Tiananmen Massacre.

“The Hong Kong Alliance had always upheld the vision for a China that was ruled democratically, where the rule of law mattered, and where human rights were genuinely respected. The Central Government and their local allies are simply using the National Security Law to crush that democratic vision and ensure that there is no significant opposition to the increasingly dictatorial rule of Xi Jinping as head of the Chinese Communist Party”, said William Nee, CHRD’s Research and Advocacy Coordinator.

“Despite the fact that Article 39 of the NSL is clear that the law can only be applied to acts committed after it came into effect, and despite the fact that Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam told the UN that the NSL would not be used retroactively, the police are now on a retroactive fishing expedition looking for anything going back to 2014. This makes a complete mockery out of Carrie Lam’s promises and shows that the procedural safeguards supposedly built into the NSL aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. The Hong Kong Alliance is courageous for refusing to comply with requests that are so blatantly against international and Hong Kong law,” Nee added.

“If the the claims that provisions under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights will be respected in Hong Kong under the NSL are to be taken seriously, then the international community must take actions to ensure that all members of the Hong Kong Alliance are immediately and unconditionally released”.

Background

Every year since 1989, the Hong Kong Alliance has organized an annual Tiananmen Vigil in Hong Kong, to commemorate the hundreds, if not thousands, killed by the People’s Liberation Army in Beijing and other cities in 1989. The vigil was usually attended by which 100,000 to 200,000 people and served as a focal point of Hong Kong’s civil society.

In recent days, several state-run media reports made detailed allegations against the Hong Kong Alliance. And Xinhua, the official outlet of the Central Government, carried a statement by the Office for Safeguarding National Security of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region that supported the Hong Kong police’s actions against what it deemed an “anti-China” organization.

Police in the southwestern Chinese region of Guangxi have detained a left-wing sociology researcher from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) on suspicion of "subversion."

Fang Ran, a HKU doctoral student who studies labor movements, was detained by state security police in Guangxi's Nanning city on Aug. 26, 2021 on suspicion of "incitement to subvert state power." according to an unconfirmed social media post.

The message, apparently from Fang's father, said he was "shocked" at his son's detention, saying Fang Ran is a loyal member of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

"To my mind, Fang Ran is the kind of ambitious young person who can aid the party's cause, definitely not a criminal seeking to harm it," the post said.

Fang is currently being held incommunicado under "residential surveillance at a designated location (RSDL)" under the guard of Nanning state security police, meaning that he will be denied visits from lawyers or family on grounds that the case involves matters of national security.

According to his profile page on the HKU sociology department website, Fang Ran is a full-time PhD student who received his bachelor’s degree in sociology from Tsinghua University, and who has worked as an intern at a non-government organization and social media focusing on labor issues in China.

His research interests include labor relations, and labor organization as well as labor movements, the profile page said.

"His current research focuses on the analysis and comparison of various approaches of labor empowerment in mainland China," it said.

Classic Marxist analyses

While at Tsinghua, Fang was among the founding members of a group called the Modern Capitalism Research Association, which tended to favor classic Marxist analyses of labor issues.

Fang had also interviewed pneumoconiosis sufferers from the central province of Hunan after hundreds of former workers petitioned the authorities in Shenzhen over workplace-related diseases.

An employee who answered the phone at HKU on Sept. 1 said the university is aware of Fang's detention.

"[We are] in the process of finding out more about the situation," the employee said. "The university will provide assistance to Fang and his family when necessary."

While many commentators have noted an apparent shift towards political practises and ideological tropes that echo the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) under late supreme leader Mao Zedong in recent years, it appears that CCP leader Xi Jinping is unwilling to allow actual Maoists free rein under his rule.

Leftists, including dozens of young labor activists who tried to set up an independent labor union at the Jasic Technology factory in Shenzhen in 2018, have been detained, placed under house arrest, and silenced as part of the CCP's "stability maintenance" regime.

A human rights lawyer who gave only the pseudonym Chen said any form of organized labor is intolerable to the CCP.

"Organized action is the thing they fear the most," Chen said. "Once the workers get organized, they will be much stronger, and a threat to CCP rule."

"In the 1920s, the CCP itself was involved in organizing workers and peasants against the [then ruling] Kuomintang and to fight for their rights," he said. "So they fear that someone else will use the same methods against them."

Tough on labor activism

Beijing-based rights activist Hu Jia agreed.

"Even if you are a student still in school or a fresh graduate, they will consider you to be anti-government if you get involved in labor movements or use your knowledge to help people," Hu said. "[It means you are] challenging the existing system."

A Hong Kong-based graduate student who gave only the pseudonym Mary said she had been checked by Chinese police when she crossed the border into mainland China to do fieldwork.

"We all know that there is a red line, but we don't know exactly where it is," Mary said. "This means that we are fearful of going to mainland China at all, whether it's for academic research or for some other reason."

"That doesn't mean we won't keep doing it, though," she said. "Of course, there will always be students or scholars who set their own red lines [in the hope of staying safe]."

Fang's detention comes after authorities in the eastern province of Shandong detained large numbers of Maoist activists around the country, ahead of the CCP centenary celebrations on July 1.

Police in Shandong's Jining city ran a nationwide operation targeting leftwingers in a bid to "maintain stability" ahead of the politically sensitive anniversary, Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) quoted sources as saying at the time.

The operation, which began on May 12, was largely carried out in secret, with no information given to detainees' families after going incommunicado.

Among them was Maoist dissident Ma Houzhi, 77, who was released from a 10-year jail term in 2019 for defying a ban on the registration of new political parties under the CCP.

The report came after the CCP canceled a conference of prominent Maoist ideologists slated for May 16, the anniversary of the start of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).

Hong Kong police on Tuesday arrested a journalist outside Prince Edward MTR station, as many in and outside the city marked the second anniversary of attacks on train passengers by riot police at the height of the 2019 protest movement.

The journalist for the news website Egg Egg Club, was arrested for "disorderly conduct in a public place" after shouting insults at police officers.

The man had been standing outside an exit from the subway station, when he was told by police officers at the scene to step back into the press area, the Hong Kong Standard newspaper reported.

Police also questioned a number of people who wanted to leave flowers and other offerings outside the exit as a mark of respect for anyone who may have died in the incident, the paper said.

Hong Kong residents have repeatedly left flowers outside the subway station to commemorate one or more people whom many believed died when riot police attacked unarmed train passengers on a train and on the subway platforms.

Authorities in Hong Kong have repeatedly hit out at 'malicious rumors' that someone died when riot police stormed the Prince Edward MTR station on Aug. 31, but the selective release of stills from surveillance footage from cameras inside the station has done little to assuage public mistrust in the official narrative.

Zhang Xiaoming, who heads China's Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office (HKMAO), has warned that people who express the belief that anyone died in the incident could be breaking a draconian national security law imposed on the city by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020 as a response to a wave of mass, popular protests over the erosion of Hong Kong's promised freedoms.

Meanwhile, Hongkongers in exile spoke out more freely about the anniversary.

"Never forget how the Hong Kong police terrorized and assaulted citizens two years ago," former lawmaker Nathan Law, now in exile in the United Kingdom, said via Twitter on Tuesday.

"Full-geared special force rushed to the station and attacked passengers indiscriminately," Law said. "Many were severely injured, yet no officers are held accountable."

Rewriting history

Wong Mau-chun, who was named as mysteriously missing, believed killed, in early rumors about the attacks, and who later turned up in the U.K., said people should resist the government's attempts to make people forget about the events of Aug. 31, 2019.

Wong, also known as Jim Wong, faces eight charges including rioting, should he return to Hong Kong, and has applied for political asylum in the U.K.

"I think everyone has a duty to find out the truth and never to forget what happened," he told RFA. "[The authorities] are constantly trying to revise the details and rewrite history."

"It's now been two years ... and the biggest issue we face now is forgetfulness," Wong said.

"People in Hong Kong may think that nothing is going to happen, because there aren't any more protests now, and everyone is in jail," he said. "But a lot of people are still suffering because of what happened ... we are talking about people's lives."

Pro-democracy Cantopop star Denise Ho had a forthcoming concert canceled at the last minute by the venue on Friday, amid a city-wide crackdown on public dissent and political opposition under a draconian national security law imposed by Beijing.

"We regret to announce that the Hong Kong Arts Centre (HKAC) has informed us about the abrupt cancellation of our approved booking for Denise Ho’s performance "Hocc Shouson Live 2021" at the Shouson Theatre," Ho's official Twitter account said on Wednesday.

Ho, an outspoken supporter of Hong Kong's 2019 protest movement, was to have performed there over four nights from Sept. 8-12.

A letter from the HKAC informing Ho of the decision cited a clause allowing performances to be canceled if "public order or public safety would be endangered during the course of the performance," according to a screenshot of the letter posted to Ho's Twitter account.

Ho later commented on her Facebook page: "Thanks, everyone, I'm OK, holding up. In a city where they can't even allow a concert to go ahead, I will have to sing out, and sing louder."

She said a single concert would be livestreamed on Sept. 12 instead.

The cancelation came after the Hong Kong Arts Development Council warned in March that the city's formerly vibrant arts sector would soon face far greater scrutiny under the national security law, which forbids public criticism of the city’s government or the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

It warned that artists, exhibits, or projects using its funding must comply with Hong Kong law, including the national security law, which took effect on July 1, 2020.

A spokesman for the Hong Kong Democratic Party described the decision to pull the plug on Ho's gigs as "inexplicable."

"If no further explanations are forthcoming, then it is tantamount to unreasonable censorship of a performance," Chan Po-ming said.

He said that tickets to the shows had sold out and yet the performances had been canceled with less than one week's notice.

"This violates the spirit of the contract," Chan said, calling on the HKAC to give a detailed account of its reasoning as soon as possible.

Civic groups harassed

Meanwhile, Hong Kong police wrote to two civic groups requiring them to supply details of their members, activities, and sources of funding under the national security law, according to local media reports.

"RTHK understands that the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund and the Alliance for True Democracy have been asked to provide information before a deadline," the government broadcaster reported on Wednesday.

It cited sources as saying the request was made under a court warrant in accordance to the national security law, adding that the information sought include details on donors and recipients, its crowdfunding campaign, and how the money was used by the organizations.

Police confirmed in a statement that the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund is being investigated, but gave no further details.

The move came one day after the fund -- which offers assistance and legal support to protesters arrested during the 2019 protest movement -- said it would stop accepting new funding applications, and announced plans to wind down its operations "in an orderly manner."

Hong Kong is undergoing an unprecedented emigration wave in the wake of the national security law, which has landed dozens of former lawmakers and opposition activists behind bars awaiting trial for "subversion" after they took part in a democratic primary to select the best candidates in elections to the Legislative Council (LegCo).

'Patriotic education'

The government has also used the law to mandate patriotic education in the city's schools, abolishing Liberal Studies, a critical thinking program blamed by the CCP for inspiring several waves of mass popular protest over eroding freedoms in recent years.

There are concerns over falling student enrolments as parents take their children out of schools before leaving the city for good, as well as a drain of qualified teachers.

The city's education bureau has already issued teaching certificates to more than 1,500 unqualified teachers to plug the shortfall in schools.

A former Chinese-language teacher who gave only the name Alan said he brought forward his plans to leave the city to April 2021 after the arrests of the pro-democracy politicians for subversion.

"I used to play news clips from the [now-shuttered] i-Cable China news team ... so we could discuss some of the issues affecting China's development," Alan said.

"But since last year, it has become increasingly clear that such teaching methods and materials can no longer be used," he said.

"Parents or students could say that you are biased."

Police in western China’s Sichuan province on Monday arrested a Tibetan man who had refused to take part in a propaganda meeting organized by local authorities to praise the ruling Chinese Communist Party and instruct Tibetan residents in government objectives, according to sources in Tibet.

Sherab Dorje, age 19 and a resident of Trotsik township in the Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, was taken into custody near his home and led away in handcuffs, a local resident told RFA’s Tibetan Service.

“A few police officers recently arrived in Trotsik to enforce the Communist Party’s political education campaign for young Tibetans to ensure they don’t rebel against the government’s policies,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Sherab Dorje didn’t attend the meeting, so he was arrested later near his house and put in handcuffs,” the source said, adding, “He’s still being held in custody.”

Dorje, a graduate of the Machu County Middle School in Gansu province's Kanlho (Gannan) prefecture, may also have come to the attention of police by joining with students in submitting a petition opposing county government orders to give classroom instruction only in Chinese when schools reopen at the end of this year’s summer vacation, sources said.

Language rights have become a particular focus for Tibetan efforts to assert national identity in recent years, with Tibetan schools including kindergartens and elementary schools now teaching almost entirely in Chinese.

Informally organized language courses in the monasteries and towns are typically deemed “illegal associations” and teachers are subject to detention and arrest, sources say.

Politically sensitive discussions

Police in Trotsik also arrested a senior monk at a local monastery last month on suspicion of holding politically sensitive discussions on the popular WeChat social media platform, sources told RFA in an earlier report.

Konmey, a 45-year-old monk in charge of discipline at Ngaba’s Trotsik monastery, was taken into custody on July 20, a source in Ngaba told RFA.

“He had performed prayers on his WeChat group, but he only talked about the number of prayers he had accumulated,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “He said nothing at all about political issues.”

Communications clampdowns in Tibet and Tibetan areas of western China have made it difficult to learn the details of protests, arrests, or other information considered politically sensitive by Chinese authorities, sources have told RFA.

Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force 70 years ago.

Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on the region, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity, and subjecting Tibetans to persecution, torture, imprisonment, and extrajudicial killings.

Seven Hong Kong pro-democracy activists were sentenced Wednesday to lengthy jail sentences for taking part in an unauthorized protest in 2019.

The activists include such figures as former legislators Cyd Ho, Yeung Sum, Albert Ho and Leung Kwok-hung, known as “Long Hair,” and Raphael Wong, Figo Chan and Avery Ng of the League of Social Democrats party.

All seven men were present when District Court Judge Amanda Woodcock sentenced them for taking part in a massive demonstration in October 2019 at the height of anti-government protests triggered by a controversial extradition bill that evolved into a greater demand for greater freedoms for the financial hub.

Judge Woodcock said that while Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, known as the Basic Law, guarantees freedom of assembly and demonstration, “these rights are not absolute and are subject to restrictions ruled constitutional.”

The sentences ranged from 11 to 16 months. All the defendants except for Wong are already serving jail time on other illegal assembly charges.

The 2019 demonstrations prompted Beijing to approve a sweeping national security law for Hong Kong last year under which anyone believed to be carrying out terrorism, separatism, subversion of state power or collusion with foreign forces could be tried and face life in prison if convicted.

Hong Kong authorities have increasingly clamped down on the city’s pro-democracy forces since the law took effect last year.

Hong Kong's national security police have written to the organizers of a now-banned candlelight vigil for the victims of the June 4, 1989 massacre in Beijing, asking them to reveal details of the group's previous contacts with overseas-based organizations.

Chow Hang-tung, vice chair of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, said the group's members have been given two weeks to comply with the request, made under Article 43 of a national security law imposed on the city by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020.

A video clip shared to social media showed national security police delivering a letter to Chow at her home, which she signed for.

Chow said the police letter had described the Alliance as an "agent" of foreign organizations, which she denied.

"Just by pinning this label of foreign agent on us, they can then require us to hand over all of this information," Chow told RFA on Wednesday.

"This is an extremely unfair accusation, and a completely false one," Chow said. "How can the Alliance be a foreign agent? We are an organization formed spontaneously by the people of Hong Kong."

"[They are] using this tactic to intimidate civil society groups," she said. But she denied the Alliance had already made plans to disband, saying the issue was still unresolved.

Chow was mentioned in the letter alongside former Democratic Party lawmaker Emily Lau and Alliance co-founders Albert Ho and Lee Cheuk-yan, who are currently in prison on different charges.

"The national security department of the Hong Kong Police Force wrote to the Aliiance on Aug. 25, saying it was suspected of being a foreign agent," the letter, which was shared with RFA by Chow, said.

"The Alliance is hereby required under Article 43 of the National Security Law to provide detailed information about the activities of its personnel in Hong Kong since its establishment," the letter said.

Deadline for submission

It called for full records and contact details for overseas organizations to be submitted to police by Sept. 7, 2021.

"Failure to supply police with the requested information, unless you can prove that you have tried comply with the request to the best of your ability, or that you were prevented from doing so due to reasons beyond your control, will result in a fine of H.K.$100,000 and a prison sentence of six months if convicted," the letter warned.

Among the organizations listed in the request were the Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy, the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute, the Solidarity Center, and the Center for International Private Enterprise.

Also listed were the Canada-based Federation for a Democratic China, the U.S.-based New School for Democracy, founded by former 1989 student leader Wang Dan, and the Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group.

According to a person familiar with the internal operations of the Alliance, the group has been in touch with pro-democracy activists and dissidents in mainland China for many years.

Others may be targeted

Joseph Cheng, a former politics professor at Hong Kong's City University, said other groups could also be targeted, including the Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, which has spoken out for the mainland Chinese legal profession since the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began a crackdown in July 2015.

"They are now targeting some of the more prominent activists, both within the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement and overseas, as well as the pro-democracy movement in mainland China," Cheng said. "The relevant departments in mainland China likely already have a lot of material on them already."

"The current sweep for documents and records is likely aimed at arresting them and bringing charges, or using the material to go after pro-democracy activists overseas," he said.

Zhang Xianling, a co-founder of the Tiananmen Mothers group representing the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, said she had nothing to fear.

"Even if they eradicate an organization [like the Alliance] or stop it from meeting, they won't necessarily be able to cover everything up," Zhang said. "The traces will still be there in the historical record."

"A lie is still a lie, even after 100 years have gone by."

Hong Kong justice secretary Teresa Cheng declined to comment when contacted by RFA on Wednesday, saying she wouldn't comment on an ongoing investigation.

A relief fund set up to pay bail for those arrested in the 2019 protest movement has announced it will shut down amid a city-wide crackdown on public dissent and political opposition under a national security law imposed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund said in a statement on its Facebook page that it would cease operations despite strong public donations.

But its banking arrangements were conducted through another group, the Alliance for True Democracy, which is the latest of several civil organizations to wind down since the national security law took effect on July 1, 2020.

"We have been notified by the directors of the Alliance that they intend to wind up in the near future. This means the Fund will no longer have a bank account it can use, and therefore cannot continue to operate," it said.

"We thank the members of the public who have been giving us their unfailing support by their donations and encouragement [as well as] those who have come to us for help in their predicament and their families for the trust they placed in us," it said.Forced to halt operations

It said it would destroy all personal data linked to donors and beneficiaries.

The Fund had also provided beneficiaries with emergency financial and legal support.

The Aug. 18 announcement came after secretary for security Chris Tang declined to confirm whether or not the 612 Fund is currently under police investigation.

But he said groups that disband could still face investigation.

"Even if these organizations dissolve of their own accord, any crimes they committed won't not be written off," Tang told reporters after the Fund's announcement.

"However, the harm to society would be somewhat reduced if they disband of their own accord," he said.

Tang warned that any organization that promotes violence or has "unusual" financial transactions with foreign organizations will be pursued by police, under the national security law.

Fund trustee and former lawmaker Margaret Ng told a news conference that the Fund had stopped taking any new cases immediately following the announcement.

"The Fund has been forced to cease operations before it was able to complete its mission," Ng said. "I feel deep regret about that, but it was a miracle of historic proportions that the people of Hong Kong were able to create it and bring it this far."

"The 612 Fund is no more," she said. "There are still countless forms of private support, both large and small, but it's not the same."

More arrests expected

Ng said she hadn't heard any news of a police investigation into the Fund's membership, activities or finances so far.

"We can't be too scared or worried about that," Ng said. "All we can do is be very careful not to break the law."

"We must take care every step of the way, and have the banks check our accounts carefully," she said.

At the time of closure, the Fund still had 1,200 live cases on its books, including a 2019 protester identified only as Mr. S.

"Since the protest movement and political upheavals in Hong Kong, there has been no help from the current system," he told reporters. "Young people and people caught up in the political turmoil can only be sure of getting help from civil society groups."

He said police are continuing to investigate cases linked to the 2019 protest movement, and that it is hard to estimate how many more arrests could follow.

More than 100 opposition politicians, activists and protesters have been arrested so far on charges under the national security law, including allegations of secession, subversion and terrorist activities, with more than 10,000 arrested under pre-existing laws for their part in the protest movement.

"They are continuing to prosecute people involved in the movement, so the eventual number is still unknown," Mr. S said. "I think it's sad for the people involved in those future cases."

"They will no longer have access to such solid support from a civil society organization," he said.

However, he said a volunteer-run support hotline would continue to provide advice to those targeted in the ongoing crackdown.

Meanwhile, a Hong Kong court on Thursday ruled that public order charges of the kind frequently used to target participants in the 2019 pro-democracy protest movement can be extended to people who weren't present at the scene.

The city's Court of Appeal found that anyone who encouraged or promoted an "unlawful assembly or riot" could be held liable under the Public Order Ordinance, even if they weren't physically present, under the legal notion of "joint enterprise."

"If there is sufficient evidence to establish their liability... they are no longer innocent people exercising their freedom of expression," the court said.

"They have crossed the permissible line and become a perpetrator to an unlawful assembly or riot and should be held liable as such," judges Jeremy Poon, Andrew Macrae, and Anthea Pang found.