Former Hong Kong district councillor Derek Chu has been arrested on suspicion of promoting pension fund plans without a valid intermediary license.

The police force told HKFP that the Sham Shui Po District’s crime unit arrested a 46-year-old man in Sha Tin on Tuesday on suspicion of breaching the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) Schemes Ordinance.

“By court order, authorities conducted searches at the arrested person’s residence and office premises, seizing relevant documents and electronic communication devices,” a police spokesperson said.

The police added that the man was currently detained for investigation, and that further arrests were not ruled out.

Citing sources, local media outlet Ming Pao reported earlier on Tuesday morning that Chu was arrested on suspicion of promoting pension fund schemes without a valid license.

Other outlets including Sing Tao and government-owned broadcaster RTHK cited sources saying the force would carry out investigations in Kwun Tong, Mong Kok, and Tai Kok Tsui.

Local media outlets published photos of him entering a Kwun Tong office building with police officers at around noon on Tuesday.

In a reply to HKFP, the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority said people must register with the authority as an MPF intermediary before they can promote or sell pension fund schemes, and that it is a criminal offense to do so without a valid license.

A former district councillor Yau Tsim Mong district councillor, Chu was ousted from the District Council in September 2021 after his pledge of allegiance to the government was deemed invalid.

The former councillor distributed electronic candles on June 4 last year to mark the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. He runs the online shopping platform AsOne, the proceeds of which are used to support jailed protesters.

Ahead of the crackdown anniversary this year, a private screening of a documentary organised by Chu was cancelled after police questioned him over his plans. The documentary, called To Be Continued, traces the history and culture of the State Theatre building in North Point, and its founder Harry Odell.

Plans to overhaul the District Council elections were unveiled in May 2023 to ensure only “patriots” are elected, following a pro-democracy landslide at the last polls in 2019. The number of seats chosen democratically by the public will be slashed to around 20 per cent, with the rest chosen by the city’s leader, government-appointed committees and officials.

Constituency boundaries will be redrawn and each local council will be chaired by a government official, similar to colonial-era arrangements. All candidates will undergo national security vetting to ensure patriotism.

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Hong Kong authorities plan to set up booths to promote the upcoming “patriots-only” District Council elections at markets under the city’s nightlife campaign, an official has said.

Erick Tsang, the Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, told lawmakers on Monday that the government was preparing a series of activities ahead of the District Council elections on December 10.

Among them is a “crossover” of the upcoming elections and “Night Vibes Hong Kong,” a campaign to boost the city’s consumption amid a weak economic outlook. As part of the campaign, which began last month, the government is holding weekend night markets with live music and vendors selling local food and handicrafts.

“We will have ‘district election night vibes,'” Tsang said, speaking in Cantonese at the constitutional affairs panel meeting. “We will set up booths [at the night markets] to have closer interactions with citizens, and explain to them the benefits of the revamped District Council and the new governance system.”

HKFP has reached out to the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau (CMAB) for details about when the booths would be set up and for how long.

Tsang’s comments came a day before the nomination period for the District Council elections opened.

Hong Kong will hold District Council elections in less than two months’ time, the first since the government announced an overhaul that ensures only “patriots” can run.

Under the new system, the number of seats chosen democratically by the public will be slashed to around 20 per cent, with the rest chosen by the city’s leader, government-appointed committees and officials.

Constituency boundaries will be redrawn and each local council will be chaired by a government official, similar to colonial-era arrangements. All candidates will undergo national security vetting to ensure patriotism.

During the last District Council elections in 2019, held amid the protests and unrest sparked by a controversial extradition bill, the pro-democracy camp saw a landslide victory.

More than half of those seats, however, have been vacant since 2021, when authorities mandated members to take an oath pledging allegiance to the Hong Kong government. Dozens were ousted after the government deemed their oaths invalid, while others resigned in protest.

Authorities said change was necessary after district councillors had “intentionally divided the society,” objected to the national security law and supported Hong Kong independence, without citing evidence for their accusations.

Not a ‘political’ event

According to Tsang, the promotion of the District Council elections began last month – earlier than usual – to “boost the electoral atmosphere in the city.”

Besides the crossover with the city’s nightlife campaign, the official said the government was also working on television specials to advertise the elections.

He also said the government would “go deep into the communities to hold over a hundred activities to directly interact with citizens through more light-hearted means,” such as family-friendly games.

Tsang added that the authorities had displayed 64 banners, including at cross-harbour tunnels, and that election advertisements were being broadcast on television 260 times per week.

Speaking to reporters after the panel meeting, Tsang denied that a crossover between the District Council elections and the nightlife campaign was political.

“I don’t think… the arrangement is a political event. We only wished to… mingle with citizens to let them better understand the benefits of the revamped system,” he told the press.

He added that the arrangement would not amount to competition with the vendors.

Asked if the government had an expected turnout rate, Tsang said such a rate does not determine whether the electoral overhaul was a “success.”

“Turnout rate is affected by various factors. For example, the weather on the voting day will affect citizen’s desire to vote,” he said.

Tsang said that the previously high turnout rate during the District Council elections in 2019 coincided with Hong Kong’s “most polarised and darkest” period, Ming Pao reported. That year, the District Council election saw a record 71.2 per cent turnout rate with around 2.94 million people casting their ballot.

Chief Executive John Lee also said on Monday that he had instructed different government departments to coordinate promotional efforts for the elections. Lee urged people who are “patriotic, competent, and wilful to serve their communities” to run in the race.

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Beijing, China

Chinese internet giant Baidu unveiled the newest version of its AI chatbot ERNIE on Tuesday, claiming it rivals the capabilities of OpenAI’s latest ChatGPT.

Baidu led Chinese tech firms in rolling out generative artificial intelligence apps, which are trained on vast amounts of data and interactions with users to answer questions, even complex ones, in human-like language.

Released to the public in August, ERNIE marked a major step for China’s tech sector, which is aiming to compete with the likes of Microsoft and ChatGPT maker OpenAI while staying within strict government controls.

Robin Li, Baidu’s founder and CEO, said during a presentation that ERNIE’s “comprehension, creation, logic, and memory… are in no way inferior to those of GPT-4”, referring to OpenAI’s latest model.

AFP was unable to independently verify the claim.

Li then grilled ERNIE with a series of puzzles, and asked it to write the outline for a martial arts novel.

The bot set to work, gradually creating new characters as the audience followed the composition in real time on a giant screen.

The latest version of ERNIE is currently open to select developers and not available to the public.

Chinese tech firms have ramped up investments in the technology after the success of ChatGPT sparked a global AI gold rush.

The internet is tightly controlled in China, however, and ahead of the rollout of domestic chatbots such as ERNIE, the government published guidelines on the development and use of generative AI.

Content generated by this tech must “reflect core socialist values and must not contain (elements relating to) the subversion of state power”, according to regulations.

These controls prevent ERNIE from answering any questions on subjects considered sensitive by Chinese authorities, such as the country’s leadership or its 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

When tested by AFP in August, ERNIE would ask to “change the topic” when queried on Tiananmen and Taiwan, the self-ruled island that China considers its territory.

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By James Edgar with Qian Ye in Beijing, China

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in China on Tuesday to meet his “dear friend” Xi Jinping, bolstering their relationship at a summit that will be overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war.

China this week welcomes representatives of 130 countries for a forum of President Xi’s landmark project, the Belt and Road Initiative, that Beijing is using to extend its global influence.

Putin is at the top of the invitation list, with the Russian leader on his first trip to a major global power since the Ukraine invasion threw his regime into international isolation.

His plane landed in China just before 09:30 am, an AFP journalist on the tarmac saw.

He is due to meet Xi for talks on Wednesday, the Kremlin said.

“During the talks, special attention will be paid to international and regional issues,” it said, without elaborating.

He is on a mission to strengthen the already strong relationship with his communist neighbour, though Moscow is increasingly the junior partner.

Experts expect few big surprises during the Russian leader’s visit to China, seeing the meeting as more a symbolic gesture of support for Moscow.

“Russia is aware that China doesn’t want to sign any high publicity deals,” Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, told AFP.

“China holds all of the cards,” he said.

The Kremlin said the two leaders would meet on Wednesday “on the sidelines” of the BRI forum.

And global headlines will be dominated by Israel’s war with Palestinian militant organisation Hamas.

Israel declared war on the Islamist group after waves of Hamas fighters broke through the heavily fortified border with Gaza on October 7, shooting, stabbing, and burning to death more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians.

More than one million people have fled their homes in scenes of chaos and despair under heavy Israeli bombardment of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Israel’s bombing has killed around 2,750 people in Gaza, mainly civilians, according to Palestinian authorities, and flattened entire neighbourhoods.

Western officials have criticised Beijing for not naming Hamas in statements on the Israel-Gaza conflict.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke on Sunday with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who called on China to use its “influence” in the Middle East to push for calm.

China has a warm relationship with Iran, where the clerical leadership supports both Hamas and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group that could open a second front against Israel.

This year, China brokered an entente between former regional foes Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Beijing’s special envoy Zhai Jun will visit the Middle East this week to push for a ceasefire and peace talks, China’s state broadcaster CCTV said. No details have been given about where he will go.

‘Dear friends’ reunited

China and Russia’s top diplomats were singing from the same song sheet when they met in Beijing on Monday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov thanked China for inviting Putin as the summit’s “chief guest”, according to a readout from Moscow, which later said the top diplomat would head to North Korea after Beijing.

Putin and Xi will discuss the countries’ ties “in their entirety” when they meet this week, Lavrov told Wang.

Wang, in turn, said China “appreciates” Russia’s support for the Belt and Road Initiative.

“Both sides should plan commemorative activities, deepen strategic mutual trust, consolidate traditional friendship, and promote friendship from generation to generation,” he said.

The two nations share a symbiotic alliance, with China appreciating Russia’s role as a bulwark against the West and Moscow increasingly reliant on Beijing’s largesse in trade and geopolitical backing.

“Since Moscow embarked on its all-out invasion of Ukraine, it has been put in a position where it is unprecedentedly dependent on China,” Bjorn Alexander Duben of China’s Jilin University told AFP.

At the heart of the deepening partnership is the relationship between Xi and Putin, who have described each other as “dear friends”.

“President Xi Jinping calls me his friend, and I call him my friend, too,” Putin told Chinese state broadcaster CGTN ahead of his visit, according to a Kremlin readout.

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Hong Kong’s largest pro-Beijing party is set to field 122 candidates to stand in the upcoming “patriots-only” District Council election, as the party vowed to “enrich” the community and improve district administration in the city.

More than 100 individuals will enter December’s newly-restricted District Council election for the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), the party announced on Monday.

Among them, 44 candidates are set to stand in the geographical constituency that will be directly elected by the public. The remaining 78 candidates will vie for seats to be returned by three government-appointed bodies, which gained new powers to nominate District Council election candidates following an electoral overhaul passed in May.

The DAB’s new chairman and lawmaker Gary Chan, who took the reins of the party from ex-chairwoman Starry Lee last month, told the press that the upcoming race will “hold significant importance.” It will serve as a crucial step in realising the revamped electoral system and enhanced district governance in the city, he said.

See also: Democratic Party fields 6 candidates for ‘patriots-only’ district council race

“The new District Council election is an integral part of this democratic system. It aims to address the loopholes in the previous system, uphold the principle of ‘patriots administering Hong Kong,’ and effectively safeguard national security and social stability,” the party leader said in Cantonese.

The election scheduled for December 10 will be the first district-level race since Hong Kong amended the composition and method of formation of the government advisory body.

Plans to overhaul the District Council elections were unveiled in May 2023 to ensure only “patriots” are elected, following a pro-democracy landslide at the last polls in 2019. The number of seats chosen democratically by the public will be slashed to around 20 per cent, with the rest chosen by the city’s leader, government-appointed committees and officials.

Constituency boundaries will be redrawn and each local council will be chaired by a government official, similar to colonial-era arrangements. All candidates will undergo national security vetting to ensure patriotism.

In 2019, the DAB sent 181 candidates to stand in the race but suffered a major defeat to its pro-democracy rivals. However, the party is expected to face little competition from pro-democracy election hopefuls in December’s election, as one of the last remaining parties from that camp announced plans to only send a handful of candidates, amid speculations that they may not pass the national security vetting.

On Sunday, the Democratic Party announced it would field only six candidates to vie for seats on district bodies, fewer than the eight initially put forward. Party chair Lo Kin-hei, who is also poised to throw his hat into the ring, did not comment on the issue of securing nominations from the contentious three government-appointed committees.

When asked how many nominations the DAB secured from the three committees, Chan said it was the responsibility of the candidates to find their own nominations, instead of gaining them via the party: “As the management of the party, we would not seek nominations on behalf of the candidates… it is the chance for candidates to show their sincerity, this kind of thing must be done by the candidates themselves,” he said.

The DAB chief added that the party would also make nominations for candidates appointed by the chief executive, but the name list was not finalised yet. They would pick people with “good virtues,” including party members and those outside of the party, he said.

The nomination period for the District Council election will begin on Tuesday and end on October 30. Some DAB candidates are set to sign up for the election on Tuesday.

Most other traditional democrats remain behind bars, have quit politics, or are in self-exile following the onset of the 2020 security law.

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Former Democratic Party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting, along with six other co-defendants, pleaded not guilty on Monday to rioting during the Yuen Long mob attack in July 2019. Meanwhile, two news clips of protests in other parts of the city were admitted as evidence to reveal the “overall circumstances” at the time.

Lam was arrested in August 2020 and charged with with participating in a riot in Yuen Long on July 21, 2019. That night, dozens of rod-wielding men wearing white shirts – reportedly with triad connections – gathered in Yuen Long MTR station, attacking commuters and protesters.

Lam, who was among those assaulted, was accused of going to Yuen Long with the express purpose of provoking the white-clad men.

Wearing a suit jacket over a white shirt, he appeared before Judge Stanley Chan at the District Court on Monday morning alongside Yu Ka-ho, Jason Chan, Yip Kam-sing, Kwong Ho-lam, Wan Chung-ming, and Marco Yeung. All seven pleaded not guilty.

Standing in the dock, Lam said: “I did not participate in a riot, I plead not guilty,” to which Judge Chan replied that the case was a criminal proceeding, and that defendants did not need to say anything other than whether they pleaded guilty or not.

Lam has been remanded in custody since March 2021 over a separate national security case. The democrat, along with 46 other pro-democracy figures – including lawmakers and activists – stands accused of conspiring to commit subversion over his role in an unofficial primary election for the 2020 Legislative Council election, which was later postponed.

Relevance of HK Island protests

On Monday, the prosecution played two news broadcast clips of protests on the day of the Yuen Long attack to demonstrate the “broader environment” surrounding the rioting allegations.

Protests erupted in June 2019 over a since-axed extradition bill. They escalated into sometimes violent displays of dissent against police behaviour, amid calls for democracy and anger over Beijing’s encroachment. Demonstrators demanded an independent probe into police conduct, amnesty for those arrested and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.” 

The prosecution claimed that the seven defendants had arrived in Yuen Long that night by MTR from Central, Causeway Bay, Wanchai, and Tsim Sha Tsui. Other districts including Admiralty and Sheung Wan also saw violent protests that evening.

Lam’s lawyer said she did not doubt the accuracy of the news reports, but called into question whether protests on Hong Kong Island were relevant to the case at hand.

She argued that protests in other parts of the city could not have had a direct effect on what happened in Yuen Long that night, and that the prejudicial effect brought about by the news clips would outweigh their evidential value, threatening the fairness of the trial.

She also said the prosecution was trying to “cast a wide net” by entering video clips irrelevant to its own submission, which only contained details about Yuen Long.

Judge Chan eventually admitted the two videos as evidence, saying that the court could not consider the Yuen Long incident in isolation from the protests that were happening across the city. He said the news clips were relevant to the case, and were an objective record of what had happened.

The hearing continues on Wednesday.

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One of Hong Kong’s last remaining opposition parties will field six candidates in the upcoming “patriots-only” district council election, fewer than the eight initially put forward.

It comes as its pro-Beijing rival is set to announce a list of more than 100 hopefuls on Monday evening for the newly-restricted December race.

The Democratic Party said on Sunday that the six will run for the directly-elected seats, including chairperson Lo Kin-hei, vice-chair Bonnie Ng, incumbent Yau Tsim Mong District Council member Leo Chu, and former district council members Li Shee-lin, Nelson Ip, and Ben Poon.

They will run for one of 88 democratically-elected seats on the local-level advisory bodies – down from 452 in the 2019 election. Democrats swept the last election, before a major electoral overhaul this year ensured only “patriots” could take part in the future.

The pro-democracy party had nominated eight members to join the overhauled race last month. Chairperson Lo Kin-hei said that party members were able to opt out from the race, despite the nomination, and that the party respected their decisions, local media reported.

Aside from Chu, the other candidates were all former district council members who resigned in 2021, after an oath-taking requirement had district councillors swear allegiance to the city and vow to uphold the Basic Law. It prompted a mass exodus of district councillors.

According to Yahoo News, when asked about his resignation following the oath-taking requirement, Lo said: “During every election, the declaration has certain clauses pertaining to uphold the Basic Law and plead allegiance to the HKSAR, I don’t think this has changed.”

Among the hopefuls, Lo and Ng will run in the Southern district and the Central and Western district, respectively, where both of them were elected in 2019.

Li Shee-linn and Ben Poon will eye seats in the Southern district and the Eastern district respectively.

Chu will seek re-election in Kowloon’s Yau Tsim Mong district, while Ip will return to the Kwun Tong district to run for his former seat.

Lo also said that he had obtained the full names and addresses of members of the three district-level committees from the Electoral Affairs Commission. The six hopefuls will seek nominations from them via post.

Under the new system, the “three committees” – the District Fight Crime Committees, District Fire Safety Committees and Area Committees – are responsible for gatekeeping the upcoming race. Candidates must bag nine nominations from the three committees in order to run.

Speaking to HKFP on Monday, Ng said they will try to reach committee members previously unknown to them.

Environmental activist and ADPL hopefuls

Also seeking to enter the race is environmental activist and local media outlet Transit Jam journalist, James Ockenden. In a Monday press release, the Kowloon Tong resident said he would stand in the Kowloon City North district to win “safe streets, safe jobs, clean air and a fair deal for residents.”

“In the poorer districts, developers plot to give residents a poor deal and wreck heritage while developers in the rich districts pay little concern to the environmental health and safety of residents,” he said.

He also said that he hopes to improve the walkability and transport connections of the Kai Tak site.

Ockenden added that he has “found possible contact details for just 40 of the 155 nominators” in the Kowloon City committees: “While I respect government concerns over candidate abilities, we also need to allow flexibility for newcomers and those who have worked outside of the established systems.”

Another remaining pro-democracy party, the Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood, also said two party members – Chow Kai-lim and Kwok Wai-shing – will join the race, Ming Pao reported.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, the largest pro-Beijing political party in the city, is set to announce a list of more than 100 hopefuls for the upcoming race on Monday afternoon.

Electoral overhaul

Plans to overhaul the District Council elections were unveiled in May 2023 to ensure only “patriots” are elected, following a pro-democracy landslide at the last polls in 2019. The number of seats chosen democratically by the public will be slashed to around 20 per cent, with the rest chosen by the city’s leader, government-appointed committees and officials.

Constituency boundaries will be redrawn and each local council will be chaired by a government official, similar to colonial-era arrangements. All candidates will undergo national security vetting to ensure patriotism.

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By Oliver Hotham in Beijing, China

China began welcoming on Monday representatives of 130 countries for a conference that will be overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war, as an increasingly assertive Beijing is asked to help de-escalate the violence.

At the top of the invitation list to China’s Belt and Road Initiative forum is Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, on his first trip to a major global power since the Ukraine invasion threw his regime into international isolation.

Leaders have begun to pour into the Chinese capital for a gala event marking a decade of the BRI, a key project of President Xi Jinping to extend China’s global reach.

While China hopes the forum will help boost its international standing, Israel’s war with Palestinian militant organisation Hamas will continue to dominate the headlines.

Israel declared war on the Islamist group after waves of its fighters broke through the heavily fortified border on October 7, shooting, stabbing, and burning to death more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians.

More than one million people have fled their homes in scenes of chaos and despair under heavy Israeli bombardment of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Israel’s bombing has killed at least 2,670 people in Gaza, mainly civilians, and flattened entire neighbourhoods.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi condemned Israel’s actions for going “beyond the scope of self-defence” and called for it to “cease its collective punishment of the people of Gaza”.

“(Israel) should listen earnestly to the calls of the international community… and cease its collective punishment of the people of Gaza,” Wang said Sunday, in China’s strongest response to the conflict so far.

Western officials have criticised Beijing for not naming Hamas in statements on the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Wang spoke on Sunday with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who called on China to use its “influence” in the Middle East to push for calm.

China has a warm relationship with Iran, where the clerical leadership supports both Hamas and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group that could open a second front against Israel.

This year, China brokered an entente between former regional foes Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Beijing’s special envoy Zhai Jun will visit the Middle East this week to push for a ceasefire and peace talks, China’s state broadcaster CCTV said on Sunday, without specifying which countries he would visit.

The BRI summit would allow Beijing to frame attendance as a gesture of support for its position on the Israel-Hamas war, said Niva Yau, a non-resident fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub.

“Any head of state that attends the summit, it’s almost as if they agree with Beijing’s positions on these global issues,” she said.

Strategic dependence

Several leaders are already in Beijing ahead of the two-day forum, which starts Tuesday.

Among them are the prime ministers of Hungary, Ethiopia and Cambodia, and the presidents of Kenya, Chile and Indonesia.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov flew into Beijing on Monday and within hours held talks with his Chinese counterpart.

Lavrov thanked China for inviting Putin as the summit’s “chief guest”, according to a readout from Moscow, which later said the top diplomat would head to North Korea after Beijing.

Relations between China and Russia are “on the rise”, Lavrov told Wang Yi, adding that their two leaders “will discuss them in their entirety when they meet”.

Wang, in turn, said China “appreciates” Russia’s support for the Belt and Road Initiative.

The top Chinese diplomat also discussed the Israel-Hamas conflict, with Wang stressing Beijing “condemns all acts that harm civilians and opposes any violation of international law”.

“It is necessary for the UN Security Council to take action, and major countries should play an active role,” he added.

Putin is expected to arrive overnight.

Trade between China and Russia this year has soared to levels not seen since the beginning of Moscow’s war in Ukraine, with Chinese imports of Russian oil offering Moscow a critical lifeline as international sanctions bite.

China has refused to condemn the Ukraine war in an effort to position itself as a neutral party, while offering Moscow vital diplomatic and financial support.

Xi and Putin, who have described each other as “dear friends”, each rely on the other to help counter Western dominance.

Putin hailed ties with Beijing in an interview with state broadcaster CGTN ahead of his visit, praising Xi’s “highly relevant and significant” initiatives.

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Hong Kong’s anti-graft watchdog has arrested 20 people on suspicion of withdrawing money out of their government pension funds using forged paperwork, sparking controversy among Hongkongers now residing in the UK.

According to a statement issued by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) on Friday, some 10 Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) scheme members and one insurance agent were among the 20 individuals arrested by the commission operation.

The arrestees, who have been released on bail, allegedly presented documents falsely indicating they would be leaving Hong Kong to reside in mainland China.

MPF scheme members can ordinarily only withdraw contributions when they reach the age of 65. According to the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority, scheme members who can demonstrate that they have left the city permanently can withdraw their money early.

Hong Kong has seen a mass emigration wave in the wake of Beijing imposing a national security law and strict Covid-19 rules even as they were abandoned around the world.

Among the top destinations is the UK, which launched a British National (Overseas) visa immigration route in July 2020. Under the scheme, BNO passport holders and their dependents can apply for permanent residency after living in the UK for five years. After one more year, they can apply for British citizenship.

MPF authorities said in 2021 after Hong Kong stopped recognising the BN(O) passport that scheme members “cannot rely on BN(O) passport or its associated visa as evidence in support of an application for early withdrawal of MPF.”

While the ICAC did not say those arrested had settled in the UK, local media cited sources saying that some Hong Kong migrants who had moved to Britain made an early MPF withdrawal by claiming they were relocating to mainland China, and that they could otherwise not get their money.

The insurance agent, which the ICAC said “masterminded” the operation, had allegedly accepted bribe payments ranging from several thousand dollars to several ten thousand dollars from each applicant in exchange for applying to withdraw their pension funds early using false documents.

“Such applications involved the use of false documents including statutory declarations and proofs of employment or residence in the Mainland,” the anti-graft watchdog’s statement read.

Investigation ongoing

The commission’s statement came after overseas outlet The Chaser reported on Friday that UK-based BN(O) passport holders had withdrawn their MPF money in Britain through an agent from insurance company Sun Life Financial, after making a sworn declaration with a lawyer’s help that they would permanently leave Hong Kong.

The agent then prepared documents indicating that they would be relocating to mainland China or other cities in order to withdraw their pension funds.

In the Friday statement, the ICAC said an investigation was ongoing, and that it would seek advice from the Department of Justice to decide whether to prosecute the arrestees.

According to government data, residents who permanently left Hong Kong withdrew HK$1.79 billion from their MPF accounts in the second quarter of 2023 — a 15.5 percent drop year on year.

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Beijing, China

China supports the “just cause of the Palestinian people in safeguarding their national rights”, foreign minister Wang Yi told his Iranian counterpart on Sunday as Beijing takes an increasingly clear stance on the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Israeli forces have staged thousands of air raids in the Gaza Strip in recent days, claiming more than 2,300 lives in the densely populated territory after Hamas fighters broke through the heavily fortified border with Israel on October 7, killing more than 1,300 people.

China, which has close ties with Iran, has increasingly positioned itself as a mediator in the Middle East, but has been criticised by Western officials for not specifically naming Hamas in its condemnations of violence in the Israel-Gaza conflict.

“The root cause… of the Palestine-Israel situation is that the Palestinian people’s right to statehood has been set aside for a long time,” Wang said in a call with Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Sunday, according to an official Chinese readout.

“This historical injustice should end as soon as possible,” Wang said, adding that “China will continue to stand on the side of peace and support the just cause of the Palestinian people in safeguarding their national rights.”

More than one million people in the northern part of the crowded enclave of Gaza have been ordered to flee ahead of an expected major ground offensive by Israel, an exodus that aid groups said would cause a humanitarian disaster.

The cramped and impoverished Gaza Strip, where 2.3 million residents live on top of each other, has been under a land, air and sea blockade by Israel since 2006.

Most of those killed on both sides are civilians.

Wang said in a call on Sunday with Saudi Arabia’s Prince Faisal bin Farhan that Israel’s actions were now “beyond the scope of self-defence” and the Israeli government must “cease its collective punishment of the people of Gaza”.

“(Israel) should listen earnestly to the calls of the international community and the UN secretary general, and cease its collective punishment of the people of Gaza,” Wang added in a change from Beijing’s earlier ambiguous statements on the conflict.

Wang told Prince Faisal that “all parties should not take any action to escalate the situation and should return to the negotiating table as soon as possible”.

On Saturday, Wang held a call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who had called on China to use its influence in the Middle East to push for calm in the region.

Wang urged “the convening of an international peace meeting as soon as possible to promote the reaching of broad consensus”, according to Beijing’s readout of the conversation.

Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a senior research fellow at the Asia Centre in Paris, said Beijing was “more influential (in the Middle East) than ten years or twenty years ago mainly because of its economic footprint there but also its diplomatic activism”.

But “its good relations with Israel, especially in the technological sector, limits Beijing’s room for manoeuvre”, he told AFP.

Chinese envoy visit

China’s official statements on the conflict have not specifically named Hamas in their condemnations of violence, leading to criticism from some Western officials who said they were too weak.

The country’s state broadcaster CCTV said on Sunday that China’s special envoy Zhai Jun will visit the Middle East next week to push for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict and promote peace talks.

Zhai “will visit the Middle East next week to coordinate with various parties for a ceasefire, to protect civilians, ease the situation, and promote peace talks”, CCTV said in a video posted to its official social media account on Sunday.

Zhai said in an interview with CCTV that “the prospect of further broadening and outward spillover (of the conflict) is deeply worrying”, according to the broadcaster.

Zhai met Friday with the Arab League’s representatives in China and said Beijing supported the regional group “in playing an important role on the Palestine issue”, according to a foreign ministry statement.

He told the bloc that Beijing would “make unremitting efforts to get the Middle East peace process back on track”, the statement added.

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Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Saturday on China, a partner of Iran, to use its influence to push for calm in the Middle East.

The top US diplomat, who was visiting Saudi Arabia, had a “productive” one-hour telephone call with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

“Our message was that he thinks it’s in our shared interest to stop the conflict from spreading.” Miller told reporters on Blinken’s plane from Riyadh to Abu Dhabi.

“He thought it could be useful if China could use its influence.”

China has a warm relationship with Iran, whose clerical leadership supports both Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group ruling Gaza that carried out grisly attacks inside Israel a week ago, and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group that could open a second front against Israel.

Wang for his part said that the United States should “play a constructive and responsible role, pushing the issue back on track for a political settlement as soon as possible,” according to a readout published by the Chinese foreign ministry.

“When dealing with international hot-spot issues, major countries must adhere to objectivity and fairness, maintain calmness and restraint, and take the lead in abiding by international law,” said Wang.

The Chinese foreign minister added that Beijing called for “the convening of an international peace meeting as soon as possible to promote the reaching of broad consensus”.

“The fundamental outlet for the Palestinian issue lies in implementing a ‘two-state solution’,” said Wang.

China’s official statements on the conflict have not specifically named Hamas in their condemnations of violence, leading to criticism from some Western officials who said they were too weak.

The United States considers China to be its main global challenger but the two powers have been working to stabilise their relationship, with Blinken paying a rare visit to Beijing in June.

Miller said the Middle East was an example of areas where the two powers could work together.

The phone call also included a discussion on China-US relations, which have been heavily strained in recent years by a range of thorny trade and geopolitical issues.

But Wang suggested there were some positive signs.

“China and the United States have recently carried out a series of high-level contacts, and bilateral relations appear to have stopped sliding and to stabilise,” said Wang.

“(This) has been welcomed by the people of the two countries and the international community.”

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Washington, United States

A narrow majority of Americans would support committing US troops to defend Taiwan if China were to invade, a survey said Wednesday.

The study by the Eurasia Group Foundation found that 42 percent of Americans would “somewhat support intervention” to support Taiwan and another 18 percent would “strongly” back intervention.

President Joe Biden has publicly said he would back sending US forces to defend Taiwan, a self-governing democracy and major technology hub which Beijing claims and has not ruled out seizing by force.

The official US position on intervention is one of ambiguity, with the United States — which only recognizes Beijing — focusing on providing weapons to Taiwan for its own self-defense.

Mark Hannah, a senior fellow at the Eurasia Group Foundation, said that support for intervention in Taiwan could be linked in part to the negative image in the United States of China, which has faced wide criticism on issues from trade to human rights.

“China is perceived as a bad actor and there could be a rally-around-the-flag effect if they invaded an island that is democratic and has been a long-term partner of the United States,” he said.

The survey took responses from 1,000 US adults from August 28 to September 6.

It found broad support for Taiwan but Republicans were most likely to back intervention strongly.

Support was flipped on Ukraine with backers of President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party most enthusiastic about the robust US support for Ukraine, which has been criticized by Republican former president Donald Trump.

But in one area that did not entirely mirror political statements, a bipartisan majority of 77 percent said they supported diplomacy with Iran to prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

The question did not specifically mention a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran which was negotiated by Barack Obama and trashed by Trump.

A full 67 percent of Americans also said they backed direct negotiations with US adversaries “even if they are human rights abusers, dictators or home to terrorist organizations.”

The survey was taken before a bloody weekend assault on Israel by Islamist movement Hamas, which has support from Iran’s clerical leaders.

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A group living at Hong Kong’s only private low-rental housing estate has staged a protest against a relocation plan for elderly residents ahead of a five-year redevelopment period. Residents are expected to leave by early next year.

Residents Kwok Kei-kyun and Kate Auyeung – member of the Resident’s Rights Concern Group of Tai Hang Sai Estate – marched on Friday from the estate in Skep Kip Mei to the Legal Aid Department Kowloon Branch Office in Mong Kok, as they sought legal advice to potentially take their case to court.

Kwok carried a handmade coffin and hoisted a banner made of foam boards that read: “awaiting grievance to be heard” and “where to seek justice?” in Chinese. The duo shouted slogans, including “no proper relocation [when] bringing down our house; losing home when we are old” around the busy streets of Mong Kok.

According to the redevelopment plan, the landlord of the decades-old estate – the Hong Kong Settlers Housing Corporation (HKSHCL) – will offer rent subsidies and relocation assistance to households eligible to move back after the site is redeveloped. It is expected to be completed in 2029, with residents expected to leave by next March.

Auyeung, a 60-year-old who had lived on the estate for four decades, said the relocation plan is “unfair and improper” for many elderly residents: “It’s difficult for elderly residents to rent a place elsewhere, landlords are unlikely to lease to elderly people,” she told HKFP in Cantonese.

According to the HKSHCL’s proposal, for those who are deemed eligible to return, a single-person household will get HK$540,000 in rent subsidies and another HK$30,000 for relocation. This amounts to HK$9,000 of monthly rent subsidies during the five-year redevelopment period.

A family of four, on the other hand, will receive HK$810,000 in rent subsidies – the equivalent of HK$13,500 a month.

But Auyeung said that many residents are old and may not secure a lease elsewhere given this amount of subsidies.

Kwok, 64, said it is unfair that the redevelopment project will offer fewer, and smaller, units to returning residents than new buyers: “It’s like robbing the poor to provide for the rich,” he said in Cantonese.

The HKSHCL plan states that it will provide – at most – 1,300 units for eligible tenants to return, and around 2,000 units for a “Starter Homes” pilot scheme. The policy was introduced in 2017 by then-chief executive Carrie Lam to provide discounted private housing to first-time buyers.

HKFP has reached out to HKSHCL for comment.

Local support

The protest received support from some local residents on Friday.

Lai, a 91-year-old resident who lives alone at Man On House, said he felt anxious and helpless over the relocation plan.

Meanwhile, 33-year-old Mok Hon-yu – a life-long resident at the estate – told HKFP that he supported the group’s demands, as the HKSHCL had not provided enough guarantees to tenants that the project could be completed in five years.

The pair demanded that the HKSHCL directly communicate with them, as they urged the government to help elderly residents to secure a lease, or provide them with a transitionary public housing unit in nearby districts.

In August, more than 100 residents of Tai Hang Sai Estate already held a press conference expressing dismay and saying that their relocation had not been properly handled.

Wong Yu-wa, one of the residents’ representatives, said at the press conference that 80 per cent of the residents were more than 70 years of age.

The government had the responsibility to help relocate the residents for its role in facilitating the redevelopment project, Wong added.

Built in 1965, the estate was the only private low-renting housing in Hong Kong. It was created to rehouse tenants affected by the clearance of the then-Tai Hang Sai Resettlement Area.

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A mainland Chinese postgraduate student has been deported from Hong Kong after completing a six-month prison term over a sedition charge related to plans to display a Tiananmen banner.

Twenty-three year old law student Zeng Yuxuan had been in remand since this June over a separate sedition charge for allegedly mourning the death of Leung Kin-fai, who stabbed a police officer on July 1, 2021 before taking his own life.

Zeng’s full name was mentioned in the Security Bureau’s statement on Thursday, which read that she was “removed from Hong Kong” in accordance with the Immigration Ordinance. The bureau cited a clause in the ordinance stating that removal orders may be made against “an undesirable immigrant who has not been ordinarily resident in Hong Kong for 3 years or more.”

Her initial sedition charge was withdrawn, and Zeng was instead convicted in September after pleading guilty to attempting to do an act with a seditious intention by planning to display a large banner relating to a 1989 Tiananmen monument on the anniversary of the crackdown.

Pillar of Shame

The banner display was part of an international campaign led by Jens Galschiøt, the Danish artist who created the the Pillar of Shame – an eight-metre sculpture commemorating the victims who died in the 1989 crackdown.

The sculpture was quietly removed by the University of Hong Kong citing safety concerns in December 2021. It had stood on the campus for 24 years before the removal.

In May, it was seized by the city’s national security police as evidence for an incitement to subversion case involving the organiser of Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen crackdown vigil and its three leading members Lee Cheuk-yan, Albert Ho, and Chow Hang-tung.

The court heard that Zeng had done “meticulous planning” to showcase the banner as she had brought tools, conducted site checks, and booked a nearby hotel room. She also informed the press about the plan to raise publicity and came up with contingency plans in case she botched the plan.

Sedition is not covered by the Beijing-imposed national security law, which targets secession, subversion, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts and mandates up to life imprisonment. Those convicted under the sedition law – last amended in the 1970s when Hong Kong was still a British colony – face a maximum penalty of two years in prison.

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A Hong Kong man who displayed a British colonial flag during a FIFA World Cup qualification match was taken aside by police.

Around 15 minutes before the match, a man wearing a hat and a white shirt held up Hong Kong’s colonial-era flag in the Hong Kong Stadium’s spectator stand. He was soon approached by at least two plainclothes police officers and led away, Yahoo News reported.

Police then searched the man’s bag, according to photos by online media outlet The Collective.

In response to HKFP, the police said in a statement that they identified a 21-year-old man who “displayed a flag” when police were maintaining order at the stadium.

“Our staff therefore approached the man for further investigation. No one was arrested in the incident,” a police spokesperson told HKFP in Cantonese.

Police did not reply as to why the man was taken away and whether he returned to the spectator stand afterwards.

The colonial flag, emblazoned with the Union Jack and a dragon and lion motif, was adopted by the colonial government as Hong Kong’s flag from 1959 to 1997 before the city was returned to China.

The flag was waved occasionally at assemblies and marches during the 2019 protests and unrest. During the July 1 storming of the Legislative Council building in 2019, some protestors hung the flag on the podium after breaking into the building.

Tam Yiu-chung, a pro-Beijing politician who is a former member of the Standing Committee of National People’s Congress, told media outlets in May 2020 – ahead of the national security law’s enactment – that he believed waving the colonial flag during marches would violate the legislation.

In November last year, a citizen journalist who waved the colonial flag while the Chinese national anthem was being played was sentenced to three-months’ jail for insulting the anthem. The incident, during which people were gathered at a mall to watch an Olympics medal ceremony, marked the first conviction under the National Anthem Ordinance which came into effect in 2020.

National anthem booed

Hong Kong matches have sometimes become platforms for political demonstrations in recent years.

Hong Kong football fans were heard booing China’s national anthem in September last year at Hong Kong Stadium, when the city saw its first match that was open to spectators after the government lifted Covid-19 restrictions.

A team of six policemen patrolled the stadium, with one holding up a video camera recording the scene as some fans booed “March of the Volunteers” for about 10 seconds before the Hong Kong team took on Myanmar, AFP reported.

During two Asian qualifiers for the World Cup in November 2019, when Hong Kong played against Bahrain and Cambodia, spectators also booed the national anthem. FIFA later fined the Hong Kong Football Association 30,000 Swiss francs (HK$30,500).

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Nascent political party New Prospect for Hong Kong has announced plans to send five candidates to run in the upcoming District Council election. The party, founded amid the 2019 extradition bill unrest, said it would seek the support of young voters and vowed to “mend the rift” in the city.

Led by the party’s sole lawmaker Gary Zhang, New Prospect announced on Thursday that it would send five candidates – all with no prior election experience – to run in the geographical constituencies in four districts in December’s general election. They were Yanki Chan, Sharon So, Koby Wong, Billy Li Ka-chun and Henry Ma.

The candidates’ diverse background and their passion, together with their experience serving the community, would allow them to secure enough nominations and voter support, the lawmaker said. 

Ma, one of the election hopefuls who had engaged in district work in Hung Hom for almost two decades, said the candidates were not completely inexperienced.

“We have zero experience in running in elections, but we have served the communities for a certain period of time. We could combine our expertise and our experience in the districts and find a new direction,” Ma said in Cantonese.

He is currently a member of the Fight Crime Committee, a local government-appointed body which gained new powers to nominate District Council election candidates following the overhaul.

The election will be the first since Hong Kong unveiled plans in May 2023 to overhaul the District Council elections to ensure only “patriots” are elected, following a pro-democracy landslide at the last polls in 2019. The number of seats chosen democratically by the public will be slashed to around 20 per cent, with the rest chosen by the city’s leader, government-appointed committees and officials.

Constituency boundaries will be redrawn and each local council will be chaired by a government official, similar to colonial-era arrangements. All candidates will undergo national security vetting to ensure patriotism.

Zhang, an executive committee member of New Prospect, told reporters on Thursday that the most critical issue Hong Kong had to tackle was trust among citizens, as well as their trust in the establishment. 

The party aimed to propose concrete solutions rather than simply airing criticism or making a show of taking a stance, he said, adding the party – established in October 2019 – demonstrated to young people that it “stood behind them,” even on more controversial issues. 

“It’s our job to repair the relationship and also to show our young people and society as a whole that it doesn’t have to be like what it used to be in the past,” the legislator said.

Zhang had advocated for Hongkongers whose mainland travel permit was revoked or confiscated after they were arrested or charged in connection with the 2019 protests. He had handled 200 to 300 cases, the legislator said on Thursday, saying he was confident that trust could be rebuilt.

The party’s electioneering activities would be coordinated by former Civic Party district councillor William Li, who was elected in 2019 with 6,450 votes, the highest in the Kwun Tong district. He resigned in July 2021 amid an exodus of pro-democracy councillors ahead of a new oath-taking arrangement for public officers. He also quit the Civic Party, which voted to disband in May this year citing vacancies in its executive committee posts.

He told the press on Thursday that many people were left feeling “lost and helpless” after “many things happened in Hong Kong” in recent years. But as a young man who loved the city dearly, he believed Hong Kong’s society “should not look like this.” 

“We want to do something for Hong Kong, to mend the rift that is not visible and let Hong Kong shine again. To mend the rift, we must rebuild trust. Trust is the basis for society to operate, a catalyst for productivity and the momentum to drive innovation and prosperity,” he said in Cantonese. 

Li was asked multiple times why he did not enter this year’s race. He told the press that he would concentrate on managing the election campaign for New Prospect and asked reporters to focus on the five candidates. Whether it would be difficult for him to secure nominations from the three committees was “irrelevant,” he said.

Zhang revealed on Thursday that the party’s election funding was set at HK$500,000, and an internal fundraising campaign held earlier had surpassed the amount.

The nomination period of the District Council election will begin next Tuesday and end on October 30.

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Beijing, China

An Israeli embassy worker in Beijing was attacked on Friday, Israel’s foreign ministry said.

“An Israeli employee of the Israeli embassy in Beijing was attacked today,” a foreign ministry statement said, adding that the attack did not take place at the embassy compound in the Chinese capital.

“The employee is being treated at hospital and is in stable condition,” the statement said.

“The motive for the assault is being looked into.”

The attack comes after Hamas gunmen killed more than 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, and took about 150 hostages in their surprise attack on Saturday.

Israel has retaliated by raining air and artillery strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip for six days, killing over 1,350 people.

A statement on the Israeli foreign ministry website warned that Hamas had called on “all of its supporters around the world to hold a ‘Day of Rage'” on Friday to “attack Israelis and Jews”.

“It is reasonable to assume that there will be protest events in various countries that are liable to turn violent,” the statement said.

The Israeli embassy, located in a diplomatic neighbourhood of northeast Beijing, appeared to be operating normally on Friday afternoon, an AFP journalist saw.

Security personnel asked AFP not to film the site, where no additional policing was visible from the outside.

China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond for comment.

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A Hong Kong lawyer has challenged his conviction and seven-day jail sentence for obstructing police outside a court in March 2021, when 47 pro-democracy figures faced a marathon bail hearing under the national security law.

Solicitor Leo Yau appeared before Judge Johnny Chan on Thursday in a bid to convince the court to quash his conviction and sentence for obstructing police officers outside the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on March 1, 2021.

On that day, hundreds of people lined up outside the courthouse in Sham Shui Po to show support for former lawmakers, ex-district councillors and other activists charged with conspiracy to commit subversion under the Beijing-imposed security law.

The landmark case saw the democrats and their legal representatives staying in court until after midnight as the defendants took turns to apply for bail pending trial. The bail hearing eventually lasted for four days, with a majority of defendants having been detained since then.

Yau, who represented defendants including former district council members Ben Chung and Andrew Chiu, was said to have deliberately obstructed the police at around 9 pm on March 1, 2021 by refusing to produce identification in an area cordoned off by the police. He was found guilty and jailed for seven days in 2022.

‘The magistrate did not err’

On Thursday Yau’s representative, barrister David Ma, argued that there was no evidence before the trial magistrate to explain why the force had to set up a cordoned area on that day. Although the 47 democrats case was sensitive and attracted media and public attention, only a handful of people remained outside the court when Yau was stopped by the police, he said. The magistrate had not considered whether it was still suitable to maintain the cordoned area at 9 pm, when no one was gathering, the lawyer argued.

“No matter how many people were inside the court, it did not amount to a public procession,” Ma told Judge Chan when he argued that the police power to set up a cordoned area did not apply when there were very few people outside the courthouse.

Senior Public Prosecutor Winnie Mok said Ma, who also represented Yau at the trial, had repeatedly told the magistrate that the legality of police enforcement on the day was not a matter the defence was concerned about. It was why the magistrate had not invited both the prosecution and the defence to make submissions on this point, she said.

“The magistrate did not err,” she said.

Ma went on to argue that his client had genuinely believed that the police had no power to bar him from entering the courthouse. Even if he was wrong in this belief, the trial magistrate should still have considered this as a factor in his defence.

Yau also repeatedly told the police that he was a lawyer, and the court should have taken into account his out-of-court statements, including his calls to the 999 emergency line asking for assistance after he was barred from entering the court.

The obstruction created by Yau was also “not very serious,” Ma argued, adding the interaction he had with the force lasted for around two minutes and three seconds. He called on Judge Chan to review the conviction and sentence.

Mok said the magistrate had already acknowledged Yau’s occupation in the judgement and Ma’s team had not cited legal precedents to back his point that the court should have attached more weight to this argument. Yau also did not give evidence during the trial, she said, which meant the court could only review his actions based on video footage, which showed he argued with the police.

Police made a simple request for Yau’s identification proof and he did not comply, Mok said.

“The magistrate could see the act of the defendant. It was a judgement based on evidence,” she said.

She questioned what grounds the police had to believe Yau was in fact a lawyer when he refused to produce proof, adding the lawyer had mistakenly told the emergency line operator that he was working on a rioting case rather than the democrats’ national security case.

“Not everyone wearing a suit and holding a pile of paper could claim they are lawyers,” the Department of Justice representative said.

Chan adjourned his decision to January 12 next year.

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Seoul, South Korea

A “large number” of North Koreans appear to have been repatriated from China, Seoul’s unification ministry said Friday, confirming claims made by multiple rights groups.

Most of the tens of thousands of North Koreans who have escaped repression and poverty at home have made the arduous, high-risk journey across the country’s land border with China, where they face arrest and possible deportation.

Activists say the fugitives face severe punishment, or even a death sentence, if forced to return home.

“It appears to be true that a large number of North Korean residents were repatriated to North Korea from the three northeastern provinces of China,” unification ministry spokesman Koo Byoung-sam told reporters, without giving an exact number.

“Our government regrets this situation and raised this issue seriously with China, emphasising our position,” he added.

South Korea’s “position is that under no circumstances should North Korean defectors living abroad be forcibly repatriated to North Korea against their free will”, he said.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Thursday declined to address specific deportation claims, saying there was “no such thing as so-called ‘North Korean defectors’ in China”.

“China has always upheld a responsible attitude towards DPRK (North Korean) people who enter China illegally for economic reasons, and persists in properly handling them in accordance with the combined principles of domestic law, international law and humanitarianism,” he told reporters at a daily press briefing.

Seoul’s announcement comes after the South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo cited rights groups in reporting that Beijing had repatriated about 600 North Koreans on the night of October 9.

Human Rights Watch separately said Beijing had “forcibly returned” more than 500 North Koreans to their home country.

China is North Korea’s strongest ally and most important trading partner.

Elizabeth Salmon, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, has estimated that approximately 2,000 North Korean defectors are currently being held in China.

Under a 1986 bilateral border protocol, North Koreans are not permitted to seek asylum or resettlement in China, and are instead deported back, according to HRW.

“Governments should denounce China’s latest returns and call for an end to future forced returns,” the rights group said in a statement.

“The Chinese government should provide UN authorities with access to North Korean detainees and either grant North Koreans refugee status or give them safe passage to South Korea or other countries.”

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The salaries of close to 200 judges and judicial officers in Hong Kong are set to rise by 3.62 per cent. The proposed increase came after a report by the Judicial Committee in July said national security cases and those linked to the 2019 protests posed “mounting challenges” to the Judiciary’s resources and manpower.

Advisors of Hong Kong leader John Lee approved the recommendation from the Judicial Committee to raise the wage of judges and judicial officers for 2023-24, with a retrospective effect from April 1, the government said in a press release on Wednesday. The pay rise remained subject to final approval from the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council.

The recommended wage hike of 3.62 per cent was decided based on a “basket of factors,” the government said, including the responsibility, working conditions and workload of judges compared to those of lawyers in private practice, as well as recruitment and retention in the Judiciary.

The security of tenure, the prestigious status and high esteem of the judicial offices, the ban against returning to private practice in the city, and the pay levels in the private and public sectors were also taken into consideration by the committee, the government said.

“In coming up with its recommendation on judicial pay for 2023-24, the Judicial Committee premised its deliberations on the need to uphold the principle of judicial independence,” the government statement read.

As of last Sunday, Hong Kong had 192 judges and judicial officers in the Court of Final Appeal, the High Court, the District Court, Lands Tribunal, Magistrates’ Courts and other tribunals, according to the Judiciary’s website.

The highest paid judge in Hong Kong is Andrew Cheung, chief justice of the Court of Final Appeal, who earns HK$397,100 a month, according to a report released by the Judicial Committee in July.

The lowest monthly salary on the judicial service pay scale stood at HK$95,865 for special magistrates, which the committee said was being phased out.

Workload

The committee said in July that pressure from judicial work was felt especially at the levels of the High Court and the District Court. The former had to handle a large number of non-refoulement claims, with 1,149 claims made between January and September this year according to figures from the Immigration Department .

The High Court also handled cases under the Beijing-imposed national security law, which usually involved three judges and longer trial periods than other criminal cases, the committee said.

Three designated High Court judges spent 115 days in court between February and August this year overseeing the high-profile trial relating to 47 pro-democracy figures. The case involving an alleged conspiracy to commit subversion is expected to conclude by the end of this year, after the trial was adjourned in August until November, when the court will hear closing arguments.

The High Court will oversee another closely-watched national security case against pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who faces two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one offence linked to allegedly seditious publications. The Apple Daily founder’s trial, which was postponed for a second time to mid-December, is expected to last for around 80 days.

“National Security cases invariably entail longer trials, for which substantial judicial resources have to be expended, thereby impacting the listing of all other criminal cases,” the report read.

The committee said the District Court also saw major challenges brought about by cases linked to the months-long unrest sparked by the since-axed extradition bill in 2019, as they often involved a large number of defendants and lengthy trials.

“These two types of cases have been posing mounting challenges to the Judiciary in terms of judicial resources, manpower support, competing use of court premises and the provision of suitable media and security arrangements,” it said.

Case complexity

The committee added caseload figures did not fully reflect the workload of judges and judicial officers, saying the complexity of cases and time required for trials should be taken into consideration as well.

It also pointed to the high ratio of unrepresented litigants in civil cases, which posed great challenges for judges and judicial officers as they were “not properly assisted” when handling complicated legal issues.

The annual estimated staff cost of the Judiciary for 2023-24 stood at HK$1.63 billion, which accounted for around 0.26 per cent of the government’s total operating expenditure of HK$629.5 billion listed in the 2023-24 estimates.

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Beijing, China

Three Chinese nationals have been killed in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, Beijing’s foreign ministry said on Thursday.

“To my understanding it has currently been confirmed that three Chinese nationals were unfortunately killed in the conflict,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters.

In addition, he said, “two people are uncontactable and a number were injured”.

“We express our deepest condolences for the dead, and express our sincere sympathies for the families of the dead and for those who were injured,” Wang said.

“China’s relevant diplomatic organisations abroad are currently engaging in all-out efforts to coordinate the rescue and treatment of those injured, and making arrangements for those who died,” he added.

“We urge external parties to put full effort into searching for and rescuing the uncontactable people, and take all effective measures to safeguard the safety of Chinese personnel and organisations,” Wang said.

Israel has launched a withering air campaign against Hamas militants in the blockaded Gaza Strip after the Islamists carried out a massive assault on Israel on Saturday that killed more than 1,200 people.

Around another 1,200 people have been killed in the Palestinian coastal enclave in Israeli air strikes, according to Hamas officials.

Arab foreign ministers on Wednesday denounced Israel’s siege of Gaza following the shock attack by Palestinian militants on Israel, demanding that aid be “immediately” allowed to enter the blockaded enclave.

Beijing said on Thursday it “shared positions” on the conflict with the Arab states.

“Both sides call for a ceasefire and an end to the fighting as soon as possible, condemn actions that harm civilians, and (call for) preventing the situation from escalating and causing a humanitarian disaster,” Wang said.

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Washington, United States

The United States denounced Wednesday the deportation of a prominent human rights lawyer from Laos to his native China, calling for details on his whereabouts and assurances on the ailing activist’s access to medical care.

Lu Siwei was one of the lawyers appointed by families of a Hong Kong activist group that was intercepted by authorities in 2020 while attempting to flee the city by boat to Taiwan.

But after being arrested by Laotian police while en route to Thailand in July, Lu was transported back to China last month, where he is likely to face legal repercussions, a rights group said.

He is now being held at a detention facility in Sichuan, southwestern China, his family told Amnesty International.

“The United States condemns the forced repatriation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) national and human rights lawyer Lu Siwei to the PRC from Laos, at the request of PRC authorities,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement, using China’s official name.

“We call on the PRC to confirm Lu’s current location; allow for external verification by independent observers of Lu’s well-being, including access for doctors to treat Lu’s chronic health condition; and enable his access to a lawyer of his choosing.”

Lu and one other human rights lawyer — Ren Quanniu, who also sought to represent members of the “Hong Kong 12” that attempted to escape to Taiwan — had their legal licenses revoked in 2021 by authorities.

Following the large-scale pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong that erupted in 2019, Beijing has cracked down on legal professionals offering activists representation, in a campaign critics have slammed as an attempt to silence dissent.

Mainland authorities accused Lu of “inappropriate remarks on the internet (and) seriously damaging the lawyer industry’s image”.

But Lu told AFP in 2021 that he believed the accusations were “just a cover” and that his decision to take on several sensitive cases had “marked my destiny”.

Beijing has in recent years also stepped up a campaign targeting its critics abroad.

Last year Spain-based NGO Safeguard Defenders said Beijing had set up 54 overseas “police stations” around the world, allegedly to target Communist Party critics and coerce people into returning to China. Beijing has denied the claims.

“Lu’s reported reappearance in a Chinese detention centre is the latest chilling example of the Chinese government’s determination to pursue its critics even beyond China’s borders,” Amnesty International said.

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Five people have been jailed for up to 37 months for charges linked to their roles in the false imprisonment and beating of a plainclothes police officer in October 2019, during the height of the protests and unrest sparked by a since-axed extradition law.

District Judge Edmond Lee handed down the sentences on Wednesday linked to the group’s participation in what the court ruled a riot on October 13, 2019, during which they falsely imprisoned a plainclothes police officer along with around 30 others.

The five were given sentences between seven months and 37 months.

The incident took place in Tseung Kwan O, where a few dozen protesters set up roadblocks on an intersection. The protesters then surrounded a plainclothes police officer near a park at Tong Chun Street as some began beating him, Lee said in Cantonese.

The officer tried to escape from the crowd, but was chased down by a smaller group of around 10 protesters, including two of the accused. He was further kicked and hit with hard objects, which caused multiple injuries to his head and limbs, Lee said.

Lee ruled that as the plainclothes officer was falsely imprisoned and assaulted by protesters, the unlawful assembly had become a riot, that lasted for two minutes and involved a few dozen protesters. No public facilities were damaged, no others were injured, and there was no evidence to suggest the riot was premediated, Lee said.

“But the seriousness of the incident lies in the false imprisonment and bodily harm done to an on-duty police officer, whose personal safety should be protected by the law,” Lee added.

The five defendants faced various charges including false imprisonment, participating in an unlawful assembly, rioting, breaching a mask ban, and wounding.

Married couple Lau Man-chuen, a 28-year-old construction worker, and Crystal Lam, a 33-year-old company owner, and insurance worker Ng Yuen-ching, 25, pleaded guilty before the trial began in May and consequently had their sentences reduced by a quarter.

Lau was sentenced to a total of 30 months in prison for false imprisonment, wounding, and rioting. Lam was sentenced to seven months in prison for unlawful assembly. Ng was sentenced to 27 months in prison for wounding and rioting.

Lo Ka-yan, a 25-year-old student, was found guilty of false imprisonment and participating in an unlawful assembly. Lui Ngai-kai, a 30-year-old IT worker, was found guilty of false imprisonment, wounding, rioting and breaching the mask ban.

Discretion would also be offered to those found guilty at trial, as the riot in question was of a smaller scale and the police officer did not sustain permanent injuries, Lee said.

Lo was given a total prison term of 10 months. Lui received the heaviest sentence of 37 months.

A sixth defendant in this case, a 17-year-old surnamed Wong, has pleaded guilty in another case in which he and three others – including Tsang Chi-kin, who was shot by the police during the 2019 protests – hid in a safehouse for two years before being arrested and charged for perverting the course of justice. Sentencing in that case is set to be handed down on October 18.

Lee postponed Wong’s sentencing for his role in falsely imprisoning an officer to October 20, while the court awaits reports from rehabilitation centre, detention centre, and training centre.

Protests erupted in June 2019 over a since-axed extradition bill. They escalated into sometimes violent displays of dissent against police behaviour, amid calls for democracy and anger over Beijing’s encroachment. Demonstrators demanded an independent probe into police conduct, amnesty for those arrested and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.” 

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Hong Kong has spent HK$10 million on enhanced food safety checks since the city banned seafood from parts of Japan and expanded radiation inspections on all Japanese food imports.

Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan told lawmakers at a meeting on Tuesday that the city had invested HK$6 million on radiation inspection equipment, and another HK$3.8 million on manpower to carry out the reinforced safety checks, implemented since late August.

“At the moment the burden is not very big, and it is part of our system for protecting food safety in Hong Kong,” he said in Cantonese.

The environment chief’s comments, made at the Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene, came as Japan began its second phase of releasing treated wastewater from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant last week. The plant was damaged by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami in March 2011.

Hong Kong introduced the radiation checks and banned the import of seafood from 10 places including Fukushima and Tokyo on August 24, the same day that Japan started discharging treated wastewater into the Pacific Ocean.

The government – which has called Japan’s move to release the wastewater over a 30-year period “irresponsible” – said it has no plans to relax its restrictions.

On Japanese food imports that are not restricted, authorities have been conducting “comprehensive radiological tests” to ensure that radiation levels are within safe limits before they are released from the airport. All food imports have passed the tests so far.

According to the government, authorities spot check around 150 samples of Japanese food products daily, while the rest are inspected with hand-held radiation devices.

Globally, the reaction to Japan’s move has been muted. The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said in July that the discharge was in line with international standards.

Erik Yim, a lawmaker representing commercial interests, asked Tse whether the government would consider raising import taxes on Japanese food products to cover the increased expenditure.

In response, Tse said there was no intention to do so.

“But of course, if we find out that there are problems with the Japanese food… we will definitely strengthen our management of it,” he added.

Since the government tightened its import measures, restaurateurs have complained that the prolonged checks at the airport had caused food delivery delays. Political analysts have said that politics play a role in the authorities’ response to Japan’s move, with China having banned Japanese seafood entirely.

‘Water will flow and fish will swim’

Lawmakers have expressed support for the government’s reaction to Japan’s decision to discharge the treated wastewater. Some have also called on authorities to expand the import restrictions to cover a wider area.

Legislator Chan Hoi-yan – who chairs the food safety panel – said Japan was not just releasing one round, but multiple rounds, of wastewater. She asked whether the government may consider further tightening restrictions to cover other cities in Japan, or even other countries.

“Water will flow and fish will swim… we also have to check [seafood from] other places,” Chan said.

Tse said in response that the government had banned seafood from the 10 places in Japan after evaluating that the nuclear concentration would be highest in Fukushima, and that by the time the water has flowed out, it would be diluted.

Lawmaker Bill Tang, who joined a petition in August outside the Japanese consulate to protest the country’s move, asked whether the government’s ban covered food on airplanes.

“Many Hong Kong people like to go to Japan for holiday. If the… airline’s meal uses ingredients from Fukushima, will that be subject to any restrictions? Is it disallowed under the law, or is it a legal grey area?” he said.

Tse answered: “If they are airline meals supplied from Hong Kong, they must follow the laws in our jurisdiction. But if the airline meals are supplied from other countries, for example flying from Japan back [to Hong Kong], those will not be subject to our restrictions.”

While there have been no incidents of Japanese food imports exceeding radiation levels, authorities said there had been seven cases in which importers were suspected of breaching import control measures. Most were said to not have provided the necessary documentation needed for some Japanese food imports.

The latest was a batch of frozen chicken wings imported from Ibaraki prefecture that were imported to the city last Friday. The food was “not accompanied with a radiation certificate,” the Centre for Food Safety said.

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Reporters and Hong Kong’s Democratic Party have again hit snags trying to access contact details of committee members responsible for nominating candidates in the upcoming “patriots-only” District Council race, after the government released a register including only members’ surnames and addresses.

The District Committees constituencies register was released on Monday, with entries for 2,533 electors – members of the Area Committees, the District Fight Crime Committees, and the District Fire Safety Committees.

Those hoping to run in December’s overhauled District Council race must receive at least three nominations from each of the three committees to be eligible to run for one of 88 directly-elected seats on the local-level advisory bodies – down from 452 in the 2019 election.

Thus far, the government has refused to disclose contact details of the District Committee members, citing data privacy laws, sparking criticism from members of pro-democracy parties hoping to front candidates in the race.

‘Specified persons’

According to the Registration and Electoral Office’s (REO) website, only “validly nominated candidates … meeting the specified requirements” and members of the press were allowed to inspect the electors’ registers at the REO’s offices in Cheung Sha Wan and Kowloon Bay.

Only the first Chinese character or the first word of the elector’s name and their registered residential address are shown on the registers, with no phone numbers or email addresses.

Local media reported on Tuesday that the registers included several electors with the same surname. According to Ming Pao, eight of the 72 electors in Central and Western District had the surname Chan.

According to an earlier statement issued by the Electoral Affairs Commission, authorities may provide “extracts” from registers to “specified persons” – validly nominated candidates or people from eligible bodies or organisations.

In a reply to local media outlet HK01, the EAC said members of the pro-democracy Democratic Party were among those specified persons. HKFP has reached out to the commission for clarification.

Data privacy

Democratic Party chair Lo Kin-hei, who in September revealed that eight party members had been endorsed to run in the polls, said that he had reached out to the Home Affairs Department (HAD) for the committee members’ contact details to begin seeking nominations. But according to Ming Pao, the department said it could only forward the request to the committees.

Another pro-democracy party, the Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood (ADPL), has also raised concerns over difficulties surrounding seeking nominations.

Plans to overhaul the District Council elections were unveiled in May 2023 to ensure only “patriots” are elected, following a pro-democracy landslide at the last polls in 2019. The number of seats chosen democratically by the public will be slashed to around 20 per cent, with the rest chosen by the city’s leader, government-appointed committees and officials.

Constituency boundaries will be redrawn and each local council will be chaired by a government official, similar to colonial-era arrangements. All candidates will undergo national security vetting to ensure patriotism.

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Beijing, China

China is seeking to work with Egypt to help ease the Israel-Hamas war that erupted after a deadly attack by the Palestinian militant group, its Middle East envoy has said as he urged a ceasefire.

Zhai Jun spoke by phone on Tuesday with Egypt’s assistant minister for the Palestinian territories, according to a readout of the conversation published by Beijing.

“China is willing to maintain communication and coordination with Egypt, push both parties of the conflict to cease fire and stop violence as soon as possible,” Zhai said.

He also urged “the international community to form a joint force and provide humanitarian support to the Palestinian people”.

Thousands of people have been killed since Hamas’s shock assault on Saturday, the deadliest on Israel in its 75-year history.

In Israel, the death toll rose on Wednesday to 1,200 people, most of them civilians.

Meanwhile in Gaza, officials have reported more than 900 people killed as Israel pounded the territory with air strikes.

Since the assault, Egypt has intensified its push for diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the spiralling violence.

Egypt has historically been a key mediator between Israel and the Palestinians, and was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

It has, alongside Israel, jointly blockaded the Gaza Strip since 2007.

China has meanwhile positioned itself in recent months as a mediator in the Middle East, brokering a restoration of ties in March between Saudi Arabia and key Hamas backer Iran.

Zhai added that the “fundamental solution lies in the implementation of a ‘two-state solution'”, calling on key players in the conflict to “make practical efforts” towards this end “with the greatest sense of urgency”.

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By Andrew Beatty in Sydney, Australia

China has released Australian journalist Cheng Lei after more than three years, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Wednesday, adding she was freed from detention and reunited with her two young children in Melbourne.

“The Australian people very much wanted to see Cheng Lei reunited with her young kids,” Albanese said.

Cheng, a former anchor for Chinese state broadcaster CGTN, had been detained since August 2020.

She was only formally arrested months later and eventually charged with “supplying state secrets overseas” in a case that many saw as politically motivated.

The mother of two had been a familiar face on the state broadcaster’s English-language channel, conducting interviews with noted CEOs from around the world.

Born in Hunan province, Cheng is now an Australian national who emigrated to the country as a child, before returning to China and joining the state broadcaster in 2012.

China does not allow citizens to hold dual nationality.

She was tried behind closed doors, with even Australia’s ambassador to China blocked from entering the court to observe proceedings.

Australia’s government had long campaigned for her release, and for China to follow “basic standards of justice, procedural fairness and humane treatment”.

‘I miss the sun’

She had written about bleak prison conditions in a candid note dictated to Australian officials from jail and released in August.

“I miss the sun,” read the message, described as a “love letter” to Australia. “In my cell, the sunlight shines through the window but I can stand in it for only 10 hours a year.”

Albanese said she had been released after the “completion of legal processes in China”.

Cheng’s case had been a serious point of friction between Canberra and Beijing.

China has repeatedly detained foreign nationals at times of high political tension with their home nations, raising accusations of hostage diplomacy.

Cheng’s case has often been compared with that of Chinese-born Australian writer Yang Jun, who has been detained in China since 2019 on vaguely defined espionage charges.

Albanese said that Cheng’s release would facilitate his visit to China at a “mutually agreed time” this year.

Australia-China relations had been in deep freeze after Canberra barred Chinese tech firm Huawei from lucrative contracts and pushed back against Chinese influence campaigns in Australia.’

China was also furious at Canberra’s calls for an investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 outbreak that killed millions and plunged the world’s economy into a multi-year crisis.

In retaliation, China introduced a swathe of de facto sanctions against Australian products, measures that have been slowly unwound as relations thaw.

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A group of United Nations (UN) experts have said they were “very troubled” over the trial relating to 47 pro-democracy figures under the national security law. They called on China to review the legislation to ensure it adhered to its human rights commitments to the city.

The use of mass trials in national security cases in Hong Kong may undermine the practices for ensuring due process and the right to fair trial, four UN special rapporteurs said in a statement released on Monday.

Their remarks came as the independent experts raised concern over the closely-watched national security case, in which 47 democrats stand accused of taking part in a conspiracy to commit subversion.

At the centre of the case was an unofficial legislative primary election held in July 2020, which aimed to help the pro-democracy camp select the strongest candidates and win a majority in the then-70-seat legislature.

The poll was part of a plan to subvert state power, prosecutors have argued, saying the democrats had intended to abuse legislative powers to indiscriminately veto bills, forcing the chief executive’s resignation and a government shutdown.

A total of 16 defendants who denied the charge have sat in court for 115 days since early February, when the trial began. In August, the proceedings were adjourned to late November for prosecutors and defence lawyers to prepare closing arguments.

The remaining 31 democrats, most of whom have been detained for more than two and a half years, are awaiting sentencing after entering guilty pleas. They all face up to life imprisonment.

“We have expressed our concerns about the NSL to China in the past. We are very troubled about the use of mass trials in NSL cases and how they may negatively affect safeguards that ensure due process and the right to fair trial,” the experts said.

A government spokesperson said in a statement on Monday that the authorities strongly opposed the “erroneous remarks” made by the UN experts. People should refrain from commenting on or interfering with the ongoing court case, they added.

The four UN experts were Margaret Satterthwaite, special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers; Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism; Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; and Irene Khan, special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

They were part of the Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council, a body consisting of independent experts who “report and advise on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective,” according to the UN.

Arrest warrants for overseas activists

The four experts also pointed to the arrest warrants issued by the Hong Kong government in early July against eight overseas Hongkongers. They were ex-lawmakers Ted Hui and Dennis Kwok; activists Nathan Law, Anna Kwok, Elmer Yuen, Mung Siu-tat and Finn Lau; and solicitor Kevin Yam.

They were accused of breaching the Beijing-enacted security legislation by calling for sanctions on Hong Kong and China, meeting foreign officials, attending international hearings and organising a shadow parliament, among other overseas lobbying acts.

Police placed HK$1 million bounties on each of their heads, vowing to identify their whereabouts and be prepared to make “effective arrests” in case they ever returned to the city.

“The charges appear to seek to punish statements allegedly made by each individual criticising the Chinese government’s policies and their activities in support of democracy in Hong Kong,” the UN experts said on Monday.

They added that professional misconduct complaints against barrister Kwok and solicitor Yam appeared to be aimed at preventing the two from doing their jobs without intimidation and harassment.

Following the arrest warrants and bounties issued, family members of the wanted activists were reportedly questioned by Hong Kong’s national security police. Some were asked whether they had been in touch with the activists and if there had been any financial transactions between them.

The government also defended police actions against the wanted activists in a statement on Monday. The UN experts’ comments “completely disregarded the facts,” the spokesperson said, adding it was an international norm for law enforcement agencies to disclose the details of wanted fugitives.

As of September 15, 279 people had been arrested for suspected acts and activities that endangered national security since the legislation was enacted, the Security Bureau told HKFP last month. Among them, 162 people and five companies had been charged under the national security law or the sedition law, or with other crimes.

Among the 90 people who have been convicted or are awaiting sentencing, 30 were charged under the national security law.

In June 2020, Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution – bypassing the local legislature – following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts, which were broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure. The move gave police sweeping new powers, alarming democrats, civil society groups and trade partners, as such laws have been used broadly to silence and punish dissidents in China. However, the authorities say it has restored stability and peace to the city.

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The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Hong Kong has called on the local government to provide “straightforward interpretations and applications” of the national security law in the upcoming Policy Address.

In a 49-page document, the US chamber made a list of suggestions related to the security legislation, talent attraction, trade, financial services, housing and more. It came ahead of Chief Executive John Lee’s second Policy Address, which will be delivered on October 25.

“AmCham encourages the government to publish well-defined guidelines offering straightforward interpretations and applications of the National Security Law,” the chamber wrote. “The Government should seek to reassure the business community that laws related to Hong Kong’s national security will be applied narrowly and consistent with the principles of an independent judiciary.”

Also among the chamber’s calls was for the government to emphasise the “Two Systems” of the city’s “One Country, Two Systems” framework. The city should display tangible examples of “business-friendly regulation and increased governance transparency,” the chamber added.

Beijing imposed a national security law in Hong Kong in June 2020 following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts, which were broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure.

Last month, US Consul General Gregory May said at a Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations event that the national security law had raised concerns among the American business community, including related to censorship and data transparency.

He added, however, that the city still enjoyed “relative” freedom compared to mainland China, and that US firms were not planning to pull out of the city.

Since the national security law was passed, scores of ex-lawmakers and activists have been charged while dozens of civil society groups and unions have shut citing an atmosphere of fear.

However, the authorities say the security law has restored stability and peace to the city.

International talent drive

The chamber also said it was concerned about the city’s challenges in attracting talent. It said the government’s newly launched Office of Attracting Strategic Enterprises, which aims to lure mainland Chinese and overseas companies, should seek to “attract a diverse and international business community to Hong Kong.”

The Hong Kong government has been on a quest to draw talent to Hong Kong amid a brain drain following the 2019 protests and the Covid pandemic.

Last week, the government held a launch ceremony to welcome 30 “strategic companies” – most from mainland China – who signed partnership agreements to set up or expand their business in Hong Kong. But authorities did not reveal how many of the enterprises were new to the city. Some, among them Lenovo and JD, had long established operations in Hong Kong.

The chamber also advocated further trade liberalisation policies to cement Hong Kong’s role as an international trade hub, for example by entering various free trade agreements such as the Asia-Pacific-based Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

Speaking at the Hong Kong-ASEAN Summit on Monday, Chief Executive John Lee vowed to enhance cooperation with ASEAN countries and give them greater access to markets in the Greater Bay Area.

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Taiwan celebrated its 112^th National Day — also known as “Double Ten Day” — with annual military flypast, honorary guard parades and street performances on Tuesday.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen delivered a National Day speech during the ceremony. She said that democracy had thrived on the island despite increased Chinese pressure, and vowed that its people would remain “free for generations.”

Appearing to strike a conciliatory tone with Beijing, Tsai said Taiwan seeks “peaceful co-existence, with free, unrestricted, and unburdened interactions between people across the strait.”

Taiwan will hold national elections in January, but Tsai is unable to run for president again due to the island’s two-term limit. Tsai’s deputy Lai Ching-te will represent the Democratic Progressive Party and run for the election instead.

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