A Cantonese-language advocacy group has ceased operations after its founder said his home had been raided by Hong Kong national security police over a fictional piece of writing that was submitted to a competition organised by the group.
Andrew Chan, founder and convenor of Societas Linguistica Hongkongensis (SLHK), wrote on Facebook on Monday that national security police had entered his former home in Hong Kong without a search warrant on 7.20 am last Tuesday and asked to meet him.
According to Chan, when his family members said he was out of town, police asked them to relay that the National Security Department of the police demanded the removal of a work of fiction from a writing competition hosted by SLHK – which is also referred to as the Hong Kong Language Learning Association in Chan’s post – three years ago. After contacting the police, Chan was told the piece of writing in question had violated national security law.
“During this communication, the National Security officer mentioned my family and the past members of the SLHK…Considering the circumstances and the safety of my family, I took immediate action to remove the article on the same day, ” Chan said.
According to a video published by Chinese-language platform Points Media on Monday, which showed Chan speaking in Cantonese on the phone, reportedly with national security police officer.
In the video, Chan is repeatedly asked to remove an article titled “Our Times” from the SLHK website. Chan said the article had already been removed, but the man said that when he clicked on a link to the article, the site asked for a password.
“Can someone still see the article if they provide a password?… So members can still read the article,” the man said, urging Chan to fix the issue. “If you can’t deal with it, you should remove all the writing competition content.”
The man also mentioned Chan’s father and members of the group, and asked about Chan’s whereabouts and whether the group had any current members in Hong Kong.
HKFP has reached out to the police and SLHK for comment.
Currently living abroad, Chan said he would not return to Hong Kong due to safety concerns.
‘Linguistic rights of Hongkongers’
Chan founded the Cantonese-language advocacy group in 2013, when he was a second-year student at Hong Kong Baptist University. Chinese and English are the official languages of Hong Kong, according to the city’s mini-constitution.
Chan established the group to promote Cantonese and “safeguard the linguistic rights of Hongkongers,” after policies were put forward to push Mandarin-language instruction in the city’s schools. SLHK was registered as a society by the police.
In 2020, the group received funding from the Central and Western District Office to hold a writing competition and run community activities, including delivering pandemic prevention supplies. Chan said “the funding allocation from the Home Affairs Department has been pending for more than 30 months,” leaving SLHK out of pocket.
Additionally, Chan said the District Office, which sits under the Home Affairs Department, had not replied to Chan’s emails since December 2021.
However, Chan said that according to national security police, the raid on his home had been prompted by the Home Affairs Department, which had allegedly tried to reach him through the District Office.
HKFP has reached out to the Home Affairs Department for a response.
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