LATEST NEWS & VIEWS
Beijing confirms missing Taiwan publisher Li Yanhe is under national security investigation
A Taiwanese publisher reported missing while visiting Shanghai is under investigation for suspected national security crimes, Chinese authorities said Wednesday. Li Yanhe, the editor-in-chief of Gusa Publishing, is “under investigation by national security organs on suspicion of engaging in activities endangering national security,” Zhu Fenglian, spokeswoman for Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office, told a press conference.…
Swedish winter Olympic champion gives gold medal away to protest China’s human rights abuses
Swedish athlete Nils van der Poel has given his gold medal from the Beijing Winter Olympics to the daughter of jailed bookseller Gui Minhai, in protest against China’s “oppression” of free speech and human rights. Van der Poel met Angela Gui in Cambridge, in the UK, last Thursday, to hand over the medal he won…
COMMENTARY & ANALYSIS
How Washington’s Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act can protect freedoms in Hong Kong
By Oiwan Lam This week, the United States passed a law aimed at protecting Hong Kong’s autonomous status and its residents’ civic rights. Proposed in 2014 and reintroduced to the U.S. House Committee on June 13, 2019 — just after the anti-extradition protests broke out — the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act ensures that the…
Hong Kong extradition law is a death sentence for Hong Kong, says exiled bookseller Lam Wing-kee
“If the extradition law is passed, it is a death sentence for Hong Kong,” said Lam Wing-kee in a crowded coffee shop in Taipei. “Beijing will use this law to control Hong Kong completely. Freedom of speech will be lost. In the past, the regime kidnapped its critics, like me, illegally. With this law, they…
FEATURES
Beijing is taking Hong Kong back 100 years, says Baggio Leung, new spokesperson for pro-independence group HKNF
It is often said that Hong Kong independence is a lost cause, but for Baggio Leung – a disqualified lawmaker and now the new spokesperson of a pro-Hong Kong independence group – the case for a full separation from China grows only stronger each day. The latest evidence, he said in an interview with HKFP,…
Interview: Only one breach of One Country Two Systems a ‘remarkable achievement’ says outgoing British consul
The outgoing British Consul-General Caroline Wilson has said it is a “remarkable achievement” that there has been only one breach of the “One Country, Two Systems” principle in the almost 20 years since its implementation. Wilson, who was stationed at the Beijing embassy just after the 1997 handover until 2000, said in an interview with HKFP: “It is always really…
HKFP History: How the July 1 democracy rally provides an annual reading of the political temperature
The annual July 1 demonstration acts as a thermometer for dissatisfaction levels and grievances in Hong Kong. Officially the anniversary of Hong Kong’s 1997 handover, when Britain gave the former colony back to China, it is also the day of one of the most significant protests of the year. Article 23 (2003) In 2003, hundreds of thousands of…