Seditious noodles to be on menu?

From RTHK…

Asked on a TVB programme on Sunday whether people who repost online criticism of the legislation may be in breach of the law, [Secretary for Justice Paul ] Lam said factors such as whether they intend to incite hatred against the government, or if they only wanted to start a discussion, would be taken into account.

The SCMP adds…

“[Some people] might repeatedly circulate [the criticisms] online. Is this driven by a quest for truth, curiosity or a desire for relief? It’s challenging for me to discern the mens rea [guilty thought] at this point.”

He said prosecutors would evaluate each case to decide whether the individuals involved had intended to endanger national security.

So, in the interests of starting a discussion in the quest for truth, with zero mens rea…

The Times of London hasn’t received the ‘tell good Hong Kong stories’ memo. A pseudonymous journalist writes of her experience since 2019…

Most of my family and many colleagues and friends have left, a bitter reality that I have to live with every day. For the past few years, I have been spending weekends visiting friends in prisons in some of the most remote parts of Hong Kong.

During these visits, it is strange to meet my former colleagues also visiting their former colleagues. It is almost like being back in the newsroom — except that we are in a high-security facility, and none of us are journalists any more.

…“Are you leaving?” has become a standard conversational opening for Hongkongers these days. My answer was always no. But over the past few weeks, as I studied the draft bill of Article 23, and saw how it was being rushed through, I began to have second thoughts. Could I be charged for my present work, freelancing for an overseas organisation? Do I need to second-guess and self-censor before I have even written a word?

The Guardian is more brutal…

So farewell, Hong Kong. The vibrant, pulsating city-state that grew, under British rule, into one of the world’s great financial, business, cultural and tourism hubs has finally been brought to heel. Browbeaten, abused, silenced. Trust Xi Jinping, China’s dementor president, to suck out all the joy.

…Eating noodles is a seditious act now, if the noodles have secret foreign connections….

…John Lee, Hong Kong’s placeman chief executive – whose approval rating is at a record low – hit new highs of paranoia. The measures would “allow Hong Kong to put a stop to espionage activities, the conspiracies and traps of intelligence units and the infiltration … of enemy forces”. Translated, this means locking up ordinary people who dare to speak their minds. Unhappily, most no longer do.

…Chinese officials surely realise – and possibly do not care – that their risible over-the-top security crackdown is accelerating Hong Kong’s decline. 

Waiting for the government press release furiously denying that noodles can be seditious. But it’s no joke: a throwaway remark about keeping old Apple Dailies led to an international news story and now (see Paul Lam’s remarks) serious official explanations of how and when back copies of newspapers might land you in jail. If a T-shirt can be seditious, isn’t it theoretically possible for noodles to be? Say, if the recipe or menu item is called ‘Ga Yau lo mien’ or something? It seems all sorts of things can get people into trouble, like weightlifters being accused of supporting Hong Kong independence…

…[Hong Kong Weightlifting and Powerlifting Association chairwoman Josephine Ip Wing-yuk Ip] … called Hong Kong a “small country” yesterday, a day after the domestic security law came into force.

Speaking at the Weightlifting Invitations 2024, Ip, pictured, said it was the first weightlifting competition held after the pandemic.

…”This arrangement was recognized by the International Weightlifting and Powerlifting Federation as well as the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong. It’s also common in smaller countries, including Hong Kong and Australia.”

For sure, there were some audible gasps in the crowd.

Commenting on it later, New People’s Party lawmaker Adrian Ho King-hong said it is “utterly unacceptable” for Ip to declare “Hong Kong’s independence,” and demanded the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee to suspend the association’s membership for further investigation.

From the Diplomat… 

Just as on the mainland … “mission creep” of national security may have serious implications for citizens and the private sector alike. The SNSO also adds broadly phrased sections on state secrets and espionage, bringing Hong Kong legislation in line with worrying changes to Chinese law enacted over the past year. It claims extraterritorial applicability for many offenses, which for example means that all entities with a registered presence in Hong Kong could be prosecuted for perceived infractions. This raises key concerns for media outlets and rights organizations still based in Hong Kong, but may also hit corporate actors in information gathering or legal proceedings. 

Western companies active in China often use the mantra that “politics is politics, business is business” to explain why ever more repressive laws will not affect their bottom line. But Hong Kong’s mainland-style “securitization of everything” means that this distinction is becoming increasingly meaningless. Hong Kong authorities first targeted outright dissent voices and collective action, but political control is already curtailing civil society and media in Hong Kong – vital elements that keep politics and liberal market systems in check.  

Just like their mainland counterparts, Hong Kong officials are increasingly seeing the world through a security lens. The political uproar when Argentine soccer player Lionel Messi failed to play during a match in Hong Kong is just one example. Regina Ip, convenor of the Executive Council that advises the chief executive, attributed this to “black hands” trying to tarnish the city’s reputation – boycotts of and a hasty apology by Messi ensued. 

…There will be plenty to watch in areas like judicial independence, rule of law, and government transparency. In addition to obvious human rights concerns, governments and companies should be paying close attention to spill-over effects, as the hallmarks of mainland politics – political agenda setting, restriction of information, and arbitrary enforcement – become more prominent features in Hong Kong.

And University World News looks at how academics are worried…

“I will continue to conduct research on Hong Kong as I so desire, but I cannot do so in Hong Kong. I can now only continue my research outside of Hong Kong and I do not [expect to] return to Hong Kong anytime soon,” [academic Aaron Han Joon ] Magnan-Park said.

“I am not the only scholar who finds [themselves] in this geopolitical self-exile scenario. Those who chose to remain in Hong Kong have had to radically change their research agendas so that they are in compliance with the new political reality,” he added.

…“Article 23 is written so that you can be held in violation of statements and positions and acts that were made before this coming Saturday [when the law comes into effect]. So, if they catch you after Saturday, they can go back into the past to define a pattern of ‘seditious behaviour’.

“What at one time was legal, is now illegal.”