#WhiteTerror
China-owned Media Accuses Taiwanese Scholar of Violating Hong Kong's #NationalSecurityLaw

In an article published on January 6, 2022, Ta Kung Pao, a China-owned newspaper printed in Hong Kong, accused Wu Rwei-ren, a political science scholar affiliated with Academic Sinica in Taiwan of violating Hong Kong's national security law.

The pro-Beijing newspaper made its claim based on an essay Wu wrote in February 2020, before the National Security Law was passed on June 30, 2020. The essay received the Human Rights News Award of the Hong Kong Journalists Association in 2021.

Wu responded that following the crackdown on independent news outlets like Stand News and Citizen News in Hong Kong, Beijing is trying to threaten international scholars who support Hong Kong.

Wu believes that Beijing will not be able to achieve the goal, as its acts have demonstrated the difference between the laws set up by the regime under the Chinese Communist Party and those practiced in democractic countries.

Source: Liberty Times #Jan8
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/politics/breakingnews/3794583

#AcademicSinica #WuRweiRen #Academia #AcademicFreedom #PressFreedom #CCPThreats

#AnimalCruelty
Hong Kong seizes #hamsters from pet store for mass cull

Source: BBC #Jan19

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#AnimalCruelty
Hong Kong seizes #hamsters from pet store for mass cull

//Authorities in Hong Kong have swooped in on a pet shop, seizing a number of hamsters to be euthanised following a Covid outbreak.

Crowds gathered outside the shop as the animals were carried away in boxes.

Families who have bought a hamster from the Little Boss pet store since 22 December have been told to hand over their pet for euthanasia.

Some 2,000 hamsters and other small mammals are set to be culled because of the outbreak linked to the shop.

Thousands of people have signed a petition against the move.

Unlike many other places, Hong Kong has maintained a "zero Covid" strategy focused on eliminating the disease.//

Read the full article:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-60038551

Source: BBC #Jan19

#FailedState #Covid19 #Pandemic #Pet #Kill

China rumoured banning Hollywood films to counter the US diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Spider-Man and Matrix may not be released in China.

Source: The Stand News #Dec09

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China rumoured banning Hollywood films to counter the US diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Spider-Man and Matrix may not be released in China.

The United States announced on 6 Dec that they would not send government officials to the Beijing Winter Olympics as part of a diplomatic boycott. China's Foreign Ministry responded that if the US persists in its policy, "China will take firm countermeasures".

Rumours on Weibo on 9 Dec saying China will suspend the release of Hollywood films as the first wave of counter-measures in response to the US boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Perhaps, the first to be hit is the highly anticipated "Spider-Man: No Way Home".

A Weibo user commented on 8 Dec, "The news just came in that all US films have been suspended (except those already scheduled)". He said that Spider-Man was originally scheduled to release at 10:00 yesterday, but in response to the US boycott of the Winter Olympics, "the notice to suspend US films came down at 9:57...", meaning that Spider-Man will be banned completely.

Rumours are circulating online that the China State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has suspended the release of US blockbusters in China. The blockbusters include Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Matrix Resurrections, which will be released in Hong Kong on Christmas Day. Media outlets across the country have also been ordered not to publicise any US films.

Source: The Stand News #Dec09

#China #US #BeijingWinterOlympics #Olympics #DiplomaticBoycott #Hollywood #Film

#UK #CCPThreat
#MI5 accuses lawyer of trying to influence politicians on behalf of China

Source: Guardian #Jan13

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#UK #CCPThreat
MI5 accuses lawyer of trying to influence politicians on behalf of China

An unprecedented security warning from MI5 was circulated to MPs and peers on Thursday that accused a lawyer, Christine Lee, of seeking to improperly influence parliamentarians on behalf of China’s ruling Communist party.

It is the first time that MI5 has issued an “interference alert” relating to China and concerns a high-profile Anglo-Chinese lawyer who received an award from Theresa May and who has donated £584,177 to the office of Labour MP and former shadow cabinet member Barry Gardiner.

The alert names and pictures Christine Ching Kui Lee, who has allegedly “knowingly engaged in political interference activities on behalf of the United Front Work Department (UFWD) of the Chinese Communist party”.

It added that the UFWD was “seeking to covertly interfere in UK politics through establishing links with established and aspiring parliamentarians across the political spectrum” and to “cultivate relationships with influential figures”.

Read the full article:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/13/chinese-national-trying-to-improperly-influence-politicians-says-mi5

Source: Guardian #Jan13

#SecurityBreach #Espionage #Lawyer

#AnimalCruelty #Trauma
HK Authorities' mass cull order rips a hamster-loving child's heart into pieces

Sources: Cupid Producer; #Jan19

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#AnimalCruelty #Trauma
HK Authorities' mass cull order rips a hamster-loving child's heart into pieces

In the video, a young boy in Hong Kong is seen howling continuesly while bidding farewell to his beloved #hamster in order to comply with the Hong Kong government's mass cull order.

Sitting on a stairway in front of the hamster's home cage, the young boy took pictures of his hamster, named "Pudding".  In desperation, he wailed and questioned why he has to send Pudding away for culling.

Parents of the young boy bought the hamster for him for his birthday present recently on January 8, 2022.  In an attempt to comfort their son, the parents agreed to buy another hamster once the pandemic ceased. The boy, however, refused to replace Pudding with a new one, saying that even small animals are unique and they have lives too.

The Hong Kong government ordered on January 18, 2022 that 2,000 hamsters from dozens of pet shops and storage facilities to be culled after tracing a coronavirus outbreak to a worker in the Little Boss petshop, where 11 hamsters subsequently tested positive for COVID-19.

Although scientists around the world and Hong Kong veterinary authorities have said there was no evidence that animals play a major role in human contagion with the coronavirus, Hong Kong government insisted that their hands are forced to make quick decision to safeguard the "zero covid" objective.

The authorities' mass cull order brought anguish from families and criticism from animal protection agencies, including the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (#SPCA).

“The SPCA is shocked and concerned over the recent government announcement on the handling of over 2,000 small animals, which did not take animal welfare and the human-animal bond into consideration,” the SPCA of Hong Kong said in a Facebook post. “We urge pet owners not to panic or abandon their pets.”

Over 23,000 Hongkongers have signed a petition asking the government to stop the cull and quarantine the small animals instead. 

Sources: Cupid Producer; #Jan19
https://fb.watch/aDGjbPr0r_/

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Related News
Hong Kong seizes #hamsters from pet store for mass cull
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/31943

#NeverForget #ProtestChronology
30 months after 7.21 Yuen Long Mob Attack, Hongkongers refuse to forget

#PoliceState #PoliceBrutality #YuenLong721 #Truth

Image source: Supreme Media, #Jan20

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https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/31954

#NeverForget #ProtestChronology
30 months after 7.21 Yuen Long Mob Attack, Hongkongers refuse to forget

On July 21, 2019, over 100 rod-wielding men stormed Yuen Long rail station, leaving 45 people injured, including pro-democracy journalists, legislators, protesters returning home after a rally and regular commuters.

Several other violent beatings took place in the area, as white-clad men were seen chasing after black-clad civilians with wooden rods and bamboo sticks with the China flag attached.

Hong Kong police were accused of colluding with the attackers and criticised for arriving late to the scene, a whole 39 minutes after they received reports. Over 20,000 calls to the police emergency hotline went unanswered despite the event unfolding on live news. Meanwhile, uniformed officers were spotted walking away from the MTR station as the attack was developing, and later seen chatting with some of the white-clad men with hands on each other's shoulders.

In August 2020, the police aggressively pushed a vastly distorted narrative that runs entirely counter to what video evidence depicts of the assault. In a briefing, police officer said the attack was not "indiscriminate" but were clashes between two "evenly matched" rival groups.

Dubbed the "7.21 Yuen Long attack", the incident is one of the most remembered happenings during the Anti-Extradition Bill movement. It remains a shocking and indelible evidence of the police turning its back on Hong Kong people.

#PoliceState #PoliceBrutality #YuenLong721 #Truth

Image source: Supreme Media, #Jan20

#NeverForget #AntiELAB
2.5 years after #721YuenLong Mob Attack: Who Owns the Truth Now in 2022 Hong Kong?

Source: RTHK; Stand News

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https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/31957

#NeverForget #AntiELAB
2.5 years after #721YuenLong Mob Attack: Who Owns the Truth Now in 2022 Hong Kong?

January 21, 2022 is the 2.5-year mark of the 7.21 Yuen Long Mob Attack. On July 21, 2019, pro-democracy protesters, train passengers and pedestrians were indiscriminately attacked by white-clad gangsters in Yuen Long. While the Hong Kong police had allegedly turned a blind eye, the question once posed by #RTHK's news program #HongKongConnection resurfaced: in 2022-Hong Kong, who owns the truth?

Watch RTHK's "7.21 Who Owns the Truth?" (English subtitled), courtesy of Real Hong Kong News:
https://youtu.be/4rImPpE3p2U

The news documentary was produced by former RTHK journalist #BaoChoy on the first anniversary of the attack in 2020 and had won accolades including the Press Freedom Award.

Choy examined various video evidence, tracing the attackers to various pro-China groups. She also interviewed one of the victims, who was able to identify his attackers from the surveillance camera footage provided. The victim lamented that he had to identify the suspects before the journalists, since the police did not invite him to take part in any investigation. The victim wonders if the police wanted to investigate at all.

The journalist, moreover, traced the association of some of the attackers to various village representatives in Yuen Long, partly by checking car license plates against the government's vehicle registration database. However, the authorities then arrested and fined Choy for making "false statements" when accessing the public-available database. It was the first time such a charge was laid against journalists using the vehicle database.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association (#HKJA) criticized the move, stating that checking public records had been a common investigative tool in Hong Kong.

In May 2021, RTHK began to take down videos over one year old from their online platforms. This documentary is now no longer available on their official website, as are the programs chronicling the 2019 Anti-ELAB movement.

Meanwhile, the police and state media had made concerted effort to rewrite the Yuen Long attack into a clash between "invading" protesters and those defending Yuen Long. However, another investigative report by Stand News discovered that the alleged call to protest in Yuen Long was likely fabricated, and was ultimately dismissed by discussion forums.

Watch "Tracing the Source - Investigative Report by Stand News" (English subtitled), courtesy of Real Hong Kong News:
https://youtu.be/Gch5ikVyI80

After the implementation of the #NationalSecurityLaw, pro-democracy news outlets, like #AppleDaily and #StandNews, have been pressured into shutting down. Their libraries of articles and videos, including interviews and video footage of 7.21 and many other events during the movement, had gone offline. Though netizens scrambled to back up the data, the records made by these news outlets in Hong Kong cannot be easily accessed by the public, and some may possibly be lost forever.

Two and a half years after the attack, Hongkongers today find very little room to publicly remember the events that transpired. Gatherings that merely hinted at support of the movement are suppressed by police wielding both the anti-gathering rules introduced at the start of the pandemic, as well as the #NationalSecurityLaw.

Meanwhile, the deep rift between the police force and the general public as a result of the 7.21 attack had not been healed, as the Force and its supporters cling to their version of events, which are regularly cited by pro-government and pro-China media.

For now, it is up to individual Hongkongers to investigate, record, document and remember the events they have seen, heard, and experienced during the pro-democracy movements.

Source: RTHK; Stand News

Subtitles by Real Hong Kong News

See also:
"Tracing the Source" - 7.21 Yuen Long Attack Investigative Report by Stand News
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/30599

30 months after, Hongkongers refuse to forget
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/31954

#Memory

Huawei appeals Sweden's ban on company for selling 5G gear

Huawei (HWT.UL) said on Friday it had filed an appeal against a ruling by a Swedish court in June that upheld a ban on the Chinese company for selling 5G equipment in the country.

The company said it had requested an oral hearing in the case, but the Court of Appeal could decide if such a hearing should be held or a preliminary ruling from the European Court of Justice should be requested.

Huawei had earlier said it would consider all options, including an appeal.

Source: Reuters #Oct01

https://www.reuters.com/article/sweden-huawei-tech-idUSKBN2GR38X

#Huawei #Swedish #5G #European #Ban

No time to die laughing: #MI6 head thanks China for ‘free publicity’ in #JamesBond spoof

Source: Telegraph #Jan6

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No time to die laughing: #MI6 head thanks China for ‘free publicity’ in #JamesBond spoof

The head of MI6 has thanked China for “unexpected free publicity” after the country mocked him in a state news James Bond spoof video.

#RichardMoore, who became the chief of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service in October 2020, said in a speech last year that a rising China was the agency’s “single greatest priority” for the first time in its history. 

In his address, Mr Moore, codenamed C, accused China of getting “people on the hook” in Africa and elsewhere by forcing smaller countries to take on onerous borrowing in return for building vital infrastructure or seizing control of their data to supply essential services.

However, in a four-minute video posted to Twitter on Tuesday, China’s #XinhuaNews lampooned the MI6 chief’s warnings with a sketch featuring a pair of British spies, James Pond and Black Window.

Xinhua said the video, No Time To Die Laughing, was “leaked footage” of a “secret meeting” between British spies and their US counterparts, describing the clip as “rib-tickling”.

Read the full article:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/01/06/no-time-die-laughing-mi6-head-thanks-china-free-publicity-james/

Source: Telegraph #Jan6