Latest news with #CivicParty
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
China arrests family of dissident who protested against regime's ‘mega-embassy' in London
Chinese authorities arrested relatives of a former Hong Kong politician who protested against the Communist regime's new 'mega-embassy' in London. Carmen Lau, 30, fled her native Hong Kong five years ago and joined 3,000 others at a rally in February against plans to build the 5.5-acre complex near Tower Bridge. In a speech at the event, the activist said allowing China to build the large diplomatic mission sends the 'wrong message' that Britain welcomes authoritarian regimes. However, within 48 hours of her remarks, Chinese national security police arrested her elderly aunt and uncle in Hong Kong. They were detained in morning raids on their homes and questioned for six hours before being released. Ms Lau said her relatives were questioned about the links she still has to the former British colony. 'They wanted to know about financial relationships I had with others in Hong Kong and were interested in my family tree - the other relatives I have in Hong Kong,' she told The Mail on Sunday. Ms Lau then believes police used the information they got to arrest another aunt a week later and questioned her for several hours as well. The activist claims the harassment is the Chinese regime's method of getting her to stop her 'anti-Chinese' activities in the UK. Ms Lau was Deputy Secretary-General of the Civic Party, Hong Kong's second-largest pro-democracy party, which was forcibly dissolved. She was also a district councillor. She resigned her councillor role in 2021, fled the former British colony and sought refuge in the UK after the Chinese authorities put her under surveillance. She claimed she had undercover police officers parked outside her apartment and was being followed. She said she was also being harassed by security personnel and the state media. Hong Kong authorities placed her and five overseas activists on a wanted list in December. In February, the campaigner's neighbours in Berkshire received a bounty note offering more than £100,000 for information about Ms Lau or anyone who could lure her to the current Chinese embassy in Marylebone in central London. The note also accused her of inciting protests and colluding with a foreign power against Beijing. If approved, the new mega-embassy would be 10 times bigger than the current Chinese embassy and the country's largest diplomatic mission in Europe. The site at the former Royal Mint Court in east London would include offices, 225 homes and a 'cultural exchange' building. China bought the site for more than £255 million in 2018, but Tower Hamlets Borough Council rejected plans for the embassy in 2022. They did not appeal against the decision amid speculation that the Conservative government at the time would have backed the council's decision. However, they resubmitted mostly unchanged plans just weeks after Labour won last year's general election. However, Ms Lau raised concerns about underground rooms which the new embassy will contain. Their exact purpose was redacted on the plans for 'security reasons'. Ms Lau added: 'These rooms could be used for interrogations and locking up people like us. They could be used to torture us.' During the February protests, chants of 'Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong' and 'Mega embassy, mega no' reverberated through the crowds. Protesters came from as far as Scotland, Liverpool, Reading, and Manchester. Ms Lau said she believes the mega-embassy would become a hub for 'transnational repression' by China in central London. She also said the Metropolitan Police had advised her not to attend public gatherings as she could be attacked and her relatives back home could be put in danger.
Telegraph
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
China arrests family of dissident who protested against regime's ‘mega-embassy' in London
Chinese authorities arrested relatives of a former Hong Kong politician who protested against the Communist regime's new 'mega-embassy' in London. Carmen Lau, 30, fled her native Hong Kong five years ago and joined 3,000 others at a rally in February against plans to build the 5.5-acre complex near Tower Bridge. In a speech at the event, the activist said allowing China to build the large diplomatic mission sends the 'wrong message' that Britain welcomes authoritarian regimes. However, within 48 hours of her remarks, Chinese national security police arrested her elderly aunt and uncle in Hong Kong. They were detained in morning raids on their homes and questioned for six hours before being released. Ms Lau said her relatives were questioned about the links she still has to the former British colony. 'They wanted to know about financial relationships I had with others in Hong Kong and were interested in my family tree - the other relatives I have in Hong Kong,' she told The Mail on Sunday. Harassment Ms Lau then believes police used the information they got to arrest another aunt a week later and questioned her for several hours as well. The activist claims the harassment is the Chinese regime's method of getting her to stop her 'anti-Chinese' activities in the UK. Ms Lau was Deputy Secretary-General of the Civic Party, Hong Kong's second-largest pro-democracy party, which was forcibly dissolved. She was also a district councillor. She resigned her councillor role in 2021, fled the former British colony and sought refuge in the UK after the Chinese authorities put her under surveillance. She claimed she had undercover police officers parked outside her apartment and was being followed. She said she was also being harassed by security personnel and the state media. Hong Kong authorities placed her and five overseas activists on a wanted list in December. In February, the campaigner's neighbours in Berkshire received a bounty note offering more than £100,000 for information about Ms Lau or anyone who could lure her to the current Chinese embassy in Marylebone in central London. The note also accused her of inciting protests and colluding with a foreign power against Beijing. If approved, the new mega-embassy would be 10 times bigger than the current Chinese embassy and the country's largest diplomatic mission in Europe. The site at the former Royal Mint Court in east London would include offices, 225 homes and a 'cultural exchange' building. China bought the site for more than £255 million in 2018, but Tower Hamlets Borough Council rejected plans for the embassy in 2022. They did not appeal against the decision amid speculation that the Conservative government at the time would have backed the council's decision. However, they resubmitted mostly unchanged plans just weeks after Labour won last year's general election. Underground rooms However, Ms Lau raised concerns about underground rooms which the new embassy will contain. Their exact purpose was redacted on the plans for 'security reasons'. Ms Lau added: 'These rooms could be used for interrogations and locking up people like us. They could be used to torture us.' During the February protests, chants of 'Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong' and 'Mega embassy, mega no' reverberated through the crowds. Protesters came from as far as Scotland, Liverpool, Reading, and Manchester. Ms Lau said she believes the mega-embassy would become a hub for 'transnational repression' by China in central London. She also said the Metropolitan Police had advised her not to attend public gatherings as she could be attacked and her relatives back home could be put in danger.
Al Jazeera
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Hong Kong ex-lawmaker describes ‘Kafka-esque' prison experience
A former Hong Kong lawmaker who was jailed as part of a sweeping crackdown on dissent in the Chinese territory has described her prison experience as 'Kafka-esque'. Claudia Mo, a former journalist who co-founded the pro-democracy Civic Party, was released on Tuesday after more than four years behind bars for national security offences. Mo, who was freed together with three other ex-politicians, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to subvert state power in 2022 in a mammoth national security case related to the participation of 47 activists in an unofficial primary election. Another 44 activists pleaded guilty or were convicted in the landmark case, which was condemned by Western governments and rights groups as an example of Beijing trampling freedoms in the former British colony. In her first comments since her release, Mo said on Friday that she had read more than 300 books and brushed up on her French while in detention. 'Many thanks for all the concern and care expressed upon my release. Prison life was surreal, almost Kafka-esque to start with. But I didn't suffer the two major incarceration traumas, loneliness and boredom, thanks to the social arrangements inside,' Mo said in a post on Facebook. Mo thanked her supporters, including the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders and retired Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen, who was arrested on national security grounds in 2022 without being charged. 'My thoughts are with my co-defendants who remain in custody,' she said. Once home to a vibrant political opposition and freewheeling media scene, Hong Kong was transformed into a polity with little space for dissent by the imposition of a sweeping Beijing-decreed national security law in 2020. Beijing and the Hong Kong government have praised the legislation for restoring peace and order to the city after the eruption of often violent mass antigovernment protests in 2019. On Friday, Hong Kong national security police arrested the father and brother of wanted activist Anna Kwok, the executive director of the Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council, on suspicion of handling her finances, local media reported. Police said in a statement that they had arrested two men, aged 35 and 68, on suspicion of committing 'attempting to deal with, directly or indirectly, any funds or other financial assets or economic resources belonging to, or owned or controlled by, a relevant absconder'.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hong Kong releases former opposition lawmakers jailed for subversion
Several former Hong Kong opposition lawmakers jailed in the city's largest national security case were released on Tuesday after over four years in prison, the first among dozens convicted last year to regain their freedom. Ex-legislators Claudia Mo, Jeremy Tam, Kwok Ka-ki and Gary Fan were part of a group of 47 public figures -- including some of Hong Kong's best-known democracy advocates -- were charged with subversion in 2021 for holding an informal primary election. The case fell under a national security law imposed on the city by Beijng and drew international condemnation and warnings about Hong Kong's declining freedoms and tolerance of dissent. Mo, Tam, Kwok and Fan had been kept in custody since 2021 and were each sentenced to four years and two months behind bars after they pleaded guilty. All four were taken out of prison just before sunrise on Tuesday in cars with curtains drawn. Speaking outside his home, Mo's husband Philip Bowring said the ex-lawmaker was resting and not in a position to speak to the media. "She's well and she's in good spirits... We look forward to being together again," Bowring said at his flat, with a "Welcome home mum" banner visible in the dining room. "We'll be here for a while and getting used to living in Hong Kong again and then probably we'll go to England at some point to see our grandchildren," he added. Fan told local media he was on his way to reunite with his family and thanked Hongkongers for their concern. - 'Unjust' - Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 following huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in the finance hub. Authorities said an informal primary election held by the former lawmakers which aimed to win a legislative majority, with the ultimate goal of indiscriminately vetoing the government budget, amounted to a conspiracy to subvert state power. The landmark case involved figures across Hong Kong's once-diverse political spectrum -- including elected lawmakers, district councillors, unionists and academics with views ranging from moderate to radical. The prison sentences, delivered in November last year, were condemned by Western governments and rights groups. Mo previously worked as an AFP journalist and cited her experience covering Beijing's bloody 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown as pivotal in her political awakening. She helped found the now-shuttered Civic Party in 2006 and won a legislative seat in 2012, but later quit the party to campaign on a platform emphasising Hong Kong's distinctive identity from mainland China. Kwok, 63, and Tam, 49, were also former Civic Party lawmakers. Before entering politics, Kwok worked as a doctor and Tam as an airline pilot. Fan, 58, was a co-founder of Neo Democrats, a party that advocated for electoral reform and pushed back against China's political and cultural influence on Hong Kong in the 2010s. - Tightening grip - Each of the four defendants had their prison terms trimmed due to their guilty pleas, with an additional six-month reduction on account of "past public service and ignorance of the law". Hong Kong tightened its rules last year so that prisoners convicted of serious national security crimes could not be released early for good behaviour. The four ex-lawmakers who returned home on Tuesday received the lightest penalty among the defendants and were released taking into account the time they served before trial. The heaviest penalty in the case -- a 10-year jail sentence -- was imposed on legal academic Benny Tai, whom prosecutors described as the "mastermind" of the subversion plot. The court is set to hear appeals launched by 14 of the convicted defendants in July. Hong Kong has arrested 322 people for national security crimes. It has convicted 163 of them as of the start of this month. Hong Kong enacted a homegrown national security law last year on top of the Beijing-imposed law, an arrangement officials say is needed to restore order. hol/oho/dhw
Int'l Business Times
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Int'l Business Times
Hong Kong Releases Former Opposition Lawmakers Jailed For Subversion
Several former Hong Kong opposition lawmakers jailed in the city's largest national security case were released on Tuesday after over four years in prison, the first among dozens convicted last year to regain their freedom. Ex-legislators Claudia Mo, Jeremy Tam, Kwok Ka-ki and Gary Fan were part of a group of 47 public figures -- including some of Hong Kong's best-known democracy advocates -- were charged with subversion in 2021 for holding an informal primary election. The case fell under a national security law imposed on the city by Beijng and drew international condemnation and warnings about Hong Kong's declining freedoms and tolerance of dissent. Mo, Tam, Kwok and Fan had been kept in custody since 2021 and were each sentenced to four years and two months behind bars after they pleaded guilty. All four were taken out of prison just before sunrise on Tuesday in cars with curtains drawn. Speaking outside his home, Mo's husband Philip Bowring said the ex-lawmaker was resting and not in a position to speak to the media. "She's well and she's in good spirits... We look forward to being together again," Bowring said at his flat, with a "Welcome home mum" banner visible in the dining room. "We'll be here for a while and getting used to living in Hong Kong again and then probably we'll go to England at some point to see our grandchildren," he added. Fan told local media he was on his way to reunite with his family and thanked Hongkongers for their concern. Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 following huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in the finance hub. Authorities said an informal primary election held by the former lawmakers which aimed to win a legislative majority, with the ultimate goal of indiscriminately vetoing the government budget, amounted to a conspiracy to subvert state power. The landmark case involved figures across Hong Kong's once-diverse political spectrum -- including elected lawmakers, district councillors, unionists and academics with views ranging from moderate to radical. The prison sentences, delivered in November last year, were condemned by Western governments and rights groups. Mo previously worked as an AFP journalist and cited her experience covering Beijing's bloody 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown as pivotal in her political awakening. She helped found the now-shuttered Civic Party in 2006 and won a legislative seat in 2012, but later quit the party to campaign on a platform emphasising Hong Kong's distinctive identity from mainland China. Kwok, 63, and Tam, 49, were also former Civic Party lawmakers. Before entering politics, Kwok worked as a doctor and Tam as an airline pilot. Fan, 58, was a co-founder of Neo Democrats, a party that advocated for electoral reform and pushed back against China's political and cultural influence on Hong Kong in the 2010s. Each of the four defendants had their prison terms trimmed due to their guilty pleas, with an additional six-month reduction on account of "past public service and ignorance of the law". Hong Kong tightened its rules last year so that prisoners convicted of serious national security crimes could not be released early for good behaviour. The four ex-lawmakers who returned home on Tuesday received the lightest penalty among the defendants and were released taking into account the time they served before trial. The heaviest penalty in the case -- a 10-year jail sentence -- was imposed on legal academic Benny Tai, whom prosecutors described as the "mastermind" of the subversion plot. The court is set to hear appeals launched by 14 of the convicted defendants in July. Hong Kong has arrested 322 people for national security crimes. It has convicted 163 of them as of the start of this month. Hong Kong enacted a homegrown national security law last year on top of the Beijing-imposed law, an arrangement officials say is needed to restore order. British journalist Philip Bowring, husband of pro-democracy activist Claudia Mo, speaks to the media outside his apartment after his wife arrived home from Lo Wu Correctional Institution, in Hong Kong on April 29, 2025 AFP A general view of Shek Pik Prison is seen before sunrise in Hong Kong on April 29, 2025 AFP
