Former Democracy Camp Members Face New Official Harassment in Hong Kong

TaiwanPlus News

Former members of Hong Kong's democracy camp say they face new, subtle forms of official harassment, even for those who have since moved on from politics. It comes as the city marks 28 years since its handover to China, after over a century of British rule.

Transcript

00:00Stuck on the front door of the Hunter bookshop in Hong Kong is a sign that reads freedom.

00:07For the shop's owner, it's more of a wish than a reality, as Hong Kong enters its 28th year under Chinese administration.

00:14Letitia Wong was a pro-democracy politician in the days before mass arrests wiped Hong Kong's democracy movement out.

00:23Wong stayed put in Hong Kong, reinventing herself as a bookseller.

00:27But even with her political career behind her, she says the government still has her on its radar.

00:32By her account, she's had more than 90 interactions with the authorities since summer 2022.

00:38Warning letters, fire and health code inspections, even patrols outside her door.

00:43Though a national security law, or NSL, passed last year cracks down on acts of overt dissent,

00:49she says there's a vague sense that everyone has to watch their back.

00:53I think Hong Kong people are now scared of unknown, which we are facing a new normal,

00:59a new Hong Kong debt with many regulations, many ambiguous red lines, and many self-censoring things.

01:09The fire department says it was just following up on complaints.

01:12But Wong sees the inspections and paperwork as a subtle way of intimidating someone with a pro-democracy past.

01:18She's not alone. Another former politician, Chan Kim Cam, has gone from council representative to a seller of incense and fragrant oils.

01:29She says her tiny stall is also a target of this new kind of bureaucratic harassment.

01:34Over the past five years, I feel that the space for me is reducing.

01:41I feel that people like informing the authorities all the time.

01:44It's rather irrational and abnormal.

01:47It affects my life because people inform the authorities and send complaint letters about my store and my works.

01:53This isn't the Hong Kong many hoped for at its hand over 28 years ago,

02:02the day the UK returned the territory to China after controlling it for over a century.

02:07China gained back a territory whose loss was a deep historical trauma.

02:11And for Hong Kongers, it was supposed to be business as usual.

02:14Things wouldn't change too much too fast.

02:17For 50 years, China was supposed to be one country with two systems,

02:21leaving the freewheeling liberal system that had grown up in Hong Kong intact for years to come.

02:30But as early as 2003, a planned anti-subversion bill showed Beijing might not be quite so hands-off as some in Hong Kong expected.

02:38Now, after a major crackdown in 2019 and 2020,

02:45Beijing's allies are firmly in charge of the territory,

02:48with democracy leaders exiled, jailed, or gone silent.

02:52Hong Kong officials say the average person has nothing to worry about running into trouble with the law.

02:57When we promulgated the Hong Kong national security law,

03:03we make it very clear that the law is aiming at only a small portion of people who endangers national security.

03:16But some are still uneasy about their futures,

03:19even if the pressure they feel comes from municipal offices, not the police.

03:26Chinese and Hong Kong flags flutter side by side through the city, marking the handover anniversary.

03:31It's clear those in charge are determined the one country part of the formula, adopted 28 years ago, holds.

03:38How well the rest of the arrangements holding up depends on who you ask.

03:42Scott Huang and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.

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