Rights group Amnesty International says it will close its Hong Kong offices because a China-imposed security law had now made it “effectively impossible” for rights groups to work freely without the risk of reprisals.
Chair of Amnesty’s international boar, Anjhula Mya Singh Bais, said in a statement that this decision was made with a heavy heart and has been driven by Hong Kong’s national security law, adding that the two offices would close by year-end, noting an intensification of a crackdown that has forced at least 35 groups to disband under the law this year.
Singh Bais said the environment of repression and perpetual uncertainty created by the national security law makes it impossible to know what activities might lead to criminal sanctions.
In the past, Hong Kong had served as one of Asia’s leading NGO hubs, with groups drawn to its robust rule of law and wide-ranging autonomy — guaranteed for Hong Kong when control over the former British colony was returned to Beijing in 1997.
Among the groups to have disbanded this year are several leading trade unions, NGOs and professional groups, while a number of other NGOs including the New School for Democracy have relocated to the democratic island of Taiwan.
Hong Kong and Chinese authorities say the national security law enshrines individual rights, justifying the laws as necessary to restore stability after mass protests in 2019 when millions took to the streets over many months.
Protesters have long called on China’s Communist leaders to abide by its constitutional promise to grant the city broad freedoms and eventual full democracy under a co-called “one country, two systems” arrangement.
Under the broadly-defined security legislation, subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorism can be punished with up to life in jail.
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