A view of the Hong Kong skyline is pictured earlier than the lights have been turned off to mark the Earth Hour environmental marketing campaign on March 25, 2023.
Bertha Wang/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
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Bertha Wang/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
A view of the Hong Kong skyline is pictured earlier than the lights have been turned off to mark the Earth Hour environmental marketing campaign on March 25, 2023.
Bertha Wang/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
U.S. government-funded Radio Free Asia is closing its Hong Kong operation out of concern for the protection of its workers and reporters, a transfer that comes after Hong Kong enacted a tricky new nationwide safety legislation recognized regionally as Article 23.
Radio Free Asia President Bay Fang mentioned in an announcement Friday that the outlet’s programming and content material will proceed with out disruption.
However, Fang mentioned, actions by Hong Kong authorities, together with referring to RFA as a “international pressure,” elevate severe questions on its capability to function in security following the enactment of Article 23.
The town’s Beijing-backed legislature handed Article 23 laws earlier this month and comes atop an already present nationwide safety legislation that the central authorities imposed on Hong Kong in 2020. Article 23 refers back to the a part of Hong Kong’s post-handover structure, the Fundamental Regulation, that requires the territory to enact nationwide safety laws.
Hong Kong’s most outstanding pro-Democracy paper, Apple Every day, shut down in June 2021 after its accounts have been frozen and its writer, Jimmy Lai, arrested. The final pro-Democracy paper, Stand Information, closed in December 2021 after it was raided and its management arrested.
The brand new legislation provides to the federal government’s arsenal, with a broad definition of state secrets and techniques and language concentrating on exterior forces.
RFA is funded by the U.S. Congress nevertheless it says it operates with editorial independence. It has been in Hong Kong since 1996.
U.S. imposes visa bans on Hong Kong officers
In the meantime, the U.S. State Division introduced Friday it was imposing visa bans on some officers from Hong Kong due to the crackdown on freedoms.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned whereas China promised a excessive diploma of autonomy for Hong Kong, Beijing has taken plenty of steps up to now 12 months to crack down on rights and freedoms within the territory.
That features Article 23, which Blinken mentioned may very well be used to get rid of dissent inside Hong Kong and used towards critics overseas, as a part of what he calls China’s transnational repression.
In response, Blinken mentioned the U.S. is imposing new visa restrictions on “a number of” Hong Kong officers, however the assertion didn’t title them or say what number of can be affected by this transfer.
A spokesman for the Chinese language embassy in Washington, D.C., blasted the U.S. after information of the State Division’s annual assessment was made public, saying the U.S. “disregards info, makes irresponsible remarks about Hong Kong affairs, and ranges groundless accusations.”
He known as on the U.S. to “instantly cease interfering in Hong Kong affairs and different inside affairs of China,” arguing the brand new nationwide safety legislation in Hong Kong strikes a steadiness and ensures rights, freedoms and financial development.
