Hong Kong has passed a second national security law. Critics say it makes the city more like Beijing

View In Browser March 20, 2024   Chris Lau Hong Kong has passed a second national security law. Critics say it makes the city more like Beijing Hong Kong's legislature unanimously passed sweeping new powers on Tuesday that critics and analysts warned would align the financial hub's national security laws more closely with those used on the Chinese mainland and deepen an ongoing crackdown on dissent.    The lengthy national security bill – the first draft ran to 212 pages – was rushed through the city's opposition-less Legislative Council with unusual haste at the request of city leader John Lee and debated over just 11 days.    Coming into effect on Saturday, the law introduces 39 new national security crimes, adding to an already powerful national security law that was directly imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong in 2020 after huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests the year before.    That law has already transformed Hong Kong with authorities jailing dozens of political opponents, forcing civil society groups and outspoken media outlets to disband and transforming the once freewheeling city into one that prioritizes patriotism.    Known locally as Article 23, the new national security legislation covers a raft of new crimes including treason, espionage, external interference and unlawful handling of state secrets, with the most serious offenses punishable by up to life imprisonment.    Hong Kong's Chief Executive Lee described it as a "historic moment for Hong Kong."    "We … have completed a historic mission, lived up to the trust of the country and did not let the Central government down," he said, referring to China's Communist Party leadership in Beijing.    China and Hong Kong's leaders say the new laws are needed to "plug loopholes" as part of their drive to "restore stability" following the huge 2019 protests. They argue their legislation is similar to other national security laws around the world.    Critics counter that what China's Communist Party views as national security offences are far broader and more sweeping, often ensnaring political criticism, dissent and even business activity that would not be criminalized elsewhere.    The new legislation also comes as Hong Kong's government is embarking on a high-profile campaign this year to revive the city's business credentials after the political crackdown – combined with nearly three years of strict coronavirus controls – sparked an exodus of local and international talent.    Legal scholars and business figures told CNN that the broad definitions and grave penalties within the new law would likely result in further crackdown on civil society and could threaten the city's once robust exchanges of information for businesses, including for its vaunted financial sector.    "The Hong Kong authorities are eager to further tighten information control in the city as a corollary of stricter security legislation," said Eric Lai, research fellow at Georgetown Center for Asian Law, and an expert on Hong Kong's legal system.    Lai expects a "chilling effect" to deepen across society.    "The business community would be particularly affected by the new 'theft of state secrets' and 'espionage' offenses," Lai added.    The new legislation has outlawed "unlawful acquisition," "possession," and "disclosure of state secrets," alongside the crime of "espionage." Offenders can be jailed for up to 20 years in the most serious circumstance.    Observers say the law's wording has a broad interpretation for what counts as a state secret.    The definition ranges from a secret "concerning the construction of national defense" and "diplomatic or foreign affair activities" of China to any "major policy decision on affairs" and "the economic or social development" of both Beijing and Hong Kong.    Hung Ho-fung, sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University, said that when social and economic affairs are treated as state secrets, "this is to say it can include anything."    "With these draconian and not clearly defined clauses, even apolitical business persons can get into trouble and will face the risk of their office being raided and themselves being detained, arrested or placed under exit ban as in many cases in mainland China," he said.    "This will surely increase the doubt, anxiety, and uncertainty of foreign businesses in Hong Kong."    Keep reading about the response to the new security law here.   More on changes in the financial hub: Chinese used to escape to this former British colony. Now, cheap boba has turned the tables Two major national security trials are putting the spotlight back on civil rights in Hong Kong Hamas talks Chinese diplomat Wang Kejian met Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar, China's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday, the first meeting between a Chinese and Hamas official publicly acknowledged by Beijing since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.   The meeting follows visits from Wang to Israel and the occupied West Bank – making him the first known envoy Beijing has sent to either location since Hamas' deadly October 7 attacks and the ensuing Israeli bombardment of Gaza.   Wang's trip comes as Beijing aims to step up its profile as a peace broker and has become increasingly vocal in its opposition to the Gaza war.   Read more here. Dissident's social media followers face police scrutiny   For more than a decade, Lee has been able to circumvent China's internet controls to go on Twitter, now known as X, without getting into trouble with the authorities.   The Chinese lawyer stayed away from politically sensitive topics and rarely engaged with other users, treating the platform mainly as an archive to back up his postings on heavily censored Chinese social media.   He has continued tweeting even as Beijing intensifies efforts to control free speech beyond its Great Firewall of internet censorship, interrogating, detaining and jailing Chinese Twitter users who criticize leader Xi Jinping and his government.   Last month, in a sign of the widening crackdown on foreign social media sites, Lee too was summoned by police – not because of what he tweeted, but because of who he followed.   In an early-morning phone call, an officer invited Lee to "have tea" – a euphemism for police questioning – to talk about the "sensitive accounts" he followed on X.   At the police station, it became clear that the officer had only one target in mind: an outspoken and unfiltered Chinese-language X account with a cat avatar (pictured above) and 1.6 million followers whose handle translates to "Teacher Li is not your teacher."   "The police asked me if I followed the account 'Teacher Li is not your teacher,' but I honestly didn't know," Lee said in an interview. He logged into X under the watch of the officer, found the account and unfollowed it on the spot, he said.   That account belongs to Li Ying, a Chinese artist turned dissident in Italy who rose to prominence in 2022 for live-tweeting the nationwide protests in China against Xi's zero-Covid policy.   Since then, Li's account has become a go-to source for news censored in China. His followers send him photos and videos from Chinese social media before they are wiped by censors, and Li reposts them on X, offering a rare and unflinching glimpse into aspects of Chinese life that Beijing doesn't want the world – or its own citizens – to see.   Li's X feed documents everything from school scandals and factory fires to protests by migrant workers demanding overdue wages – creating a parallel world to the sanitized version of reality presented by the Chinese government.   For more than a year, authorities have tried in vain to pressure Li into silence: paying frequent visits to his parents, interrogating his friends, classmates and contacts on Chinese social media, and freezing his bank accounts and mobile payments, he said.   The 31-year-old quit his job and moved four times over concerns for his safety, but he has carried on tweeting.   And now, Chinese authorities appear to be going after his followers in China.   Read the full story here.    — From CNN's Nectar Gan and Yong Xiong Regulator hands out massive fines in biggest ever securities fraud case   Chinese regulators have accused Evergrande and its founder of inflating revenues by $78 billion, putting the insolvent property developer at the heart of the country's biggest ever financial fraud case.   The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) slapped a penalty of 4.175 billion yuan ($580 million) on Hengda Real Estate, the group's main Chinese unit, the company said in filings to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Monday.   Xu Jiayin, founder and chairman of the Evergrande Group, was fined 47 million yuan ($6.5 million) for the overstatement and other alleged violations. Formerly China's richest man, he was also barred from the securities markets for life.   The findings were revealed after an eight-month-long investigation by the CSRC.   The investigation had previously derailed Evergrande's debt restructuring talks with its overseas bondholders in the fall, because the company couldn't issue new notes, according to a company statement issued in September.   Days later, Evergrande said its chairman had been detained by Chinese authorities on suspicion of "crimes." In January 2024, a Hong Kong court ordered Evergrande to liquidate.   In Monday's filing, Hengda said the CSRC accused the company of several violations, including inflating sales in its financial reports, relying on these allegedly falsified figures to sell bonds and failing to disclose relevant information as required.   The regulator said Hengda had fabricated 214 billion yuan ($30 billion) in sales for 2019, which accounted for half of that year's revenue. Another 350 billion yuan ($48.6 billion) in sales for 2020, accounting for 78% of revenue, were also falsified.   As a result, 2019's net profit was inflated by 63% and 2020's net profit by 87%, it said.   The alleged fraud, amounting to a total of 564.1 billion yuan ($78 billion) over two years, is the largest ever financial fraud case in mainland China's securities markets, according to previous regulatory statements and state media reports.   In addition to the penalties levied on Hengda and Xu, six other executives were fined by the CSRC for being "directly responsible."   Read the full story here.   — From CNN's Laura He Around the region All but one of the 100 cities with the world's worst air pollution last year were in Asia, according to a new report, with the climate crisis playing a pivotal role in bad air quality. Japan has ended its negative interest rate policy, marking a historic shift from an aggressive monetary easing program implemented years ago to fight chronic deflation. The Indian Navy's rescue of a commercial ship from pirates off Somalia's coast shows how Delhi's military has developed special forces capabilities on par with some of the world's best, analysts say. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated America's "ironclad commitment" to defend the Philippines as rising tensions in the South China Sea raise fears of a broader regional conflict. An Indian coal billionaire is building the world's biggest clean energy plant and it's five times the size of Paris Meanwhile, is TikTok really Chinese? What did you think of today's email? Send us feedback: meanwhileinchina@cnn.com   You are receiving this newsletter because you signed up for Meanwhile in China. 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