05-06-2022, 01:01 AM
2022 Hong Kong Policy Act Report
https://www.state.gov/2022-hong-kong-policy-act-report/
Consistent with Sections 205 and 301 of the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 (the “Act”) (22 U.S.C. §§ 5725 and 5731) and section 7043(f)(3)© of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2022 (Div. K, P.L. 117-103), the Department submits this report and the enclosed certification on conditions in Hong Kong from March 2021 through March 2022 (“covered period”).
Summary
The Department of State assesses that during the covered period, the central government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) took new actions directly threatening U.S. interests in Hong Kong and that are inconsistent with the Basic Law and the PRC’s obligation pursuant to the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984 (Sino-British Joint Declaration) to allow Hong Kong to enjoy a high degree of autonomy. In the Certification of Hong Kong’s Treatment under United States Laws, the Secretary of State certified Hong Kong does not warrant treatment under U.S. law in the same manner as U.S. laws were applied to Hong Kong before July 1, 1997.
During the covered period, PRC authorities took actions that eliminated the ability of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition to play a meaningful role in the city’s governance and effectively criminalized peaceful political expression critical of the central and local governments. The PRC National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) passed a decision imposing sweeping changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system that blocked the participation of political groups not approved by Beijing and greatly diminished Hong Kong voters’ ability to elect representatives of their choice.
PRC and Hong Kong authorities targeted groups, associations, media companies, and labor unions affiliated with the region’s pro‑democracy movement with raids, arrests, prosecutions, and asset freezes, creating a chilling effect and forcing them and other organizations to cease operations, including two of Hong Kong’s largest independent media outlets, Apple Daily and Stand News. With Beijing’s support, Hong Kong authorities continued to use the Law of the PRC on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (NSL) to undermine rights and freedoms, including freedoms protected under the Basic Law and the Sino-British Joint Declaration. Hong Kong police and prosecutors employed the NSL to detain individuals for lengthy periods without trial for nonviolent political expression or activities, including 47 activists and politicians charged with “subversion” for involvement in an unofficial primary election in July 2020. Those charged under the NSL were denied bail unless the judge had sufficient grounds for believing the accused would “not continue to commit acts endangering national security,” an extremely broad and vague standard under the NSL. Hong Kong authorities restricted activities and cultural works commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, and arrested, charged, or convicted at least 33 individuals in connection with those activities.
Impact on Democratic Institutions and Universal Suffrage
During the covered period, PRC and Hong Kong authorities deliberately acted to restrict the ability of Hong Kong voters to elect representatives of their choosing, and PRC officials played an unprecedented role in directing the outcome of the Hong Kong elections. In March 2021, the NPCSC, the highest body within the PRC legislature, issued a decision that overhauled Hong Kong’s electoral system to ensure Beijing could fully control the outcome of any future election. The decision required that all candidates for public office be pro-Beijing “patriots” and required them to undergo an extended nomination and vetting process, without possibility of appeal. It overhauled the composition of the Chief Executive Election Committee (CEEC) that selects Hong Kong’s chief executive, reducing the number of voters for CEEC seats by 97 percent, and created a system in which more than 1,100 of the 1,500 seats in the new CEEC were uncontested in the September 2021 CEEC election. The decision also changed the makeup of the Legislative Council (LegCo), Hong Kong’s legislature. Under the new system, Hong Kong voters directly elect only 20 of LegCo’s 90 members, compared to 40 out of 70 previously. The CEEC directly selects 40 LegCo members, while the remaining 30 are selected as representatives of “functional constituencies” for various economic and professional sectors. These changes ran directly counter to provisions in the Basic Law that describe the election of the Chief Executive and LegCo via universal suffrage as the “ultimate aim.”
In CEEC and LegCo elections in September and December 2021, respectively, pro-Beijing candidates won all but one seat in each body. No major opposition party fielded candidates in the December 2021 LegCo election, frequently citing that many of their leaders and members were detained or imprisoned on politically motivated charges. Turnout for the election was only 30.2 percent (29.6 percent, excluding blank and invalid ballots), an historic low for a LegCo election.
In May 2021, Hong Kong authorities passed new legislation, in accordance with the NSL, that required all elected members of local district councils to swear loyalty oaths to Beijing. The district councils are Hong Kong’s only representative bodies elected solely through universal suffrage, and the opposition pan‑democratic camp won 388 out of 479 seats in the 2019 district council elections. After the legislation passed, Hong Kong officials told local media that council members who took the oath and were subsequently disqualified for giving “insincere” oaths might be required to reimburse the Hong Kong government for up to hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars in salaries and expenses. More than 260 district council members resigned rather than take the oath. Hong Kong authorities subsequently administered the loyalty oaths to the remaining district council members in September and October 2021, then disqualified 49 pan‑democratic district council members without possibility of appeal. Local observers assessed the imposition of loyalty oaths, the effort to pressure district council members to resign, and the disqualification of dozens of elected officials constituted a move by Hong Kong authorities to overturn the results of the 2019 election and break the pan-democratic camp’s hold over the district councils.
In August 2021, the Hong Kong Chief Secretary announced that Cheng Chung-tai, one of two LegCo members at the time who did not caucus with the pro-Beijing camp, had failed to pass the vetting process to run for a seat on the CEEC. As a result, Cheng was also disqualified from his LegCo seat with immediate effect.
Media reports indicated that officials from the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government, the PRC’s primary representative office in Hong Kong, actively recruited candidates for the December 2021 LegCo election. On several occasions before the LegCo election, officials from the PRC State Council Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office delivered remarks giving criteria for the type of “patriots” who would be permitted to run in Hong Kong elections.
https://www.state.gov/2022-hong-kong-policy-act-report/
Consistent with Sections 205 and 301 of the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 (the “Act”) (22 U.S.C. §§ 5725 and 5731) and section 7043(f)(3)© of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2022 (Div. K, P.L. 117-103), the Department submits this report and the enclosed certification on conditions in Hong Kong from March 2021 through March 2022 (“covered period”).
Summary
The Department of State assesses that during the covered period, the central government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) took new actions directly threatening U.S. interests in Hong Kong and that are inconsistent with the Basic Law and the PRC’s obligation pursuant to the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984 (Sino-British Joint Declaration) to allow Hong Kong to enjoy a high degree of autonomy. In the Certification of Hong Kong’s Treatment under United States Laws, the Secretary of State certified Hong Kong does not warrant treatment under U.S. law in the same manner as U.S. laws were applied to Hong Kong before July 1, 1997.
During the covered period, PRC authorities took actions that eliminated the ability of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition to play a meaningful role in the city’s governance and effectively criminalized peaceful political expression critical of the central and local governments. The PRC National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) passed a decision imposing sweeping changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system that blocked the participation of political groups not approved by Beijing and greatly diminished Hong Kong voters’ ability to elect representatives of their choice.
PRC and Hong Kong authorities targeted groups, associations, media companies, and labor unions affiliated with the region’s pro‑democracy movement with raids, arrests, prosecutions, and asset freezes, creating a chilling effect and forcing them and other organizations to cease operations, including two of Hong Kong’s largest independent media outlets, Apple Daily and Stand News. With Beijing’s support, Hong Kong authorities continued to use the Law of the PRC on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (NSL) to undermine rights and freedoms, including freedoms protected under the Basic Law and the Sino-British Joint Declaration. Hong Kong police and prosecutors employed the NSL to detain individuals for lengthy periods without trial for nonviolent political expression or activities, including 47 activists and politicians charged with “subversion” for involvement in an unofficial primary election in July 2020. Those charged under the NSL were denied bail unless the judge had sufficient grounds for believing the accused would “not continue to commit acts endangering national security,” an extremely broad and vague standard under the NSL. Hong Kong authorities restricted activities and cultural works commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, and arrested, charged, or convicted at least 33 individuals in connection with those activities.
Impact on Democratic Institutions and Universal Suffrage
During the covered period, PRC and Hong Kong authorities deliberately acted to restrict the ability of Hong Kong voters to elect representatives of their choosing, and PRC officials played an unprecedented role in directing the outcome of the Hong Kong elections. In March 2021, the NPCSC, the highest body within the PRC legislature, issued a decision that overhauled Hong Kong’s electoral system to ensure Beijing could fully control the outcome of any future election. The decision required that all candidates for public office be pro-Beijing “patriots” and required them to undergo an extended nomination and vetting process, without possibility of appeal. It overhauled the composition of the Chief Executive Election Committee (CEEC) that selects Hong Kong’s chief executive, reducing the number of voters for CEEC seats by 97 percent, and created a system in which more than 1,100 of the 1,500 seats in the new CEEC were uncontested in the September 2021 CEEC election. The decision also changed the makeup of the Legislative Council (LegCo), Hong Kong’s legislature. Under the new system, Hong Kong voters directly elect only 20 of LegCo’s 90 members, compared to 40 out of 70 previously. The CEEC directly selects 40 LegCo members, while the remaining 30 are selected as representatives of “functional constituencies” for various economic and professional sectors. These changes ran directly counter to provisions in the Basic Law that describe the election of the Chief Executive and LegCo via universal suffrage as the “ultimate aim.”
In CEEC and LegCo elections in September and December 2021, respectively, pro-Beijing candidates won all but one seat in each body. No major opposition party fielded candidates in the December 2021 LegCo election, frequently citing that many of their leaders and members were detained or imprisoned on politically motivated charges. Turnout for the election was only 30.2 percent (29.6 percent, excluding blank and invalid ballots), an historic low for a LegCo election.
In May 2021, Hong Kong authorities passed new legislation, in accordance with the NSL, that required all elected members of local district councils to swear loyalty oaths to Beijing. The district councils are Hong Kong’s only representative bodies elected solely through universal suffrage, and the opposition pan‑democratic camp won 388 out of 479 seats in the 2019 district council elections. After the legislation passed, Hong Kong officials told local media that council members who took the oath and were subsequently disqualified for giving “insincere” oaths might be required to reimburse the Hong Kong government for up to hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars in salaries and expenses. More than 260 district council members resigned rather than take the oath. Hong Kong authorities subsequently administered the loyalty oaths to the remaining district council members in September and October 2021, then disqualified 49 pan‑democratic district council members without possibility of appeal. Local observers assessed the imposition of loyalty oaths, the effort to pressure district council members to resign, and the disqualification of dozens of elected officials constituted a move by Hong Kong authorities to overturn the results of the 2019 election and break the pan-democratic camp’s hold over the district councils.
In August 2021, the Hong Kong Chief Secretary announced that Cheng Chung-tai, one of two LegCo members at the time who did not caucus with the pro-Beijing camp, had failed to pass the vetting process to run for a seat on the CEEC. As a result, Cheng was also disqualified from his LegCo seat with immediate effect.
Media reports indicated that officials from the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government, the PRC’s primary representative office in Hong Kong, actively recruited candidates for the December 2021 LegCo election. On several occasions before the LegCo election, officials from the PRC State Council Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office delivered remarks giving criteria for the type of “patriots” who would be permitted to run in Hong Kong elections.