Jul 5, 2025
Hong Kong has proposed tightening its prison rules to restrict inmate visits, including those made by religious leaders and lawyers, if the authorities deem it necessary for national security.
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Hong Kong has proposed tightening its prison rules to restrict inmate visits, including those made by religious leaders and lawyers, if the authorities deem it necessary for national security.
Hong Kong Bar Association urges government to state clearly what amendment covers after accepting Security Bureau’s explanation that it would not give officials power to stop people leaving the city.
Police arrested 15 high-profile pro-democracy figures on Saturday in connection with allegedly “organising and participating in unlawful assemblies,” according to the security bureau. Former chairs of the Democratic Party Martin Lee and Albert Ho and the Labour Party’s Lee Cheuk-yan were among those arrested, as was lawmaker Leung Yiu-chung, the Democratic Party’s Yeung Sum, democrats …
Further reading:
HKFP: 10 reactions to Hong Kong’s crackdown on democrats: ‘This is not the rule of law,’ says ex-governor Chris Patten, April 18, 2020
RTHK: Police can expect more resistance now: Jimmy Sham, April 18, 2020
RHTK: Govt supporters chased off after welcoming arrests, April 18, 2020
RTHK: I'm proud to finally be a defendant: Martin Lee, April 18, 2020
RTHK: HK authorities should not inflame tensions: Britain, April 18, 2020
RTHK: 'Arrests are assault on freedoms, rule of law', April 19, 2020
RTHK: US condemns arrests, as China decries interference, April 19, 2020
Several hundred police officers quit the force during Hong Kong's months of social turmoil, as the number of new recruits plummeted by around 40 percent, the Security Bureau revealed on Wednesday.
Police will lo into any method for handling ongoing protests effectively, Hong Kong’s security minister said on Wednesday, amid reports that officers may soon be armed with electroshock weapons. Democratic Party lawmaker Roy Kwong had asked Lee at a Legislative Council meeting about reports that police were planning to equip officers with electroshock weapons, …
Further reading:
RTHK: Govt backs arms with 'low-injury risk' for police, January 15, 2020
RTHK: Police brutality doesn't exist in HK: Carrie Lam, January 16, 2020
What’s troubling is that this isn’t under consideration out of concern for apprehending or disabling general criminal activity, but in a context where police brutality and misuse of force against political protest and dissent has been a sustained and prominent issue. The last time the use of this kind of weapon was considered in Hong Kong was during the 2016 Mong Kok unrest, shelved indefinitely until now. The SAR government and police force continue to refuse calls for thorough transparency and independent investigative power while only expanding their arsenal and potential to do more harm to civilians.
They’ve already responded to less lethal weapons sanctions by sourcing tear gas from China and using water cannons. People have been injured due to the less predictable reactions and temperatures as well as misuse of projectiles, and the government refuses to release the chemical component information despite it hindering medical treatment.
The past months have shown they are willing to ignore the practical damage to citizens and their environment, relying on literature and documentation that doesn’t necessarily apply to the weapons they are using or the environment of Hong Kong, the reality of a police force that’s stretched thin, on top of lax enforcement of usage guidelines. Now they’re also dismissing the direct and indirect harm, unpredictability, and deaths caused by electroshock weapons to convenience their political image of bloodless brutality.
Pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo has said that it was “completely groundless” for security chief John Lee to claim that some Hong Kong protesters had received training overseas. Lee was responding to a question at the legislature on Wednesday about whether weapons seized from demonstrators could be linked to foreign terror organisations. Lee said there was …
Some protesters received training overseas claims Hong Kong security chief, January 8, 2020
Further reading:
RTHK: Some HK protesters received training overseas: govt, January 8, 2020
Mobilizing, organizing, and even generating new tactics via social media is not proof of foreign “training”. If they’ve been expecting halfhearted and reflexively apologetic activism without the current skills and tools of activism, the SAR executive and their supporters must not be living in the same reality as everyone else.
This isn’t just political bankruptcy and a failure of conscience, it’s ignorant lack of imagination and of the wider, evident possibility that the protesters are sincere in their despondence and anger towards the Central and SAR government, police, as well as the people and institutions enabling them to deny a more hopeful and democratic future. If they don’t recognize Hong Kong as it is now, they also fail to realize it’s the one they’ve helped to create.
Security Secretary John Lee says a reported stampede last month – which the police deny took place – was more like a group of people trying to "cross...
Security Secretary John Lee says a reported stampede last month – which the police deny took place – was more like a group of people trying to "cross over" each other after some had fallen down in their panic to flee.
Despite police repeatedly rejecting claims of a stampede as they chased protesters in Yau Ma Tei on November 18, the Fire Services Department had confirmed that firefighters witnessed a heap of people lying in the street.
Some 30 people were injured.
Lee revealed in Legco on Wednesday that it took more than four hours for all of those hurt in the incident on Pitt Street to be taken to hospital.
He said the first ambulance arrived at the intersection of Waterloo Road and Nathan Road at around 11:48pm. But the road was blocked with various objects, he said, and it took until about 4.30am until the last of the injured reached hospital.
Pro-democracy legislators pressed Lee on whether what took place was in fact a stampede. He told them that people running from the police ended up tripping over debris scattered in the road.
"Because there were miscellaneous items and barricades on roads, some people fell. Meanwhile, some people continued to flee. Some tried to cross those who had fallen. So it is understandable that when people were in a panic to flee, if some chose to flee in a narrow passage and they fell, it's likely that people behind them would cross over them," Lee said.
A man told RTHK last month that what he witnessed was a stampede. He said police ignored people screaming for help after they were injured, and officers prevented anyone else from assisting those hurt until firefighters arrived around 15 minutes later.
On that night, clashes had erupted between riot officers and protesters who were trying to reach people trapped inside Polytechnic University by the police.
RTHK
Further reading:
RTHK: Wasn't our place to warn about bridge security: govt, December 18, 2019
HKFP: Hong Kong gov’t defends practice of suspending civil servants under police investigation, December 19, 2019
Around 7,600 Hongkongers emigrated to foreign countries in 2016, a 3-year high
https://www.hongkongfp.com/2017/05/05/around-7600-hongkongers-emigrated-foreign-countries-2016-3-year-high/