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Letters | Hong Kong police hotline reminds of China’s Cultural Revolution purges
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I refer to your report “Hong Kong police to launch national security hotline for public to help specialist officers enforce Beijing-imposed law” (October 28).
A new multi-platform hotline has been set up by Hong Kong police’s national security unit to allow the public to report those who jeopardise national security and violate the city’s national security law.
This means the eyes and ears of the authorities are everywhere. How will this new measure affect people’s privacy? Will it rip our politically polarised society further apart?
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I believe this new measure will increase mistrust between people. No matter whether people support the government or not, they will have to be careful about what they say in front of others, even friends and family members. They will always have to consider whether those they are speaking to, even friends or classmates, share their political stance. This will adversely affect the social fabric of Hong Kong.
The setting up of the national security hotline will not only further deepen the divisions in Hong Kong society, but encourage people to betray one another. It calls to mind the criticisms that occurred during the Cultural Revolution which began in 1966, which not only caused great social upheaval but also traumatised people at the individual level.
07:24
A chronology of the People’s Republic of China in the past seven decades
A chronology of the People’s Republic of China in the past seven decades
In all likelihood, Hongkongers will no longer be able express their opinions freely because they will be afraid of being reported to the police. Our freedom of speech has been weakened.
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