Hong Kong’s ‘alarming political deterioration’ criticised in scathing EU annual report

Name: Electoral overhaul the ’death of democracy’ for Hong Kong, says fugitive former lawmaker Ted Hui
Uploaded: 2021-03-12T17:02:06.000Z
Duration: 2 min 12 s
Description: Electoral overhaul the ’death of democracy’ for Hong Kong, says fugitive former lawmaker Ted Hui

Annual review on Hong Kong says national security law has ‘chilling effect’ on civil society

EU policy response on Hong Kong has been minimal, but report could help fuel clamour for more action in European Parliament

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“Over the course of 2020, we have witnessed an alarming political deterioration in Hong Kong,” said EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. Photo: Reuters

Finbarr Bermingham

Published: 1:02am, 13 Mar 2021Updated: 2:35am, 13 Mar 2021

The European Union issued a scathing review of political conditions in Hong Kong, describing an “alarming political deterioration” and a “severe erosion of autonomy, democracy and fundamental freedoms”.

The EU’s annual report on the city hit out at the tightening grip of Beijing on Hong Kong affairs, the “chilling effect on the exercise of protected rights and freedoms” brought by the national security law (NSL), and an uptick in “self-censorship in the media, academia and civil society”.

The Hong Kong government dismissed the EU‘s report as “biased and ungrounded political smearing”.

“It is totally untrue and biased to say that the Hong Kong national security law [has] had a chilling effect on the exercise of rights and freedoms in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong national security law clearly stipulates that the HKSAR shall protect the rights and freedoms enjoyed by residents under the Basic Law,” the statement said.

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Electoral overhaul the ’death of democracy’ for Hong Kong, says fugitive former lawmaker Ted Hui

“Enacting laws on national security with extraterritorial effect is also squarely in line with international practice. In many countries, laws regarding national security have extraterritorial effect. The EU is demonstrating their obvious double standards against HKSAR,” it continued.

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