TOP NEWS
The outgoing administration of President Joe Biden on Wednesday extended the Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) for certain Hong Kong residents for 24 months, underscoring the U.S. government’s commitment to stand up for Hong Kongers and their freedoms. The CFHK Foundation applauded the move, having long campaigned on this issue, most recently by contributing to a joint letter detailing the urgent need for the Biden administration to extend protections for Hong Kongers at risk of persecution should they be forced to return to their home city.
Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence called for the release of Jimmy Lai while in Hong Kong Thursday. “There is probably no more compelling gesture in the short term to send a message of good will to the people of the United States, or the free world, than if China were to take steps to free Jimmy Lai,” Pence told an audience at the UBS Wealth Insights summit.
U.S. - Hong Kong
At his Secretary of State nomination hearing, Senator Marco Rubio said Hong Kong is no longer autonomous and is under Beijing’s control, especially on national security matters, and has become a hub for sanctions evasion and money laundering.
Sen. Rubio also said the city is “no longer a hospitable place for financial activity" given the sweeping powers granted under the National Security Law to fabricate charges and raid corporate offices.
UK - Hong Kong
The CFHK Foundation joined ARTICLE 19 and other human rights group in publishing an open letter to UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves imploring her to take concrete action to deter the PRC and Hong Kong governments’ escalating human rights violations and transnational repression, and to prioritise human rights in her discussions with PRC officials.
Chancellor Reeves said that she had “raised the case of British National Jimmy Lai [alongside] UK concerns around the respect of protected rights and freedoms in Hong Kong” while in Beijing, without giving details.
Hong Kong groups criticised the government after ministers David Lammy and Yvette Cooper intervened to support China’s application for a new ‘mega-embassy’ in London. Labour appears intent on supporting the new diplomatic outpost despite national security fears, opposition from nearby residents, and objections from the Metropolitan Police.
CFHK Foundation Director Mark Sabah told the Daily Mail that the embassy intervention represented a dereliction of duty to the British people. ‘We have Chinese spies on trial, a British citizen Jimmy Lai in jail in Hong Kong, bounties from the CCP on the heads of people living in the UK, interference on our campuses, and an ever-growing list of transgressions by China and the CCP against the UK,” he said.
In one of several articles picking up our recent press release, Times legal editor Jonathan Ames highlighted British judge Lord Hoffman’s “deplorable” decision to renew his tenure on the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal for a further three years.
Hong Kong
National security police on Tuesday questioned the wife and son of recently bountied UK-resident Chung Kim-wah, the former deputy CEO of the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (HKPORI). Police also questioned Chung’s former colleague, Robert Chung, as part of a national security probe. Local security chief Chris Tang said that the police’s actions had “absolutely nothing to do with the results of [PORI’s] polls.”
'Troublemaker' Updates
CFHK President Mark Clifford toured his new biography of Jimmy Lai, “The Troublemaker,” in San Francisco, joining fellow journalist Michael Zielenziger in conversation at the Book Passage bookstore. Chinese human rights activist Zhou Fengsuo was also in attendance.
Clifford also shared insights from “The Troublemaker” with Cross Word podcast host Michele McAloon.
Jimmy Lai Updates
Jimmy Lai’s defence counsel told Hong Kong’s appeals court that a 2022 fraud conviction under which Lai was sentenced to five years and nine months for failing to apply for a company operating license was “badly constructed.” Lai’s team said he was under no obligation to disclose the operations of Dico Consultants Ltd., an Apple Daily shareholding firm, which operated out of the newspaper’s premises.
Jimmy Lai’s national security trial continues. His cross-examination is ongoing and likely to last for at least 10 days.
Detailed trial updates are available here: Support Jimmy Lai.
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