Hong Kong tops agenda as China readies for annual Congress
BEIJING, China — Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will address his nation on Friday, kicking off an annual legislative session that is expected to further tighten Beijing's grip on Hong Kong.
China has ushered in a sweeping crackdown against critics in the semi-autonomous financial hub after huge and often violent pro-democracy protests rocked the city in 2019.
As thousands of delegates gathered for China's week-long National People's Congress (NPC), official news agency Xinhua said late Thursday the attendees would mull a draft measure on "improving the electoral system" of Hong Kong.
The territory dominated headlines during last year's NPC session when delegates endorsed a tough security law designed to stamp out dissent there.
Chinese state media has run editorials in recent weeks saying "electoral loopholes" will be plugged, while officials have said only "staunch patriots" — those loyal to the ruling Communist Party — should be involved in governing Hong Kong.
Dozens of Hong Kong dissidents were jailed on Thursday for subversion in the broadest use yet of the security legislation enacted by Beijing last year.
The annual gathering of roughly 3,000 delegates, held in the cavernous Great Hall of the People in Beijing, is China's biggest political event of the year.
It is a highly choreographed display meant to drive home the unquestioned domestic power of the Communist Party while updating China and the world on the government's economic, political, environment and foreign policy priorities.
The event opens with China outpacing other major economies after bringing the coronavirus pandemic, which first emerged on its soil, under control through draconian lockdowns and mass testing.
The centrepiece is the annual report by Li — China's equivalent of a "state of the nation" address — which is expected to start shortly after 9:00 am (0100 GMT).
Economic growth target
Li traditionally uses the lengthy speech to reveal an annual growth target for the world's second-largest economy.
But he broke with precedent last year, providing no benchmark due to the "great uncertainty" of the pandemic, which also had pushed back the legislative session for two months, the first delay in decades.
China's economy has rebounded since, however, and some key industrial provinces have already begun announcing local growth targets.
The pandemic is now largely under control within its borders, though questions linger about Chinese missteps that allowed it to spread globally.
Tight restrictions remain, especially in Beijing during the Congress session.
Planned or potential legislation includes a proposed revision to wildlife protection laws that would permanently ban eating most wildlife, amid the belief that the pandemic came from an animal host.
There also is a proposal to tighten data protection in a country that has embraced facial recognition, mobile payments and other digital solutions, but with attendant fears of identity theft.
Bills are nearly always overwhelmingly approved by the party-controlled chamber.
Millions march in Hong Kong in a powerful rebuke of an extradition law feared to expose them to China's capricious justice system.
Hong Kong national security police on Thursday detained four people, including the brother of prominent activist Dennis Kwok, one of eight fugitives with bounties on their heads for allegedly breaching national security.
The city's national security department "took in two men and two women from various districts in Hong Kong and Kowloon for investigation," a police source told AFP.
Among the four was the elder brother of former democracy lawmaker Dennis Kwok, who is currently in the United States.
"(Kwok's elder brother) is now under investigation in the Western District police station," the source said.
Three others, "two women and a man", were taken in Tuesday by the national security department, authorities told AFP earlier Thursday.
AFP has requested comment from police on the most recent detentions. — AFP
Three family members of exiled democracy activist Nathan Law have been taken in for questioning on Tuesday, days after authorities issued a bounty on him and seven others accused of breaching the city's national security law.
Police officers from the national security department brought in Law's parents and elder brother without formally arresting them, a police source confirmed to AFP.
"It's understood that officers from the NSD took three people -- Nathan Law's parents and elder brother -- in for questioning," they said.
"So far, no arrest has been made." — AFP
The United States condemns Hong Kong authorities for issuing bounties linked to democracy activists based abroad, saying the move sets a dangerous precedent that could threaten human rights.
Hong Kong police offered bounties of HK$1 million (about $127,600) for information leading to the capture of eight prominent dissidents who live abroad and are wanted for national security crimes.
"The United States condemns the Hong Kong Police Force's issuance of an international bounty" against the eight activists, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says in a statement.
"The extraterritorial application of the Beijing-imposed National Security Law is a dangerous precedent that threatens the human rights and fundamental freedoms of people all over the world," he adds, saying China is engaging in "transnational repression efforts."
"We call on the Hong Kong government to immediately withdraw this bounty, respect other countries' sovereignty, and stop the international assertion of the National Security Law imposed by Beijing." — AFP
Hong Kong's top court has quashed the conviction of a journalist in relation to her investigation into an attack on democracy supporters by government loyalists in 2019.
It was a rare victory for the press industry in a city where two major independent news outlets have been forced to shut down since Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020.
"Happy -- I could not think of another word that can describe my mood right now," veteran journalist Bao Choy said outside the Court of Final Appeal after the judgement was handed down.
"I think this kind of happiness belongs to everyone in society." — AFP
Hong Kong police detained Alexandra Wong, a prominent democracy activist better known as "Grandma Wong" on Sunday, the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, AFP reporters said.
Wong was carrying flowers in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay shopping district, an area that for years was the site of June 4, 1989, commemorations, before authorities escorted her to a police van. AFP reporters saw a total of six people bundled into police vehicles. — AFP
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