- The civil human rights front, a democratic group in Hong Kong, announced that it would disband its protest coalition.
- Prior to this, China carried out a total suppression of dissidents in Hong Kong and shaped Hong Kong with its own authoritarian image.
- China is also focused on removing any individuals or groups deemed unfaithful and forcing the media not to subvert the government.
The Hong Kong Protest Coalition, which organized a record-breaking democratic rally two years ago, said on Sunday that it was disbanding in the face of China’s total suppression of Hong Kong dissidents.
At the time of dissolution, China reshaped Hong Kong with its own authoritarian image and eliminated any individuals or groups deemed unfaithful or unpatriotic.
The Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) was a major participant in the turbulent democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2019.
But the organization said that Beijing’s subsequent suppression of democracy supporters and the de facto ban on protests made its future bleak.
The Civil Human Rights Front wrote in a statement:
All member groups have been suppressed, and civil society is facing unprecedented challenges. Its remaining $205,000 assets will be donated to “appropriate groups”
When they announced the reason for their dissolution.
The 2019 protests began with an extremely unpopular law that would allow extradition from semi-autonomous cities to authoritarian mainland China.
But after large numbers of people were dispersed by tear gas and rubber bullets, they quickly became calls for greater democracy and police accountability.
Founded in 2002, CHRF supports non-violence and often brings thousands of people to the streets.
It is estimated that in a city of 7.3 million inhabitants, more than 1 million people attended some rallies.
But as conflicts between riot police and smaller, more hardcore (usually young protesters) escalated, the deliberately unleaded democratic movement became more and more intense.
Security Law
China’s response to the protesters was to reject their demands and portray them as part of a foreign conspiracy to destabilize the country.
The city implemented a comprehensive national security law last year, criminalizing many objections, and many of the city’s democratic leaders were jailed for fleeing overseas.
According to statistics from Agence France-Presse, more than 30 civil society groups have been disbanded, worrying that the national security police will come to them next.
Earlier this week, the city’s largest union, the Professional Teachers Union (PTU), stated that it would close after nearly 50 years of operation.
Most prominent CHRF activists, including former leaders Jimmy Sham and Figo Chan, have been in jail for organizing protests or national security charges.
But a small group of militants maintained the organization’s operations at least nominally.
The National Security Police has begun investigating the financial situation of the umbrella organization and whether it is properly registered.
Earlier this week, Police Chief Raymond Siu also told a pro-Beijing newspaper that CHRF may have violated national security laws at the 2019 rally.
These comments caused panic because the law enacted on June 30, 2020 should not be retroactive.
Both CHRF and PTU decided to disband, after the Chinese state media published multiple articles attacking these organizations and called on the Hong Kong authorities to take more measures to disband them.
“For any anti-China forces and trouble-making forces, it is only a matter of time before they take their own humiliation,” China’s top official media, People’s Daily, said in a comment on PTU on Tuesday.
Two other organizations have been specifically mentioned in the official media in recent weeks.
They are the Hong Kong Coalition that supports the Chinese Patriotic and Democratic Movement, which historically organized the city’s now banned vigil that marked Beijing’s deadly Tiananmen Square crackdown-and the city’s largest union of democratic labor unions. meeting.
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