Tag: hong kong

Jimmy Lai’s security trial starts in Hong Kong, UK calls for his release | Courts News

BREAKING,

The media tycoon and democracy supporter, now 76, has been in jail for three years, accused of ‘collusion with foreign forces’.

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has gone on trial for alleged national security offences, hours after the United Kingdom joined calls for his immediate release.

Lai, who has been imprisoned since December 2020, arrived in court at 10am (02:00 GMT) where he is charged with conspiring to collude with foreign powers under the national security law imposed on the territory by China in June 2020.

Journalists inside the court said the 76-year-old, who was dressed in a blue shirt and carrying a book, looked like he had lost weight, but appeared in good spirits.

The publisher of the now-defunct Apple Daily is one of China’s most vocal critics and was arrested initially in August 2020 as police raided the newspaper’s officers.

The trial was supposed to have started a year ago, but was delayed after the government raised questions about his choice of defence counsel, Timothy Owen, a UK-based lawyer, and sought Beijing’s intervention.

Lai and the Apple Daily also face charges under a sedition law dating from the British colonial era.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

In a statement late on Sunday, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said he was “gravely concerned” about the trial and joined the United States and European Union in calling for Lai’s immediate release.

“As a prominent and outspoken journalist and publisher, Jimmy Lai has been targeted in a clear attempt to stop the peaceful exercise of his rights to freedom of expression and association,” Cameron said, noting that the security law was in breach of the commitments made to Hong Kong when it resumed sovereignty over the territory in 1997.

“I urge the Chinese authorities to repeal the National Security Law and end the prosecution of all individuals charged under it. I call on the Hong Kong authorities to end their prosecution and release Jimmy Lai.”

‘Rule by law’

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy politicians, once vibrant civil society and media came under pressure in the wake of mass demonstrations in 2019, which began over concerns about a planned extradition bill with mainland China and evolved into calls for greater democracy.

A year after it was imposed, Amnesty International said the security law had “decimated” Hong Kong’s rights and freedoms.

The US also called for Lai’s immediate release and condemned the prosecution.

“Lai has been held in pre-trial detention for more than 1,000 days, and Hong Kong and Beijing authorities have denied him his choice of legal representation,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement. “We call on Hong Kong authorities to immediately release Jimmy Lai and all others imprisoned for defending their rights.”

Security on Monday was tight after Secretary for Security Chris Tang warned it would be enhanced because previously, “these kinds of cases” had attracted people wanting to disrupt proceedings and harass prosecutors.

People began queueing early for tickets with just 70 seats in the main venue at the West Kowloon court building open to the public.

Some police were in riot gear, while others had dogs. A bomb disposal vehicle was parked nearby.

“Jimmy Lai’s case is a case of weaponising the legal system in Hong Kong,” Finn Lau, a UK-based activist and founder of Hong Kong Liberty, told Al Jazeera. “There is no rule of law in Hong Kong anymore. It is just rule by law.”

Lai has already been found guilty and jailed over separate cases related to the management of Apple Daily and his involvement in a vigil to mark the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

The final edition of the Apple Daily rolled off the presses in June 2021.

Other publications critical of the administration have also folded, while elections have been overhauled to ensure only so-called “patriots” are able to hold public office in the territory.

Last week’s elections for district councils saw a record-low turnout of just 27.5 percent. The number of directly elected seats was cut to just 88, compared with 462 previously, and all candidates had to secure official approval before they could stand.

“Actions that stifle press freedom and restrict the free flow of information – as well as Beijing and local authorities’ changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system that reduce direct voting and preclude independent and pro-democracy party candidates from participating – have undermined Hong Kong’s democratic institutions and harmed Hong Kong’s reputation as an international business and financial hub,” Miller said in his statement.

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Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai faces trial under ‘unfair’ national security law | News

The national security trial of jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai is due to begin on Monday, more than a year after it was originally scheduled to start, and three years since he was first imprisoned.

The 76-year-old, who is also a British citizen, stands accused of conspiring to collude with foreign forces and publish seditious material.

The most prominent figure to be charged under the security law that Beijing imposed on the territory in June 2020, Lai faces spending the rest of his life in jail. He has pleaded not guilty on all counts.

His son, Sebastien, who has been travelling the world to draw attention to his father’s case, told Al Jazeera he was trying to maintain some optimism.

“Obviously, this is a show trial,” he said in an interview in September. “They’re basically punishing [him] for standing up for the freedoms that the Hong Kong region has, and that were also promised during the handover. That’s all it is, really, and they’re using a national security law, and the national security law isn’t retroactive. So if we look at it even just on that very level, on their word, then none of these guys should be in jail.”

Jimmy Lai has been jailed since December 2020 after an earlier bail ruling was overturned. He has been given prison terms on other charges as he waited for the start of the national security trial [File: Louise Delmotte/AP Photo]

Earlier this week, Sebastien met recently-appointed United Kingdom Foreign Minister David Cameron, a former prime minister who once championed closer ties with Beijing.

Cameron promised the UK would “continue to stand by Jimmy Lai and the people of HK,” according to a post from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on the social media platform, X.

Afterwards, Sebastien said he hoped the UK would soon “add its voice” to US and European Union calls for his father’s immediate release.

Rags to riches

Before Lai was arrested at his home in August 2020 – and taken by police on a raid of his newspaper offices that was livestreamed by its journalists – he was known as much for his entrepreneurial success as he was for his criticism of Beijing’s Communist Party – a rarity among Hong Kong’s wealthy.

Born Lai Chee-ying in China in December 1947, he arrived in Hong Kong, then a British colony, after stowing away in a fishing boat. He was just 12 years old.

Finding work in a clothing factory, Lai gradually climbed the ranks, eventually setting up his own Giordano brand selling T-shirts, chinos and everyday basics in a Hong Kong version of US retailer Gap that became hugely popular across the region.

In the 1990s, as Britain prepared for 1997 and the handover of Hong Kong to China, Lai used the money he made from the sale of Giordano to focus on the media, founding Next Media, publisher of the popular tabloid Apple Daily and other Chinese-language outlets in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

In Hong Kong’s then free-wheeling media landscape, the papers attracted hundreds of thousands of readers for their mix of critical reporting on China and tantalising gossip, making the most of the ‘one country, two systems’ framework that was supposed to ensure Hong Kong maintained the rights and freedoms it had long enjoyed but that were unheard of on the mainland.

By 2008, Forbes estimated his wealth at some $1.2bn and said he was “thriving by promoting free speech and democracy”.

Lai and Apple Daily found themselves under fire in the wake of the mass demonstrations in 2019 that began over concerns about a planned extradition bill with mainland China and evolved into calls for greater democracy. The protests came amid growing unease at Beijing’s gradual tightening of control over political life despite the promises made in 1997.

Lai has been jailed since December 2020, first in pre-trial detention and later as a result of short prison sentences for a series of separate charges related to the management of Apple Daily and his involvement in a vigil to mark the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

After 26 years, the final edition of the Apple Daily rolled off the presses in June 2021.

After two police raids, with Lai and Next Media’s top executives under arrest, and a freeze imposed on its bank accounts, the company said the decision reflected “employee safety and manpower considerations”.

Challenging power

After being denied bail soon after his initial arrest, Lai used his high-profile status to challenge the security law.

Hong Kong police raided the office of Next Media in June 2021. Shortly afterwards, the popular tabloid published its final edition [File: Apple Daily via EPA]

He initially planned to hire a British lawyer, Timothy Owen, to defend him in a decision that secured the backing of Hong Kong’s highest court, which dismissed the government’s bid to block Owen’s appointment and impose a “blanket ban” on foreign lawyers working on national security cases.

The ruling prompted Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee, a former security minister, to ask Beijing to intervene, arguing a foreign lawyer might divulge state secrets or be compromised by a foreign government.

The intervention, days before the trial was supposed to start, led to a months-long delay with Beijing eventually ruling that Lai could not hire the British lawyer.

Denied his choice of counsel, Lai will face a panel of three handpicked judges and, unlike Hong Kong’s common law criminal justice system, there will be no jury.

“Jimmy Lai has already spent three years in prison for his journalism and his peaceful pro-democracy activities,” Caoilfhionn Gallagher of London’s Doughty Street Chambers, which is representing the Lai family in international law issues. “He is now being prosecuted for illegitimate reasons, under an unfair law and in a broken legal system.”

The trial is scheduled to continue for 80 days until March next year.

“On the one hand, there will be an attempt from the Hong Kong authorities to show that they take their court trial process seriously,” Kevin Yam, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Asian Law, told Al Jazeera. On the other hand, Lai’s defence team appears to be “seeking to use the long and painful court process to try and show the absurdity of the allegations against him,” he added.

Maya Wang, associate director at the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, said the proceedings will provide an insight into the workings of the security law.

“I think in the end, Jimmy Lai will be imprisoned. The question is for how long,” Wang told Al Jazeera. “I would pay attention to how the prosecution characterises his collusion charge because it can carry up to life imprisonment depending on the severity.”

Sebastien Lai has been travelling the world to highlight his father’s case and call for his immediate release [File: Erin Hale/Al Jazeera]

“It’s also very important to note that given Jimmy’s very advanced age, even just a short sentence effectively means life imprisonment for him,” she said.

Hong Kong’s national security police have arrested 264 people as of August and charged 148 under the national security law or the recently revived colonial offence of sedition, according to research by fellow Eric Lai and others at the Georgetown Center for Asian Law.

Beyond Lai, Hong Kong’s other national security trials include the ongoing mega trial of 47 pro-democracy lawmakers and activists – for organising a pre-selection process to choose their candidates for elections that were later postponed – and the sedition trial of journalists at the now defunct Stand News, but many of those charged under the law include people who took part in the 2019 protests.

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Hong Kong police offers bounties for five activists living overseas | Hong Kong Protests News

The US and the UK have condemned the move as Hong Kong authorities expand crackdown under national security law.

Police in Hong Kong have offered bounties for information leading to the arrest of five activists living overseas, expanding a crackdown on those involved in the city’s once vibrant pro-democracy protest movement under a harsh national security law.

Law enforcement authorities on Thursday offered rewards of one million Hong Kong dollars ($128,000) for each of the five activists, who live in countries including the United States and the United Kingdom.

“They all betrayed their own country and betrayed Hong Kong,” Steve Li, chief superintendent of the police national security department, said in a news conference. “After they fled overseas, they continued to engage in activities endangering national security.”

The move, characterised by the US and the UK as an effort to restrict democracy, added to a list of eight activists who authorities named as fugitives in July under a national security law imposed by Beijing.

The five activists are named as Simon Cheng, Frances Hui, Joey Siu, Johnny Fok and Tony Choi. Many prominent members of the 2019 protest movement moved overseas when the national security law was introduced the following year, anticipating harsh measures from authorities.

“This is a threat to our democracy and fundamental human rights,” UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said in response to the announcement, adding that he had instructed officials in Hong Kong, Beijing, and London to “raise this issue as a matter of urgency”.

Hong Kong police announced bounties for eight activists living abroad in July, warning that they would be pursued for life. None of them have yet to be arrested.

In 2021, the government rounded up at least 47 opposition activists, including elected lawmakers, unionists, and academics, accusing them of contributing to unrest and undermining national security.

Closing arguments in the trial of 16 activists, Hong Kong’s largest-ever state security trial, took place in late November. If convicted, they face the possibility of life in prison.

In October, a group of United Nations human rights experts said that the mass trials could “negatively affect safeguards that ensure due process and the right to fair trial”.

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Hong Kong holds ‘patriot only’ election after shutting out opposition | Politics News

Vote restricts residents to choosing between Beijing loyalists after pro-democracy camp scored landslide win in 2019.

Hong Kong has begun voting in its first “patriots only” district council election following an electoral overhaul that made it all but impossible for pro-democracy candidates to get on the ballot.

Sunday’s vote, which restricts residents to choosing between hand-picked Beijing loyalists, comes after Hong Kongers delivered pro-democracy candidates their biggest win in the Chinese-ruled city’s history during the last district election in 2019.

The pro-democracy landslide, following a record 71 percent turnout, was seen as an embarrassing blow to Chinese and Hong Kong authorities after months of anti-government mass protests.

Under the revised electoral system announced in May, just 88 out of 470 seats will be directly elected and candidates must be approved by government-appointed committees.

More than 70 percent of the candidates for directly elected seats are themselves members of the vetting committees.

The Democratic Party, Hong Kong’s biggest opposition party, failed to secure nominations for any of its candidates, while centrists and even pro-establishment moderates have complained of being shut out by the new rules.

The electoral overhaul followed the passage of a draconian national security law in 2020 that has all but wiped out democratic activism in the former British colony, which is supposed to enjoy freedoms not found in mainland China under an arrangement known as “one country, two systems”.

Despite insisting that turnout will not determine the success of the election, Hong Kong officials have attempted to generate enthusiasm among the public, organising free concerts and fun fairs, waiving museum entry fees, putting up posters and offering community centres payments to encourage the elderly to vote.

Authorities have warned against any attempt to undermine the poll, reportedly deploying more than 12,000 police officers around the city.

Three members of the League of Social Democrats, a social democratic party, were arrested on Sunday after earlier announcing plans to stage a protest outside the polling station used by Hong Kong leader John Lee, the party said.

On Friday, national security police arrested a 77-year-old man on suspicion of preparing to carry out sedition over a reported plan to protest the election.

Earlier this week, authorities charged a 38-year-old man for allegedly reposting a video of an overseas commentator calling for a boycott and issued an arrest warrant for a Germany-based activist accused of encouraging people not to vote.

Many Hong Kongers have nonetheless expressed apathy about the vote given its tenuous connection to public sentiment.

Voter turnout as of 10:30am (2:30 GMT) was a little higher than 6 percent, according to the Hong Kong Information Services Department – far below 2019 levels.

Turnout for the city’s most recent legislative election, in 2021, was 30 percent, down from 58 percent under the more democratic rules in place during the 2016 poll.

Finn Lau, a Hong Kong democracy activist based in the United Kingdom, described the vote as “pointless”.

“It is a complete joke. It is pointless to vote in such a fully controlled, gamed system devised by the Beijing regime and Hong Kong authorities,” Lau told Al Jazeera.

“It is totally pointless because they are trying to use this so-called election to build their legitimacy for their autocratic acts as well as the suppression of civil liberties, destruction of rule of law and the international promises under the Sino-British joint declaration.”

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Second SCMP reporter dropped out of contact in China last year, sources say | Media News

A Hong Kong reporter who has been unreachable since travelling to China more than one month ago is the second journalist at her newspaper to have a lengthy unexplained absence from work in as many years, according to multiple people familiar with the situation.

Minnie Chan, a reporter with the South China Morning Post (SCMP), has been out of contact with friends since travelling to Beijing in late October to attend the Xiangshan Forum, Japan’s Kyodo News reported on Thursday, raising fears she may have been detained by Chinese authorities.

The Hong Kong-based SCMP, which is owned by Chinese tech giant Alibaba, said on Friday that Chan is on personal leave in Beijing and that it had been informed by her family that she “needs time to handle a private matter”.

“Her family has told us she is safe but has requested that we respect her privacy,” a spokesperson for the newspaper said. “We are in contact with Minnie’s family and we have no further information to disclose.”

The SCMP’s statement, however, has not assuaged concerns about Chan’s welfare, with associates and media freedom groups calling for assurances of her safety.

Chan’s absence comes after another SCMP reporter dropped out of contact in China for a number of months in 2022, raising concerns among colleagues that they may have been detained, four people familiar with discussions in the newsroom told Al Jazeera.

The reporter, whose work was not published at SCMP for a period of nine months, later returned to work at the newspaper, but in a different section covering less politically sensitive news. The reporter has not written for SCMP for a number of months and it is unclear if she is still employed at the newspaper.

Al Jazeera has chosen not to name the reporter, who did not respond to requests for comment, out of respect for their privacy.

The SCMP declined to comment on “speculative reporting” about the second reporter, citing privacy considerations.

“The safety of our journalists in the course of their professional work is of the utmost importance to us,” a spokesperson said.

Media freedom organisations, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), continue to be concerned about Chan’s welfare.

“Reports about the disappearance of Hong Kong journalist Minnie Chan after a work trip to Beijing are extremely concerning, and Chinese authorities must immediately disclose her location and guarantee her safety,” Iris Hsu, the CPJ’s China representative, said in a statement on Friday.

“Journalists must be able to do their work without fearing for their safety.”

Former South China Morning Post editor-in-chief Wang Xiangwei also said on social media that he was “pray[ing] for Minnie Chan, my friend and my former colleague at SCMP”, without elaborating further.

On Monday, Article 19, a freedom of expression advocacy group, criticised the SCMP for threatening legal action against Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP), an online news outlet, after its editor-in-chief contacted the newspaper for comment on Chan’s case.

“That HKFP has been singled out with the threat of legal action has all the hallmarks of arbitrary litigation to silence and intimidate a free press performing its function as a public watchdog,” said Michael Caster, Article 19’s Asia digital programme manager.

“Rather than threatening legal action, South China Morning Post should be grateful for the outpouring of support and solidarity for its journalist.”

Article 19’s statement came after the SCMP told HKFP’s editor-in-chief in an email that it was “concerned you may be rushing to conclusions not supported by facts” and that it reserved the right to take legal action against “any misreporting of this matter concerning the Post.”

Hong Kong’s media environment, once among the most vibrant in Asia, has deteriorated dramatically since the introduction of a Beijing-decreed national security law in 2020.

The SCMP, which has become known for its pro-Beijing editorial line in recent years, was spared from police raids that shuttered most of the city’s independent and pro-democracy media.

China is among the world’s worst jailers of journalists, with at least 43 reporters in custody in 2022, according to the CPJ.

Last month, Cheng Lei, an Australian journalist who worked with Chinese state-run CGTN, was released after spending three years in custody on national security charges.

Chinese authorities have a range of powers at their disposal to detain journalists for long periods without charge.

Chinese police can hold suspects for up to 37 days before making an official arrest and up to 13.5 months before pressing formal charges, according to a Canadian travel advisory.

Under another form of detention known as “residential surveillance at a designated location”, suspects can be held for up to six months without being charged or having access to a lawyer.

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Hong Kong journalist missing after reporting trip to China, report says | Media News

Kyodo News says South China Morning Post reporter Minnie Chan became unreachable after attending forum in late October.

A reporter with Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post has gone missing in China after a work trip, a Japanese news outlet has reported, raising fears that she has been detained by Chinese authorities.

Minnie Chan, an award-winning reporter specialising in Chinese defence and diplomacy, travelled to Beijing to attend the Xiangshan Forum but became unreachable after the end of the three-day security conference on October 31, Kyodo News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The South China Morning Post, which is owned by Chinese tech giant Alibaba, did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment. Kyodo News reported that the Post said that Chan was on “personal leave” without elaborating further due to privacy concerns.

Chan has worked for the Post since 2005, according to the newspaper’s website. Her most recent article published on November 1 discussed China’s mediating role in the war in Gaza.

A Facebook friend of Chan told Al Jazeera that her WhatsApp account showed her as last online on the afternoon of November 2 and said her recent activity on Facebook was “very strange”.

Chan’s last Facebook post is dated November 11 and features holiday photos, in contrast to her usual posts featuring her latest articles and commentary written in Chinese. Chan has not responded to comments on her last post from friends asking about her whereabouts.

Minnie Chan’s Facebook page was last updated on November 11 [Facebook]

Andrei “Pinkov” Chang, a Chinese military expert who knew Chan professionally, wrote in a public Facebook post that Chan was always “very polite” and would respond to his messages but had stopped doing so in November.

China was the world’s worst jailer of journalists last year after Iran, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, with at least 43 in custody in December of that year.

Chinese police can detain a suspect for up to 37 days before making an official arrest, after which time the suspect can be detained for a further 13.5 months before formal charges are made by prosecutors, according to a Canadian travel advisory.

China’s courts, which are under the control of the ruling communist party, have a nearly 100 percent conviction rate for those who go on trial.

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For Hong Kong’s arrested pro-democracy activists, justice must wait | Civil Rights News

Taipei, Taiwan – Closing arguments are due to begin in Hong Kong on Wednesday in the high-profile trial of 16 pro-democracy activists and legislators, more than 1,000 days after they were arrested by national security police.

Ten days have been set aside for prosecutors and defence lawyers to summarise their arguments in the case against the 16, who are among 47 pro-democracy figures arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit subversion in pre-dawn raids in January 2021.

If convicted, they face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

The high-profile case has been marked by repeated delays, drawing international criticism, with most of the defendants remanded in custody for nearly three years after being denied bail.

The trial, which was predicted to last 90 days, has dragged on for nearly 10 months as three national security judges – handpicked by the government – wade through thousands of pages of evidence provided by the defence and prosecution.

Hong Kong prosecutors allege that the 47 violated the city’s sweeping national security legislation by organising an unofficial election primary in July 2020 as part of a plot to gain a majority in the semi-democratic legislature and veto the government’s budget bills.

Among the group, 31, including prominent activist Joshua Wong, former legislator Claudia Mo, and legal scholar Benny Tai, have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

“Delayed justice is injustice and repeated delays or postponement of trials particularly in [national security] cases reflects that the prosecution has not done a good job in managing these cases,” Eric Lai, a research fellow at Georgetown Center for Asian Law, told Al Jazeera.

Hong Kong retained its British-inherited common law legal system after its return to China in 1997 [File: Isaac Lawrence/AFP]

While the “Hong Kong 47” case is the largest national security case to date, drawn-out proceedings have become a feature of the city’s British-inherited legal system since the imposition of the national security law following anti-government protests in 2019.

Although Hong Kong retained its common law legal system after the city’s return to China in 1997, the national security law weakened or scrapped many common law norms, including the presumption in favour of bail and the right to a jury trial.

The number of people in Hong Kong prisons on remand – those in detention while awaiting trial or sentencing – jumped from 2,044 to 3,304 people between December 2018 and September 2023, according to data collected by the Hong Kong Correctional Services Department.

As a percentage of cases, the share of those in remand grew from 24.98 percent to 37.24 percent over the period.

Much of the backlog stems from some 3,000 prosecutions that followed the 2019 protests, when more than 10,000 people were arrested and charged for offences such as unlawful assembly, possession of an offensive weapon, criminal damage and assaulting a police officer, according to data compiled by the Georgetown Center for Asian Law.

Prosecutions of protest-related cases have typically taken 30 percent longer than other criminal cases, according to an analysis by the Georgetown Centre, with 41.8 percent taking more than a year to complete as of August 2022 – eating up court time and resources.

“The number and proportion of people in [Hong Kong] jails who have not been convicted are both at record highs. There is a known shortage of judges in [Hong Kong] courts, which along with thousands of protest-related cases may have caused backlogs in trials,” David Webb, a former investment banker who maintains a 23-year database on the number of people in custody, told Al Jazeera.

“There is also a tendency to deny bail pending trial in protest-related cases, stemming from a presumption against bail in the National Security Law which has also been applied to non-NSL cases.”

Hong Kong’s courts are facing a growing shortage of judges, with nearly one in four judicial posts currently vacant amid complaints of low pay and a broader brain drain since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Victor Dawes, the chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association, earlier this year warned that proposals by some US lawmakers to sanction judges that hear national security cases could make it even more difficult to recruit talent.

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee has hinted that “significant national security trials” could one day move to Beijing if sanctions affect court proceedings.

As of August, 264 people have been arrested by national security police and 148 charged under the national security law or the colonial-era offence of sedition, according to research by Lai and others published by ChinaFile.

Of these, 103 have been convicted and 45 are still on trial. None has been acquitted.

Media tycoon Jimmy Lai faces potential life in prison if convicted of national security offences [File: Tyrone Siu/Reuters]

Other high-profile delays include the case of Jimmy Lai, the founder of the shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, whose national security trial is due to begin on December 18, a year after it was first scheduled.

Lai, 75, has been detained since December 2020, first in pre-trial detention and then under a five-year sentence for fraud. He could spend the rest of his life in prison if found guilty of national security offences.

The trial of Chung Pui-luen and Patrick Lam, two editors of the now-defunct digital news outlet Stand News, has also faced delays since it began in October 2022.

During the trial, defence lawyers accused the prosecution of improperly submitting some 1,500 pages of undeclared evidence, causing further delays.

The Stand News verdict is not expected until next year as the court considers the impact of a UK Privy Council ruling over a separate sedition case in Trinidad and Tobago, another common law jurisdiction, which found sedition must include “an intention to incite violence or disorder.”

Unlike other delays, the deferral in that case may be a rare glimmer of good news, according to Georgetown’s Lai, as it “shows that the local courts are still eager to respect the whole common law system”.

“It will be a long process but at the same time it also shows the court has to consider the latest development on how the common law courts worldwide consider the offence of sedition,” Lai said.

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Hong Kong Commences CBDC Pilot; Multiple Fintech Players Onboarded for Trial of e-HKD

The introduction of central bank digital currency (CBDC) by central banks in different parts of the world has emerged among the top banking tweaks to be recorded as major banking innovations. Hong Kong has now become the latest nation to join the list of countries like India, China, Japan, and Nigeria among others that are conducting advanced studies and trials of their respective CBDCs. The e-HKD CBDC of Hong Kong is being launched into its pilot phase this week so that its use cases could be accessed and tested thoroughly before its commercial roll out.

Created on blockchains, CBDCs are the digital representations of fiat currencies that eliminate the need for paper-based physical notes while also recording the details of all transactions in an unchangeable format on the blockchain.

This week, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) officially announced the commencement of the pilot programme of the e-HKD CBDC.

In the coming months, the financial authorities of Hong Kong will work with industry leaders to explore the potential use cases of its CBDC broadly in six categories — full-fledged payments, programmable payments, offline payments, tokenised deposits, settlement of Web3 transactions as well as settlement of tokenised assets.

“Through this iterative process, the outcomes and insights gained from each pilot would help enrich the HKMA’s perspective and refine the HKMA’s approach to the possible implementation of e-HKD. The HKMA is not yet at a point where a firm decision can be made to introduce e-HKD,” said an official blog post by the HKMA.

A total of sixteen entities from the sectors of finance, technology, and payment processing have been onboarded by Hong Kong to participate in its CBDC trials.

The leaders of these sixteen organisations were present at the event where the HKMA announced the launch of the e-HKD and they all revealed their plans to test the CBDC as part of its trial process.

“We are excited to kick-start the e-HKD Pilot Programme. By fostering government-industry-academia collaboration in CBDC research, we aim to ensure the relevance of our research and development efforts, and enable the translation of such outcomes into viable business opportunities,” Eddie Yue, the Chief Executive of the HKMA, said in the blog post.

In the months to come, the HKMA is looking to increase the participation of the government in the CBDC trials. A CBDC Expert Group will also be established by the HKMA, comprising of academicians and researchers from local universities.

Hong Kong has left it to the banks to discuss and decide if they wish to keep the e-HKD either centralised — under their control, or decentralised — where the CBDC would be distributed away from a central, authoritative location in small fractions.

Unlike the UK and the US, that have taken a rather democratic approach and invited suggestions on CBDCs from their nationals, Hong Kong wishes to keep the process more in the hands of the authorities.

Given the growing interest in crypto among its citizens, the country has also amended its Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Bill 2022, to now include crypto transactions as well.

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After India and China, Now Hong Kong Accelerates CBDC Work With a Special Twist: Here’s What We Know

After India and China, that have led the CBDC revolution in Asia, Hong Kong is accelerating its efforts to introduce a national digital currency in their existing financial system. The administration of Hong Kong is currently working on the roadmap to introduce the e-HKD CBDC to its estimated population of over 7.5 million in the coming months. While India and China have decided their CBDCs to be regulated by the central banks, Hong Kong has left that decision to be finalised for a later time.

In a new twist, Hong Kong has left it to the banks to discuss and decide if they wish to keep the e-HKD CBDC either centralised — under their control, or decentralised — where the CBDC would be distributed away from a central, authoritative location in small fractions.

“They (the banks) are allowed to go and review and research and then propose back,” a CoinDesk report quoted a source familiar with the situation as saying.

Unlike the UK and the US, that have taken a rather democratic approach and invited suggestions on CBDCs from their nationals, Hong Kong wishes to keep the process more in the hands of the authorities.

Regular citizens of Hong Kong are not likely to be part of any CBDC-related decision making. While India did hold several rounds of discussions with finance ministry officials and blockchain industry insiders, China is not known to have taken a similar approach.

The overall approach to Web3 in Hong Kong has been very progressive. The nationals there are welcoming Web3 technologies like cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and the metaverse with an experimentative approach.

Forex, in its latest ‘Worldwide Crypto Readiness Report’ suggested that Hong Kong is the most crypto-ready country in the world. In the index, Hong Kong bagged 8.6 out of 10 in-terms of being lucrative for the crypto sector.

Given the grown interest in crypto among its citizens, the country has also amended its Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Bill 2022, to now include crypto transactions as well.

Introducing a CBDC in its financial system is a decision that Hong Kong has started acting upon after due consideration.

Built on blockchain networks, a CBDC, or a Central Bank Digital Currency, is a virtual representation of a country’s fiat currency. Replacing physical notes with CBDCs not only reduces the cost of managing them, but also adds a layer of unchangeable permanency in maintaining financial records.

This is the reason why several nations around the world including Japan, Australia, and Dubai among others, are working around creating their native CBDCs.

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