Chinese police have arrested more than 1,000 and beaten some during interrogation, sources say. An American official expressed deep concern about the arrest of over 1,000 Tibetans protesting a dam project in central China that would destroy several Buddhist monasteries, saying the United States “stands with Tibetans in preserving their unique cultural, religious, and linguistic identity.”  Tibetan advocacy groups condemned China’s actions, calling for the immediate release of those detained. On Feb. 23, police arrested more than 1,000 Tibetans, including monks and residents, in Dege county in Kardze Autonomous Tibetan Prefecture, who had been peacefully protesting against the dam, which would also force two villages to be relocated, sources told Radio Free Asia.  Over the weekend, police began interrogations, beating some detainees so badly that they required medical attention, sources told RFA.  Uzra Zeya, U.S. under secretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights and U.S. special coordinator for Tibetan Issues, said on X on Feb. 25 that she was deeply concerned by reports of the “mass arrests of Tibetans protesting the construction of a dam that threatens displacement of villages & destruction of monasteries.” “China must respect human rights & freedom of expression and include Tibetans in the development & implementation of water and land management policies,” she tweeted.  “These centuries-old monasteries are home to hundreds of Tibetan Buddhist monks and contain irreplaceable cultural relics,” she wrote. “The U.S. stands with Tibetans in preserving their unique cultural, religious, and linguistic identity.”   ‘Wiping out culture and religion’ The arrests “should be a reminder to the world of how brutal daily life under China’s occupation is for the Tibetan people,” a  statement issued Monday on X from the International Campaign for Tibet by its president, Tencho Gyatso. “China tries to hide its forced relocation of Tibetans, its destruction of their environment, and its attempts to wipe out their culture and religion,” the statement said. Saying the protesters demonstrated “incredible courage,” Gyatso said they needed the support of the international community.  “We call on the Chinese government to free these Tibetans at once,” she said. “We also call on the U.S. and other governments to step up pressure on China to end its vicious occupation of Tibet.” Four Tibetan NGOs based in Dharamsala, India, home to the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, issued a statement of solidarity with the Tibetan community in Dege county. They said that the displacement of Tibetan communities is “not new phenomena,” just one of many examples. “The continued disregard for the rights and well-being of Tibetans in the face of such development projects is unacceptable and demands immediate attention from the international community,” said the statement by the Tibetan Women’s Association, National Democratic Party of Tibet, Regional Tibetan Youth Congress and Students for a Free Tibet.  Environmental disruption The four groups went on to say that the construction of the dam not only threatens the local Tibetan community but also poses a risk to the fragile ecosystem of the Tibetan plateau.  “Any disruption to Tibet’s rivers and a diversion of the rivers could have far-reaching consequences for the environment, biodiversity, and livelihoods of millions of people downstream,” they said.  William Nee, research and advocacy coordinator at Chinese Human Rights Defenders, or CHRD, told RFA that his organization was concerned about the situation of the detainees, whether they are being maltreated and if they have sufficient food.  RFA reported earlier that authorities told those who were arrested to bring bedding and food, suggesting they would not be released soon. CHRD was also concerned whether authorities were giving those arrested access to relatives and lawyers, and whether they were being detained according to Chinese Criminal Procedure Law.  “But beyond that, there are also concerns about the livelihood of the potentially affected communities by the dam and whether this has been taken into consideration,” Nee said. “And also the cultural rights, given that this might impact monasteries – some having ancient murals going back to the 13th century.”    Khenpo Sonam Tenphel, speaker of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, tweeted on X that Tibetans worldwide condemned the crackdown.  “We urge China to promptly release those detained and to cease the dam construction,” he tweeted. “It is crucial for China to acknowledge the peaceful protests of Tibetans, addressing their concerns about preserving historic monasteries and safeguarding their homes.”

The data, offering a global overview of journalists incarcerated for their work as of December 1, paints a concerning picture of press freedom in China, especially concerning its treatment of the majority-Muslim ethnic group. Arecent report from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has shed light on a troubling pattern in China, where nearly half of the journalists imprisoned in 2023 were identified as Uyghurs, Voice of America reported. As many as 44 journalists are in jail and about half of them are Uyghurs. This shows Beijing's poor press freedom record and its human rights abuses against the majority-Muslim ethnic group, report added. The data, offering a global overview of journalists incarcerated for their work as of December 1, paints a concerning picture of press freedom in China, especially concerning its treatment of the majority-Muslim ethnic group. Among the 19 Uyghurs held, critics of the Chinese government often face charges of separatism and terrorism, according to Voice of America. One prominent case highlighted in the report is that of academic and blogger Ilham Tohti, who marked a decade in custody this week. Arrested in January 2014, Tohti is serving a life sentence for alleged separatism. His case underscores the severe consequences faced by those critical of the Chinese government, with the court citing his interviews with foreign news outlets and his role as the founder of the Xinjiang news site Uighurbiz, which authorities shut down in 2014. "For the Chinese government, Uyghur journalists are a dangerous group of people. They don't want them to say anything. They [Beijing] try to crack down on Uyghur journalists, particularly because they want to shut the Uyghur voice off," remarked Zubayra Shamseden from the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) in Washington. Governments, including the US, have accused China of committing genocide against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in Xinjiang. The UN Human Rights Office has raised concerns about crimes against humanity being perpetrated against Uyghurs. The targeting of Uyghur reporters aligns with the broader persecution of Uyghur intellectuals and cultural figures in Xinjiang. A 2021 report by UHRP highlighted the detention of over 300 Uyghur and other Turkic Muslim intellectual and cultural elites in the region. The assault on intellectual and cultural figures is seen as a component of genocide, aiming to eradicate Uyghur cultural identity. The CPJ report also reveals a global trend of silencing critical voices through journalist arrests, with 320 journalists held worldwide. CPJ Chief Executive Jodie Ginsberg emphasized the inherent threat perceived by those in power when journalists hold them accountable. In China, three out of the five new cases in CPJ's 2023 database involved reporters accused of espionage, inciting separatism, or subverting state power. "Particularly in authoritarian regimes, we see this use of the law -- or misuse of the law -- to detain and silence journalists. And that's exactly what it's intended to do. It's intended to silence critical voices," noted Ginsberg. The persecution of Uyghur journalists extends beyond China's borders, with individuals, especially journalists and activists, experiencing harassment or intimidation, a phenomenon known as transnational repression. Beijing applies pressure to prevent Uyghurs from speaking out and disclosing information deemed unfavourable by the Chinese government. Responding to allegations of human rights abuses, a spokesperson from the Chinese Embassy in Washington rejected claims that Beijing does not respect media freedom. "The Chinese government protects press freedom in accordance with law and gives full play to the role of media and citizens in supervising public opinion," the spokesperson said. The spokesperson asserted that the Chinese government protects press freedom in accordance with the law and accused some in the US of spreading disinformation by smearing and attacking China, Voice of America reported.  Source: ANI

Beijing's increased scrutiny of Western firms over the past year alarmed international investors at a time of growing tensions between the United States and China. 'De-risking' became the byword for wary enterprises. Anna Ashton, director of the China corporate affairs program at the Eurasia Group, a global political risk consulting firm, told VOA Mandarin in a phone interview, "National security concerns tied to the changing geopolitical landscape and tensions with the United States have prompted Beijing to change some of the rules for doing business in ways that make the environment a lot less certain for foreign companies. "That, plus the slower than expected return to normal growth after the end of the zero-COVID policies. So, this and geopolitical tensions with the U.S., a sort of sluggish Chinese economy ... have been key drivers in terms of making the business environment difficult for foreign companies." China's economic weakness may also be making foreign businesspeople wary. On December 14, the World Bank said in its semiannual regional forecast that it now expects China's growth rate of 5.2% this year will slow to 4.5% in 2024, down from the 4.8% it expected in April, and 4.3% in 2025. "The outlook is subject to considerable downside risks," the report said.   China Wants to Strengthen Supply Chains Even as Foreign Investors Flee Liu Aihua, spokesperson for China's National Bureau of Statistics said, "Looking to the future, the internal and external environment facing our country's development is still complex and severe," according to The Associated Press. "To further promote economic recovery, we need to overcome some difficulties and challenges." While Beijing still values foreign investment and is working to attract foreign firms, it is placing a higher priority on national security. China's newly revised Counter-Espionage Law went into effect on July 1. The U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center issued a warning to U.S. companies before the law was enacted, saying that the new law's vague definition of espionage gave the Chinese government more access to, and control over, corporate data. What companies considered normal business activities, such as market research, could become criminal activities. Addressing the law's vagueness, Elisabeth Braw, a columnist at Foreign Policy and a senior associate fellow at the European Leadership Network, told VOA Mandarin in a phone interview in November that for Western businesses, China is becoming an increasingly difficult environment and unpredictability is the problem. "Any Western company can be targeted by various government crackdowns related to the espionage legislation," she said. "Also, whenever the Chinese government wants to retaliate against the Western government, there is a risk that it will use a Western company operating in China as a proxy target. That's very easy, because what can the company do? It can do nothing." In an article Braw wrote for Foreign Policy in April, Braw said China's difficult business environment is reflected in the fact that political risk underwriters have virtually stopped writing new policies for companies operating in China. Companies signaled how they felt about the changing environment with their plans to move. In May, Forrester Research, which focuses on technology consulting, decided to close its China office. In June, the Gerson Lehrman Group, which had planned to expand its operations in China in 2023, began layoffs. In November 2023, U.S. asset management giant Vanguard Group and the management consulting polling firm Gallup announced they would be shutting down their operations and withdrawing from China. Even companies highly dependent on China's manufacturing sector such as Apple, which launched its Chinese manufacturing operations in 2001, are transferring part of their production lines to countries such as India and Vietnam. According to data released in early November by China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange, foreign direct investments were negative $11.8 billion in the third quarter, the first negative figure since recordkeeping began in 1998.

Mariam, who asked to be referred to by a pseudonym to protect her identity, arrived in Germany six months ago as a student. Back in her native Iran, the 39-year-old engineer had a fully independent life. "Emigrating wasn't an option for me for a long time," she told DW. "My whole life I worked hard and achieved a lot: a degree from a prestigious university, later a well-paid position at a construction company in Tehran," she said. "But in the end I felt it didn't matter how good I was and how hard I tried. I will never manage to get out of this swamp and feel free and happy." Many of her female friends and acquaintances have either left the country or are looking for a way to do so, she said. Mariam herself started by looking for opportunities to study in Germany, where she has many friends. She quickly secured a spot in a master's course at a technical university in southern Germany, which opened the door to a visa. Mariam doesn't want to talk much about politics. What she will say is that "every aspect of our lives in Iran is politicized. Even what I as a woman put on in the morning to leave to the house is a political statement. Every day we are under enormous pressure and stress. We cannot get away from it." "The best experience in the past six months in Germany for me was the feeling of being free and undisturbed to wear what I want, and the conviction that I can build a better future if I make the effort," Mariam said. ‘Emigrating to Germany' Mariam is part of a group called ‘Emigrating to Germany' with almost 40,000 members on the encrypted messaging app Telegram. People post job vacancies for foreign workers in Germany, possibilities to have Iranian degrees recognized and interesting further study programs. A lot of the posts relate to opportunities for medical personnel to emigrate. In the medical sector alone, more than 10,000 workers have left Iran in the past two years, according to official figures. Many have gone to Arab countries, Iranian daily newspaper Shargh reported in May. The country is hemorrhaging general medicine workers, the head of the parliamentary health commission, Hossein Ali Shahriari, has said. Those leaving include professors, doctors and nurses. Overall, the Iran Migration Observatory at the Sharif University of Technology has recorded the departure of around 65,000 well-qualified and highly talented people from Iran each year over the past decade alone. Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, millions of well-educated people have left, mostly due to the difficult economic situation but also due to political repression by the government. The government has not talked publicly about plans on how to stop the wave of emigration. An ever more female brain drain This exodus, particularly of women academics, has intensified in recent years, Bahram Salavti warned already back in early 2022. The director of the Iran Migration Observatory in Tehran pointed to the high level of unemployment among women as the main driver. Official figures show 60% of students in Iran are women, but that share drops to just 15% on the job market. Massive repression of nationwide protests late last year after the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, and a crackdown on women's rights have further fueled female brain drain. "When protests don't lead to a solution and protesters don't see a way to change anything, when they have no prospects for the future, they resort to the strategy of emigration," sociologist Mehrdad Darvishpour underlined. The professor at Mälardalen University in Sweden has been researching migration, including emigration from Iran, for years. "We're seeing a phenomenon of female migration from Iran, even though a progressive feminist movement with worldwide resonance has sprung up there," Darvishpour said. "Iran's rulers have no interest in societal reconciliation. They rely on fear and oppression." "The emigration of female academics will weaken society's capacity for democratic and secular demands. Therefore, those in power will do nothing about it. Their behavior resembles that of an occupying power that ignores the interests of citizens and national resources in favor of maintaining power," he said. Leaving not a choice, but an obligation The Iranian parliament recently ramped up the pressure on women who defy national orders to cover their heads as instructed. After months of discussion, the legislature waved through a law allowing harsher penalties on women who break clothing regulations: up to ten years in prison. The "Bill to Support the Family by Promoting the Culture of Chastity and Hijab" foresees prison sentences of between five and ten years for women who fail to wear a headscarf or dress "inappropriately" in collaboration with "foreign or hostile governments, media, groups or organizations." The law also paves the way for fines for individuals who "promote nudity" or target the mandatory Islamic headscarf (hijab) in the media or on online networks. Business owners whose female employees violate the dress code may be banned from leaving the country in the future. No wonder many Iranian women now sees things the same way as Mariam. "Emigrating was no longer a choice for me," she said. "I was forced to do it."

Deadly police action across Brazil in the past few days has reignited the debate over security forces' use of lethal force. In the latest incident, police killed at least nine people in Rio de Janeiro. A wave of police operations across Brazil has culminated in the deaths of at least 44 people, including nine in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday. State Police said they returned fire in a shoot-out in the  Penha slums complex area, resulting in multiple casualties. "Eleven suspects were wounded" and taken to the hospital, it said. "Nine of them died of their injuries," they said. They added the Rio operation was a response to intelligence on a high-level meeting by gang leaders. Two alleged drug gang leaders known as "Fiel" and "Du Leme" were among those who lost their lives during the Rio operation. Seven rifles, ammunition, and grenades have been seized from the suspects, police said. Two police officers were also wounded and were in stable condition. Deadly raids across Brazil In Sao Paulo state, authorities said Wednesday that 16 alleged criminals have been killed since police launched a massive anti-gang operation on Friday. The operation came after 30-year-old special forces officer Patrick Bastos Reis was shot dead while on patrol in the port city of Guaruja on Thursday. In the northeastern state of Bahia, officials reported the deaths of 19 suspects in three separate cities due to clashes with police since Friday. Use of lethal force questioned In all the cases, authorities said police had returned fire after coming under attack. The operations have sparked a debate about the security forces' reliance on lethal force, particularly in a country where the police killed 6,429 people in 2022 alone. Rio state legislator Dani Monteiro mentioned Wednesday's police operation came just over a year after a raid in the same favela complex left 25 dead. She criticized Rio state Governor Claudio Castro, a security hardliner and ally of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, demanding a halt to his security policies. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's Justice Minister, Flavio Dino, joined the criticism, arguing that the police response "doesn't seem proportional to the crime committed." Lula da Silva, who beat Bolsonaro in last year's vote, has long criticized his predecessor's support of police who kill.

Earlier in 2023, Netflix launched its strategy to block viewers from sharing passwords in a bid to bring in more money. With nearly 6 million new subscribers, the bet seems to have paid off. Netflix reported its biggest surge in paying viewers — nearly 6 million — since the early days of the pandemic, as its strategy to crackdown on password sharing pays off. The media streaming platform added 5.9 million subscribers in the second quarter and now has over 238 million paying patrons, it said in an earnings release on Wednesday. The company has been working to eliminate the practice of shared passwords between viewers since May, in an attempt to improve its profitability. It had earlier said that more than 100 million households were sharing Netflix accounts. "Let's face it, the crackdown on passwords is working," Navellier and Associates chief investment officer Louis Navellier said about Netflix's updated figures. "I was ecstatic with the results; I think they hit the ball out of the park with subscriber growth." First tested in limited countries including the US and Germany, Netflix said it plans to expand this strategy to other markets worldwide. The plan that paid off After the work-from-home induced rise in viewership since 2020, global inflationary pressures reflected a slowdown in the company's earnings since the beginning of 2022. Netflix introduced a low-price option, which included commercials, and started blocking shared passwords, forcing customers who were using them to formally join the platform. Account holders also have the option of paying an extra $8 (Є 7.14) in the US to allow families living in different households to share accounts. Despite initial market skepticism, more Netflix users have finally chosen to pay for the service rather than cancel. The company's revenue rose 2.7% year-on-year in the second quarter, albeit lower than market expectations. Shadow of protests Netflix's quarterly success did not reflect on the stock market as shares fell more than 8% in after-hours trading in the US, partly because of the ongoing writers and actors strike. Netflix, in a letter to its shareholders, warned that "quite a competitive battle" was unfolding against the backdrop of the strikes by the talent unions which threatens to block the otherwise steady pipeline of shows to the streaming service. Analysts believe Netflix is better equipped to weather the storm compared to its peers. "We are constantly at the table negotiating with everyone across the industry," Netflix co-chief executive Ted Sarandos said during an earnings presentation. "We need to get this strike to a conclusion so that we can all move forward." 

The Baloch National Movement (BNM) has condemned the crackdown on people protesting in the Pakistani port city of Gwadar that led to the arrest of nearly 100 people. "BNM strongly condemns the police violence against the peaceful protesters in Gwadar, but simultaneously believes that we must direct our struggle and national strength on the right path instead of wasting it in oblivion," the BNM spokesperson said in a statement. The BNM spokesperson said that Gwadar had been declared the hub of the China-Pakistan Corridor (CPEC) by Islamabad but the people of Balochistan are not only unhappy with these projects and are expressing their displeasure through continuous protests. The BNM spokesperson said that attempts are being made to silence the Baloch through forced disappearances and extra-judicial killings in Gwadar and Balochistan. This rebuke comes as more than 100 people have been arrested in Gwadar as the provincial government struck with an iron fist at protesters and imposed an emergency law that prohibits gathering five or more people, the Dawn newspaper reported. "Continuing the same strategy, Gwadar had been under siege for the last six days, and a crackdown had been going on against the political workers. More than 100 political workers had been arrested from Gwadar and Kech districts and the majority had been either transferred to other cities or forcibly disappeared," the BNM statement added. The Dawn report added that the arrests come a day after the provincial government imposed Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code in Gwadar. "There will be a ban on all kinds of rallies, protests, sit-ins and gatherings of five or more people in the port city of Gwadar," the Balochistan home department said in a statement. Despite the imposition of Section 144, workers and supporters of the Maulana Rehman-led Haq Do Tehreek (HDT) continued their protest, demanding the release of all people and activists of the movement. Tensions continued to simmer in Pakistan's port city of Gwadar with protests continuing after clashes with supporters of the HDT. The clashes occurred this month between locals and security forces in Gwadar as protests against illegal fishing turned violent after some people were arrested in the port city. The provincial government had contacted Jamaat-i-Islami leader Liaquat Baloch to help restore normalcy and resolve the issues that have become a bone of contention between the government and the HDT, the Dawn newspaper reported citing sources. Source: ANI

  Tehran has been voted out of a UN commission on women's rights for "increasingly" suppressing human rights amid nationwide protests. The US, which proposed the vote, said it marked a victory for the protesters. The UN Economic and Social Council on Wednesday voted to oust Iran from the its Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW), citing Tehran's violation of the rights of women and girls.  Iran has been rocked by nationwide anti-government protests, to which it has responded with a bloody crackdown. Why was Iran voted out of the UNCSW? The vote, proposed by the US, passed with a 29-8 vote and 16 abstentions.  Iran's key ally Russia opposed the vote and said it wanted an opinion from UN legal experts on whether the Economic and Social Council was legally able to oust Tehran. The resolution expressed "serious concern" over Tehran's actions since September "to continuously undermine and increasingly suppress the human rights of women and girls." The text decried Iran's "use of lethal force resulting in the deaths of peaceful protesters, including women and girls" and said Tehran's policies "flagrantly" contradicted the mandate of the UNCSW. The 45 members of the UNCSW are elected by the Economic and Social Council for four-year terms. Wednesday's vote removed Iran for the remainder of its 2022-2026 term.  US campaigned to oust Iran US Vice President Kamala Harris said in November that Washington would work with other states to remove Iran from the UNCSW. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also campaigned for Iran's expulsion.  "Today's vote to remove Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women is a victory for those protesting in Iran and all of those who stand with them," Harris wrote on Twitter.  Iran had accused the US of pressuring countries ahead of the vote. Richard Gowan, UN director at the International Crisis Group think tank, said some council members were "queasy about the precedent" of the vote. Gowan wrote on Twitter that the US "forced the issue by tabling the proposal with little warning [and] Iran's actions against protesters left many with little choice but to vote yes."  Iran's crackdown on protests The death of Jina Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, in the custody of Iran's notorious morality police in September triggered a massive wave of protests.  She was accused of having defied the country's strict dress code. Protests or individual public displays of defiance in the aftermath often involved young women and girls removing their headscarves in public. The demonstrations against the Iranian regime have continued, despite police responding with force and the judiciary handing down death sentences to protesters.  Two protesters have so far been executed, according to Tehran, and more face the death penalty. Iran's crackdown on protests The death of Jina Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, in the custody of Iran's notorious morality police in September triggered a massive wave of protests.  She was accused of having defied the country's strict dress code. Protests or individual public displays of defiance in the aftermath often involved young women and girls removing their headscarves in public. The demonstrations against the Iranian regime have continued, despite police responding with force and the judiciary handing down death sentences to protesters.  Two protesters have so far been executed, according to Tehran, and more face the death penalty. 

Three years ago, a protest movement began in Hong Kong against an extradition bill, which led to an authoritarian response from Beijing that would forever transform the city and its people. Hong Kongers around the world are remembering the third anniversary of protests in 2019, which were sparked by opposition to a controversial extradition bill but quickly morphed into a wide-scale movement opposing policies of the city’s pro-Beijing government. On June 12, thousands of people gathered in London and chanted the iconic protest slogan Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times. In Canada’s Vancouver, hundreds of demonstrators re-enacted clashes between protesters and police that took place on June 12, 2019. Similar protests also took place in dozens of cities in the United States, Australia, Japan and Taiwan. Participants chanted slogans and sang songs that are now banned in Hong Kong under a national security law that was imposed to crack down on demonstrations. Hong Kong’s brand used to be colored by lots of nonviolent and mass-scale protests, but this character vanished when authorities used the national security law and coronavirus-related measures to crack down on nonviolent protests, said Eric Lai, a Hong Kong law fellow at the Georgetown Center for Asian Law. Street protests and nonviolent actions used to be the more effective ways for Hong Kong people to resist unfavorable policies or laws, but now they can no longer do that, he told DW. Hong Kong civil society changed forever In 2019, several mass-scale protests began against an extradition bill proposed by the Hong Kong government that would have allowed fugitives to be transferred to mainland China for prosecution, essentially bypassing Hong Kong’s judicial independence. Protests sparked by the bill went on for months, with violent clashes between frontline protesters and riot police. The protests led to the arrest of more than 10,000 people, and Hong Kong’s police force was repeatedly accused of using excessive force against protesters. The bill was scrapped in October 2019. Beijing handed down the national security law to Hong Kong in July 2020, criminalizing any acts of secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign powers. Since then, opposition lawmakers have been removed from the legislative council, several pro-democracy media outlets have been forced to shut down, and more than 100 activists and opposition figures have been arrested. During her appearance on a local radio program last Saturday, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam insisted that she has no regrets for trying to pass the extradition bill. I’ve never expressed any regret over pushing for the extradition bill nor have I thought the government had done anything wrong in this regard, she said, according to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post. Lam will leave her post in a few weeks, to be replaced by John Lee, a former security chief who is expected to extend hardline policies. It is expected that when John Lee becomes Hong Kong’s new chief executive, he will introduce more censorship laws or policies to regulate different aspects of society while eliminating any potential opposition forces in Hong Kong, said Lai. Maggie Shum, a researcher at the Global Policy Initiative at the University of Notre Dame, told DW more hardline policies from China can be expected to emerge in Hong Kong. Beijing is sending a signal that the framework will concentrate on national security. That’s probably what Hong Kong will become in the future, she told DW. They will forcefully mold an identity and if people don’t agree with the Chinese patriotic identity, they will be hit with a baton, said Shum. That’s the continuation of the hardline repression that started during the protest. The long arm of Beijing Lai from Georgetown told DW that the Chinese government had been threatened by the mass-mobilization in 2019, and its response was to exert more control over Hong Kong’s semi-autonomous legal system. The greatest threat to Beijing at the time was nonviolent mobilizations in Hong Kong, including the million people’s march or people’s attempt to carry out advocacy overseas in a peaceful and nonviolent manner, he said. Before the national security law was imposed, there were no effective means to stop nonviolent protests abroad. It was quite clear that the law has a strong focus on the citizens nonviolent activities, including local or overseas peaceful rallies or advocacy, he added. There is definitely fear, especially the way they targeted big media companies like Apple Daily and Stand News, said Maggie Shum. It’s not just the law but also the apparatus that comes around the law, she added. Apart from cracking down on all aspects of Hong Kong’s civil society, Shum said that the national security law also aims at cutting off the connection between the diaspora community and Hong Kong. At the beginning of the protest, a lot of overseas Hong Kongers helped with crowdfunding or sending different supplies back to the city, she said. Others focused on lobbying to bolster the movement from outside of Hong Kong. Since the national security law could target someone outside of Hong Kong, it really sends a chilling effect on the diaspora community. The organizers of diaspora organizations find it harder to connect with Hong Kong because people are afraid to talk or make connections, she added. In an interview with US network CNBC last week, Carrie Lam said she thinks the implementation of the national security law, as well as the reformation of the electoral system, are absolutely necessary to ensure Hong Kong’s continuous stability and prosperity.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir alleged that the government is set for crackdown on people centering the lockdown. He said that the government is arresting his party and other associate organization’s leaders and activists after filing false cases against their names. He said this while participating a virtual press briefing on Thursday. Mirza Fakhrul said, drives are going on to arrest the leaders and activists of BNP and its associate bodies in this Ramadan and pandemic period by taking opportunity of lockdown. The government has taken its aim to perform repression on general people including the leaders and workers of political parties. The prime target of the government is to make the country BNP less. He said, this government has to remain in power by filing cases, arrest, attack and repression. For that reason they are doing the heinous work in this holy month of Ramadan. The BNP Secretary General said, there is no democracy in the country. This government does not represent the people. They have taken position against the people. They have turned the country into an authoritarian state based on repression. About BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia he said, corona infected Chairperson is doing well at the moment by the grace of Allah. We hope by the blessings of the countrymen she will recover soon. AH