The EU report highlighted the impact the National Security law was having on the city. Photo: Sun Yeung The EU report highlighted the impact the National Security law was having on the city. Photo: Sun Yeung

The European Union has criticised the “continuing erosion of Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and of rights and freedoms that were meant to be protected until at least 2047”, in an annual report released on Friday.

The report for 2022 described at length the “far-reaching implementation of the national security law”, which it said had encroached on academic and media freedom, rights of assembly and association, and “cast doubt on the state of the rule of law in Hong Kong – a cornerstone of its economic success”.

It summarised the major events in Hong Kong last year, including the unchallenged appointment of John Lee Ka-chiu as chief executive in the “patriots-only” election, the 25th anniversary of the handover from Britain, the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping, and the Covid-19 restrictions which saw “around 10 per cent of EU nationals” abandon the city.

But it was dominated by the roll-out of the security law, imposed by Beijing in July 2020, which has led to hundreds of arrests, the annihilation of political opposition, and a crackdown on many forms of expression and dissent

The Hong Kong government issued a lengthy response late on Friday, urging the EU to “recognise the facts and abide by international law” and to “immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs, which are purely China’s internal affairs”.

“Any foreign country or external force that slanders Hong Kong’s situation and tries to undermine Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability will only do so on its own accord. It will never succeed,” the statement read.

The EU pointed to the “intensification” of trials under the national security law, which by the end of last year had led to the arrest of 236 people, some “held in custody since January 2021, in some cases in solitary confinement”, the detention of minors, and the invocation of a colonial era sedition law.

The report says that on November 1, an EU national was arrested under the sedition law. “At a later stage, the authorities claimed that the man was a Chinese national and that, therefore, he was not allowed consular assistance,” it said.

The detainee is believed to be Portuguese national Joseph John, also known as Wong Kin-chung, who was arrested for “allegedly publishing seditious articles online disparaging Beijing and local authorities”. The EU confirmed he is still being detained

The report noted the high-profile cases of activist lawyer Chow Hang-tung, media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and the arrests of those involved in the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund – former lawmaker Cyd Ho Sau-lan, singer Denise Ho Wan-see, scholar Hui Po-keung, barrister Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, 92 year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun and the fund’s secretary Sze Ching-wee.

“At the time of his arrest, Hui was leaving the city to take up a teaching post at a university in the EU,” the report said.

It described the purging of critical voices in the Law Society and Bar Association as “a negative impact on key parts of the legal community”.

It noted the ongoing barriers to freedom of assembly, including the fining of attendees at a small protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the continued outlawing of commemorations of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.

Academics have been targeted by pro-Beijing media for “their perceived political stances, forcing some of them to leave their positions”.

“In one case, the government rejected a foreign researcher’s visa application and neither the scholar nor the school was officially informed about the reasons behind this refusal,” the EU said, adding that political scientists had postponed sensitive research and some universities closed these departments altogether and removed human rights from the curriculum

It pointed to the increasingly long-arm of the security law, including the blocking of the Hong Kong Watch website and a police warning issued to the same group.

The report also said exiled members of civil society had started receiving warnings from authorities and were blocked from accessing Hong Kong-based assets.

The EU also documented an increasingly harsh media environment. As well as the shuttering of outlets such as Citizen News and Factwire, editors of the previously closed Stand News faced sedition charges, and the Foreign Correspondents’ Club cancelled its annual human rights reporting awards, citing “legal red lines”.

Instances of self-censorship cited by the bloc included a TV channel “apologising after receiving complaints that its reports ‘incited hatred’.”

The journalist in question had asked government officials “about the procedure for handling complaints against mainland medical professionals who came to Hong Kong to assist in controlling the pandemic”.

The Hong Kong government statement said the “so-called report has repeatedly maliciously slandered” the security law. It accused the EU of “turning a blind eye to the fact that the implementation of the [law] has brought the lives and economic activities of Hong Kong citizens back to normal and the business environment has resumed”.

Despite all this, the EU is continuing to ramp up its engagement with the Hong Kong government this year. Last week, the bloc’s top diplomat in the city Thomas Gnocchi joined other EU consuls general at a lunch hosted by the chief executive

Lee used the lunch to pitch Hong Kong as “the ideal gateway between East and West” for companies seeking to expand in the region.

Just two months earlier, the European Parliament adopted by a landslide a motion calling for sanctions on Lee over the “alarming deterioration” of fundamental freedoms in the city.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong said the resolution was a “despicable act” and a “publicity stunt”.

But elsewhere in Brussels, Hong Kong has largely fallen off the agenda. It has not been an agenda item at leaders’ or foreign ministers’ summits since early 2021, when the bloc failed to implement new measures on Hong Kong in response to the security law after being blocked by Hungary.

Previous measures adopted by foreign ministers in 2020 included monitoring national security law trials in Hong Kong courts, ramping up engagement with civil society, and entering into no new negotiations with the Hong Kong government.

The report says that the EU’s office and its member states in Hong Kong conducted 71 trial observations in 2022, however sources said that not all members have stepped up to the plate.

One Brussels source told the Post that Hungary, Romania, Finland, Poland, Greece, Spain and Portugal have a diplomatic presence in the city but have been “laggards” on trial observations