Messengers of fear harass Hong Kong civil society

A campaign of threats, direct or veiled, anonymous or by mysterious messengers, strikes fear into Hong Kong’s civil society as China crushes the city’s pro-democracy movement.

This constant harassment led numerous organizations to cease their activities on their own initiative, without the authorities having to suffer the political attrition of prohibiting them.

Unlike mainland China, Hong Kong had for decades a vibrant presence of human rights organizations, an active trade union movement and a mobilized civil society enjoying freedom of expression.

But a national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020 to stamp out dissent hit that civil society hard, raising fears that crimes loosely defined by the law could be used against them.

More than 50 civil society groups, dedicated to issues ranging from labor rights to education, had to cease their activities due to national security arrests.

Many of the closures came after its staff faced a veiled campaign of threats and intimidation, according to five people with knowledge of the matter consulted by AFP.

The warnings usually come through anonymous phone calls or messages from so-called “intermediaries”, who adopt a conversational tone while revealing information about the personal life of each recipient. Some do it face to face.

Mario, a veteran NGO worker (who resorted to a pseudonym for security reasons), said his colleagues received puzzling messages from various intermediaries last summer.

“They tell you different stories but at some point in the conversation they reach the same conclusion: you have to close”, he told AFP.

A month after that first contact, Mario’s organization decided to close.

“Respect for civil society”

In recent years, Hong Kong civil society groups have been branded as “anti china elements” by authorities and state media.

Beijing has made it clear that it considers them part of the 2019 pro-democracy protests, which saw large mobilizations and frequent clashes with the police.

The unclear language of the national security law, coupled with messages from intermediaries, make the jail threats for people like Mario all too real.

“All the normal things that civil society did in the last three decades are now subject to political retaliation”, he commented.

Among the organizations that have shut down are the city’s largest trade union and Amnesty International, as well as the Hong Kong Alliance, which used to organize the annual vigil for the victims of the 1989 Beijing Tiananmen Square massacre in China.

The head of the Hong Kong government, Carrie Lam, denied that there is a campaign against the organization, and insists that “we respect civil society.”

The Chinese Communist Party and its liaison office in Hong Kong have accused some groups of breaking the law and have said that the closure of these entities “it is by your own decision”.

Both the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and its offices in Hong Kong and Macau did not respond to requests for comment.

new security

Under the principle of “one country, two systems” that Beijing accepted before taking control of the city from the British in 1997, Hong Kong could maintain freedoms and autonomy for 50 years.

That implied that the city could have its own police force with its own laws.

But the national security law changed everything, breaking down the legal barriers that existed between Hong Kong and Beijing.

The law includes a clause allowing Chinese security apparatuses to operate openly in Hong Kong.

Shortly after the law came into force, Chinese security authorities stationed their staff in a hotel to investigate possible threats against China.

The middlemen are seen as an extension of this new police force, according to two sources who told AFP they contacted them directly.

Both described meetings in a public company room with a Cantonese-speaking man who claimed to be a Chinese security agent.

One of the sources said the intermediary asked him what he thought about shutting down his group, citing several possible security law violations.

“At first I thought it would be absurd to dissolve the group when we didn’t know what offenses we had committed.” he told AFP. “But when he named several specific charges, we started to worry.”, he added.

The messages contain personal information, according to the sources, with details of their relatives and daily habits.

Intimidation

Beijing maintains a Liaison Office in Hong Kong, which has played an increasingly important role in recent years, going so far as to call local politicians to receive information from Chinese officials.

With opposition figures, Beijing preferred to use middlemen, according to Ted Hui, a former opposition lawmaker now based in Australia.

Their meetings were common, usually as a way to gather information for the authorities, until a year after the 2019 protests, Hui said.

“But after the security law went into effect, it became an intimidation approach… So under the table, they can send these middlemen to say what the government can’t say openly.”, he added.

More than 160 people have been detained under the national security law, mostly opposition politicians, journalists and activists.

Against the background of the arrests, the whispering campaign has been an effective tool to shut down organizations critical of the government.

“We have so little experience that many of us decided to close due to threats”, admitted Connie, from a human rights organization, who says she received a call from an unknown person who gave her a deadline to resign.

Oliver, also involved in human rights, said he received a text message from someone warning him that he could be arrested.

After the closure of so many other groups, Oliver decided to take the threat seriously and close down.