China’s Great Firewall looms over HK

Bloomberg

Hong Kong, already grappling with tightened policing to rein in widespread protests that followed last year’s proposed extradition bill, is now bracing for the prospect of stricter digital controls — ones that would curtail free speech, communications and the ability to organise and turn the city of
7 million into a surveillance state that more closely resembles China.
In recent years, law enforcement has deployed tens of
thousands of closed-circuit television cameras in Hong Kong’s streets and shopping malls, used broad warrants to crack into the mobile phones of protesters, and deployed facial recognition software that can identify activists in massive crowds.
Now, residents and activists worry that proposed national security legislation will further encroach on civil liberties, as part of a continuing effort by Beijing to exert its influence over the former British colony.
Residents have already watched with concern past efforts to curb online speech. A similar bill proposed and later withdrawn in 2003 would have punished those who published seditious material with up to seven years in prison.
There are few details of what is in this imminent legislation, which Chief Executive Carrie Lam said in a statement last month would “only target acts of secession, subverting state power and organising and carrying out terrorist activities.”
Expected to be passed in the coming weeks, it would also outlaw foreign interference in Hong Kong’s affairs.
Asked if the legislation would bring China’s Great Firewall with it, a spokesperson for the government said: “All the basic rights and freedoms legitimately enjoyed by Hong Kong residents will remain intact.
The vast majority of Hong Kong people who abide by the law and do not participate in acts or activities that undermine national security will not be affected.”
But Hong Kong’s head of security, John Lee, presented a more ominous view.