Hong Kong lawyers are the next target of Xi’s security law
Veteran human rights lawyer Michael Vidler decided it was too dangerous to work in Hong Kong the moment a judge designated to handle national security law cases implied offering legal support to democracy activists could be a crime.
Judge Stanley Chan cited a contact card naming two law firms, including Vidler’s, as evidence of how organized the 2019 anti-government camp was in his judgment for an unlawful assembly conviction earlier this year. As to whether the lawyers named were “accomplices” to that crime, Chan said he couldn’t comment.
“It was deeply disturbing for me as a lawyer to be, in essence, accused of inciting a crime because a potential client had a piece of paper on him which listed my firm as a source of legal advice and assistance,” said Vidler, who previously defended now-jailed democracy activist Joshua Wong and won a landmark appeal that recognized spousal visas for same sex couples.
“There was no longer space for my firm to continue its public interest litigation work,” he added, “without an increasing risk of serious adverse consequences for my team and myself.”
Vidler left Hong Kong in May after almost two decades working in the former British colony, and closed his law firm shortly after. His experience reflects growing concern that Hong Kong’s rule of law, for decades a foundational pillar of its standing as an international financial center, is becoming more influenced by the mainland where the Communist Party controls the courts.
A government spokesperson said Hong Kong’s rule of law remained “solid and robust” after the security legislation Beijing imposed on the city in June 2020, crediting it for restoring a “peaceful and stable environment.” The spokesman said Chan made his comments outside the context of a national security law case, and denied that he suggested a lawyer could be criminally liable for simply providing legal services.
Authorities have ramped up pressure on lawyers who’ve defended some of the 10,000 protesters arrested during the 2019 unrest. Prominent barrister Margaret Ng was arrested over her work with a fund providing financial aid to activists, with police reporting other lawyers to their professional bodies for misconduct unearthed in that investigation. She has denied the charges and a court hearing is set for Sept. 19.
Former Hong Kong Bar Association chief and human rights lawyer Paul Harris left the city in March after being questioned by national security police.
“Any degradation of Hong Kong’s strong rule-of-law tradition by hollowing out rule-of-law-related institutions will not be favorable to the security of international investments and finance,” said Michael Davis, a professor of law and international affairs at O.P. Jindal Global University in India, and former law professor at the University of Hong Kong. “Presumably, investors who carry on despite these growing limitations will demand a higher premium on their investments as associated with higher risks.”
The changes strike at a central pillar of China’s 50-year promise to maintain Hong Kong’s liberal institutions and capitalist markets until at least 2047 under a framework called “one country, two systems.” The city will celebrate the halfway mark of that guarantee on July 1, in a ceremony that could be attended by President Xi Jinping.
Lawyers in Hong Kong are operating in an environment where many are debating whether even recognizing the accomplishments of the accused could run afoul of the security law. The stakes are high, since authorities haven’t dropped charges against any of the at least 114 people so far prosecuted as part of national security cases.
Keith Richburg, head of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong, said the board suspended its longstanding Human Rights Press Awards earlier this year after lawyers advised him the police would probably investigate the organization for “aiding, promoting or celebrating sedition,” according to a recording of a meeting with local journalists to explain the decision. The winners included Stand News, which shut down in December after police arrested seven people connected to the publication on a colonial-era sedition law.
“You won’t get a fair hearing before an NSL judge,” Richburg said a lawyer told him, referring to the national security law.
“How many people arrested on the sedition or national security law have gotten off?” he added. “You think they’re getting a fair trial in Hong Kong and China? Arresting people means that you’re guilty.” Richburg declined to comment further.
The Society of Publishers in Asia, which is also based in Hong Kong, last week gave out a human rights reporting award to Chinese-language publication Ming Pao for a series on the legal risks involved in commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. It’s unclear if Stand News submitted entries for the SOPA awards. SOPA didn’t respond to questions.
Bloomberg is currently represented on the board the FCCHK, and the editorial committee of SOPA.
The national security law altered the city’s legal system in several ways: It enabled the city’s leader to choose which judges in the city can handle security law cases, diminishing the impartiality and independence of the judiciary, and allowed certain cases to be tried across the border, in vaguely defined circumstances — a power yet to be exercised.