'Hong Kong plunges into repression still further', Benedict Rogers
Authorities enhancing Orwellian surveillance state, crushing whatever space for independent thought may remain
Banning books and monitoring communications are the hallmarks of a police state. Over the past six years, Hong Kong has spiralled from being one of Asia’s freest and most open cities to becoming one of its most repressive dictatorships, in which every freedom of expression, assembly, and association has been torn up and trampled on.
More than 1,900 people have been jailed on political charges since 2019, and, since the imposition by Beijing of a draconian National Security Law in the city in 2020, newspapers have been forced to shut down, and pro-democracy political parties, trade unions, and civil society organizations have closed.
People in Hong Kong have to be mindful of what colours they wear, what songs they sing, and what posts on social media they like or share.
Last week, three key developments took the plunge into repression still further.
First, the Hong Kong authorities announced plans for the police to demand mobile phone or computer passwords from anyone suspected of violating the National Security Law. Those who refuse could face up to a year in prison. It includes people in transit through Hong Kong. The US Consulate issued a travel advisory to its citizens.
Second, Hong Kong’s largest teachers’ union shut down after 53 years in existence. The Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union (HKPTU) – which had been at the forefront of the democracy movement – was dissolved. It represented ninety per cent of Hong Kong’s teachers, and was one of the last bastions of democracy in the city.
And third, one of Hong Kong’s last remaining independent bookshops was raided, and the owner and three of his staff were arrested. Book Punch’s proprietor Pong Yat-ming and his staff were accused of “knowingly selling seditious publications” and could face up to seven years in jail.
Among the books deemed to be illegal was Mark Clifford’s biography of Jimmy Lai, titled The Troublemaker. Both the author and the subject of this book are friends of mine. I have recommended it to many. But in Hong Kong, to sell it – and presumably therefore to buy and read it – is a crime.
I do not know whether my own book, The China Nexus: Thirty Years in and around the Chinese Communist Party’s Tyranny, which has two chapters on Hong Kong, is also on the prohibited seditious list, but it is highly likely – after all, it is available in Chinese, published in Taiwan.
Indeed, when I look at my bookshelves at home in London, they resemble a crime scene under Hong Kong’s National Security Law. They are littered with banned, “subversive” books.
By its actions, the Hong Kong authorities are enhancing the Orwellian surveillance state and crushing whatever last remnants of space for independent thought that may remain.
All this is happening against the backdrop of intensifying and increasing abuse and mistreatment in Hong Kong’s prisons. A new report by the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation (CFHK), titled ‘We Were Made to Suffer’: Systematic Abuse and Political Control Inside Hong Kong’s Prisons, reveals a prison system in which abuse is normalised, dissent suppressed, and violence is increasingly routine.
It used to be that Hong Kong’s jails – like Hong Kong’s police – were not dissimilar to those in most Western democracies. While not perfect, the police were generally trusted. And while no one anywhere wants to be locked up, broadly speaking, prisoners in Hong Kong were denied their liberties but not their basic rights.
However, that is no longer the case.
According to the CFHK’s new report, based on in-depth interviews with former prisoners, political detainees are singled out for round-the-clock monitoring, intrusive searches, and indoctrination classes.
Sexual and physical violence, medical neglect, unsanitary conditions, and confiscation of correspondence with loved ones are now routine.
Restrictions on access to religious materials and family visits, incarceration in conditions of extreme heat and squalid conditions, and a lack of access to independent complaint mechanisms are commonplace.
And – crucially – solitary confinement is now a routine form of punishment.
Under international norms outlined in the United Nations Mandela Rules – in memory of South Africa’s Nelson Mandela – solitary confinement is defined as more than 22 hours a day without meaningful human contact.
And it should only ever be used in “exceptional circumstances as a last resort for as short a time as possible.” It should never be more than 15 days – anything more is considered “prolonged solitary confinement,” which is considered cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.
Prominent media entrepreneur and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai – who has been in prison for more than five years and was sentenced last month to 20 years – has been held in solitary confinement for most of his incarceration so far. Aged 78 and in deteriorating health, unless he is freed soon, Lai will die alone in prison.
So, as Beijing’s thuggish regime in Hong Kong tightens the noose further, remember the fate that awaits those targeted in this crackdown. A fate that entails isolation, indoctrination, and physical and mental intrusion.
According to testimonies in the CFHK report, sexual violence in Hong Kong’s prisons happens “all the time.” The details are graphic and deeply disturbing, involving “anal lacerations … rectal perforation” resulting in “permanent medical needs and disability.”
The international community must not look the other way. While the world’s attention is understandably on Iran right now, and the continuing conflict in Ukraine and the crisis in Gaza, we must not forget the slow-burning turning of the screws in Hong Kong.
As we know from history, when a book is banned, a trade union shut down, or the phone is tapped, it is not only information or ideas that are repressed. It is the minds, hearts, souls, lives, and futures of human beings that may be destroyed.
So democratic governments around the world must demand access to Hong Kong’s prisons for independent monitors, implement targeted Magnitsky-style sanctions against those responsible for systematic abuse, and condemn Hong Kong’s barbaric violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.
The international community should study the CFHK report in detail and act upon its recommendations.
This article was Published in UCA News on 30 March 2026.
Photo: 立場新聞, Copyrighted free use, via Wikimedia Commons