Hong Kong Government Allocates $1 Billion for National Security Budget Without Providing Any Details
On Feb. 24, the Hong Kong government announced a new budget for fiscal year 2021–2022, allocating about $1 billion (HK$8 billion) for national security expenditures, despite facing a huge deficit.
This is the first time that national security expenditures appeared in the Hong Kong government’s budget since Beijing implemented the national security law at the end of June last year. However, the Hong Kong government did not provide any details of the budget.
Following the resignation of Hong Kong’s democratic legislators in November last year, the financial secretary of Hong Kong, Paul Chan Mo-po, announced the 2021 budget for the first time in the parliament led by the pro-Beijing establishment on Feb. 24.
HK Announces Oath Requirement for Elected Officials, Paving Way for More Opposition Disqualifications
Posted by John Chan | Feb 23, 2021
The Hong Kong government has introduced a bill that will grant it the power to disqualify elected officials for failing to pledge loyalty, as the authorities define it, to the HKSAR or for betraying their oath of office. The proposal paves the way for the removal of pro-democracy District Councillors, local representatives who were elected to office in landslide victories in the fall of 2019. The changes came one day after Xia Baolong, Beijing’s director of Hong Kong and Macau Affairs, declared in a strongly worded speech that Hong Kong must be ruled by “patriots,” echoing words from Xi Jinping earlier this month. Xia’s speech signalled that even more electoral reforms were to be expected, with media reports suggesting possible changes to the composition of the 1,200 person Chief Executive Election Committee.
Saturday, 13 Feb 2021 08:30 PM MYT
The social audio app Clubhouse is pictured near a star on the Chinese flag in this illustration picture taken February 8, 2021. Reuters pic
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SHANGHAI, Feb 13 US audio app Clubhouse said it is reviewing its data protection practices, after a report by the Stanford Internet Observatory said it contained security flaws that left users’ data vulnerable to access by the Chinese government.
The app said in a response to the study, published by the research group at Stanford University, that while it had opted not to make the app available in China, some people had found a workaround to download the app which meant the conversations they were a part of could be transmitted via Chinese servers.
10. Hong Kong government civil servants
The CCP identifies hostile forces in each of these sectors and collects detailed data on each person. Based on the collection of large amounts of personal data, specific rosters are compiled to identify who can be won over, who can be neutralized, and who must be attacked.
The CCP requires that everyone with a higher profile in a given sector be lined up (this is United Front jargon of the Chinese Communist Party, which means listing names by category) according to his or her political status as an enemy, a friend, or one of the CCP s own people, and then implement different united front policies accordingly.