The State Department expressed serious concerns about the continued deterioration of freedoms in Hong Kong, telling Beijing to cease its “politically-motivated arrests” and release …
The State Department expressed serious concerns about the continued deterioration of freedoms in Hong Kong, telling Beijing to cease its “politically-motivated arrests” and release the “unjustly detained” in the regime’s ever-expanding clampdown. “We note in particular the increase in politically-motivated prosecutions, including through the National Security Law, targeting Hong Kong’s teachers, labor unions, lawyers, journalists, health care workers, student unions, and individual citizens,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement. “We again call on the Beijing and Hong Kong authorities to release those unjustly detained and cease their crackdown on peaceful civil society organizations,” he added. Price’s remarks came as Beijing quickened its steps to roll back the territory’s freedoms, with observers noting that Hong Kong is on track to turn into just another Chinese city. Civil society groups in Hong Kong have been dissolving in quick succession under Beijing-imposed national security law that carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
