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submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

crosspostato da: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/35703805

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[Op-ed by Benedict Rogers, Senior Director of Fortify Rights and a co-founder and trustee of Hong Kong Watch.]

Dictatorships use solitary confinement as a form of torture, designed to break the prisoner’s spirit. Under international law, “prolonged solitary confinement” is defined as exceeding 15 days.

British citizen and 77 year-old media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai, in jail in Hong Kong, has now exceeded 1,600 days in solitary confinement, yet has committed no crime.

He has already served several prison sentences on multiple trumped-up charges, including 13 months for lighting a candle and saying a prayer at a vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

[...]

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[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Quick reminder that the Hong Kong National Security Law imposed by Beijing on 30 June 2020 is a breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, and a demonstration of China breaking its international commitments.

Addition:

Hong Kong’s Freedoms: What China Promised and How It’s Cracking Down -- [Last update March 2024]

  • Before the British government handed over Hong Kong in 1997, China agreed to allow the region considerable political autonomy for fifty years under a framework known as “one country, two systems.”
  • In recent years, Beijing has cracked down on Hong Kong’s freedoms, stoking mass protests in the city and drawing international criticism.
  • Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020 that gave it broad new powers to punish critics and silence dissenters, which has fundamentally altered life for Hong Kongers.
[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Quick reminder that the Sino-British Joint Declaration has been deemed void by China since 2014, the UK insisting it remains in effect is a demonstration of the british government not realizing it isn't an empire anymore and has no ability to determine how a foreign state administers it's sovereign territory

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Can you imagine Spain trying to hold the US accountable for every single law that might effect Puerto Rico, especially national security laws that are designed to ensure the continued stability of the country against potential meddling from Spain?

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Aww the british are mad that they have no authority over china anymore, how sad.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Dictatorships use solitary confinement as a form of torture

Solitary confinement is a form of torture. It's torture when China does it, it's torture when the USA does it. The difference isn't which country is a dictatorship. The difference is that the USA does it to infants and children after ripping them away from their parents who are seeking asylum and does it to prisoners when their prison guards have their ego bruised, while China is using it on a literal enemy of the state trained and funded by a foreign government with a long history of being an adversary.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

What makes him an 'enemy of the state'? What crime did he commit? There is absolutely nothing.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

He collaborated with war Hawks in the USA like Bolton and Pompeo as part of his campaign as a British national to fight against the return of Hong Kong to the governance of China, spread anti-chinese propaganda, and politically organizing against the state.

That's all that's needed. If a British national who lived in California and built up relationships with Russian and Iranian leaders was organizing politically to have California secede from the USA you can be damned sure that person would be in prison.

[-] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago

I get that you dislike China, but sedition is a crime everywhere.

[-] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago

conspiring with the US government against China

[-] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago

These are empty words. What exactly did he do?

If you just parrot propaganda, I won't respond anymore.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

he had private meetings with Pence, Pompeo, and Bolton while being a prominent proponent of a protest movement heavily boosted and funded by states hostile to China

an analogue would be a rich businessman affiliated with the Scottish independence movement meeting with Mishustin, Lavrov, and Belousov

If you just parrot propaganda, I won’t respond anymore.

this is very ironic

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

He is a media owner, likely funded by NED/USAID, advocating for sedition. Why do you play dumb?

[-] [email protected] -1 points 1 day ago

This article that you posted is you parroting propaganda. Try not to immediately believe everything Western media tells you and try not to immediately dismiss anything that runs counter to the Western propaganda line.

this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
34 points (92.5% liked)

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