Black Lives Matter protests offer an opportunity for Hong Kong to examine police attitudes to the city’s racial minorities

The 2009 police killing of a Nepalese man shocked Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities, who have long complained of racial profiling

An inquiry into institutional racism is long overdue. The government must start to remedy any racial injustices in the community

Justin Bong-Kwan Published: 25 Jun, 2020


A protester stands in front of Hong Kong’s largest mosque, Kowloon Mosque, and holds a banner to show support for ethnic minorities last October, after a police cannon sprayed blue dye on the mosque and people outside. Photo: Raquel Carvalho

On June 7, demonstrators  marched to the US Consulate in Hong Kong in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. The movement is a protest over police brutality against African Americans and was sparked by the recent  death of George Floyd.

While some may perceive the movement as a response to an American problem, racial inequality is not unique to any particular part of the world. Having said that, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison  stirred up controversy when he remarked that “There's no need to import things happening in other countries here to Australia,” since “Australia is not the United States”.

In these circumstances, is it possible that Hong Kong has its own systemic injustices to address? In particular, do the city’s ethnic minorities  experience racial discrimination from the police?

Racial inequality is a multifaceted issue, and its operation and impact are largely contextual. It follows that an effective anti-discrimination strategy requires gaining a thorough understanding of how racial inequality affects the target community. Otherwise, attempts at tackling potential problems would be mere shots in the dark.

There must be more than a peripheral survey of the treatment of ethnic minorities in policing. For instance, the 1999 Macpherson Report in Britain was commissioned to inquire into matters arising from how the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence was handled. It concluded that institutional racism extended beyond the police service, and that such collective failure was apparent in Britain’s criminal justice system.


Black Lives Matter protests held across Asia

Inquiries such as the Macpherson Report are vital in identifying discriminatory practices that may exist. Unfortunately, there has not been a similar undertaking in the context of Hong Kong.

The lack of relevant data on the city’s police practices in this regard was made apparent in the  case of Singh Arjun vs Secretary for Justice, in which a locally born Punjabi boy alleged that he was subject to racial discrimination by the police. Referring to the Macpherson Report, the court observed that: “Corresponding studies have not been conducted of the Hong Kong Police.”

In 2010, the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau issued the
Administrative Guidelines on Promotion of Racial Equality as general guidance for public authorities – including the police force – to implement measures promoting racial equality. Nevertheless, an information gap between public policy and practice persists.

The presence of this lacuna is vexing, to say the least.

Covid-19 shows up Hong Kong’s insensitivity to ethnic minorities
31 May 2020

Ethnic minorities in Hong Kong have complained of racial profiling by the police. In 2009, Nepalese man Limbu Dil Bahadur was fatally shot by a police officer purportedly acting in self-defence.

The incident caused widespread concern among the city’s ethnic minority communities over police treatment of ethnic minorities. In a letter to then police commissioner
Tang King-shing, a group of ethnic minority residents said they were “feeling less and less secure” following the incident.

A coroner’s inquest into Limbu’s death delivered a verdict of lawful killing. In the subsequent judicial review application, the Court of First Instance noted: “The jury’s conclusion of lawful killing without any recommendation implies that the jury did not believe that any systemic defect in [the police officer]’s training had led to Limbu’s death.”

In the absence of a comprehensive review of other police practices, it is questionable whether the same belief can be safely held for all police practices.

Nevertheless, the reality is that a segment of Hong Kong society feels unsafe – is this not a cause célèbre to look into the matter? In the event that inequality is being perpetuated by the public authorities, the government has a responsibility to identify such injustices and remedy them promptly. It is important that the government recognises that it has this role.

Indeed, the potential for social progress is arguably limited unless there is a resolve to effect change. German Chancellor Angela Merkel pointed out: “Racism has always been present, but sadly [Germany] also [has] this [problem]. We should first sweep in front of our own door.”


Similarly, the Black Lives Matter movement should be a wake-up call for the Hong Kong government to be more proactive in investigating and addressing the city’s racial inequalities.


Justin Bong-Kwan is a practising barrister based in Hong Kong and a freelance writer.
Ethnic minorities in Hong Kong

‘Limited food, no wages’: domestic workers struggle amid quarantine in Hong Kong

Some workers say their employers are not paying them or giving them enough to eat during the mandatory coronavirus quarantine, according to rights groups

With thousands of other workers arriving soon, activists urge the city to provide health advice in multiple languages and set up a complaints channel for Covid-related issues
Raquel Carvalho Published: 21 Jun, 2020

Foreign domestic workers seen in Central, Hong Kong. 

File photo: SCMP / Jonathan Wong

VIDEO'S AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE

When Gloria – not her real name – returned to Hong Kong from the Philippines late last month, she had to do a mandatory quarantine imposed by the government to combat the coronavirus pandemic. While her employer put her in a hotel, those 14 days were all but easy.

“When my boss told me about doing the quarantine in a hotel, I asked her who would pay the expenses. She said she would. But then she told me to bring some biscuits and noodles,” says Gloria, who was under lockdown in the Philippines for about two months.

“Of course I could not bring enough food for 14 days. After a few days, she gave me one lunch and nothing else,” the domestic worker says.

Gloria has worked for the same employer for more than four years, but she ended up having to turn to a support group that provided her with meals. “Luckily, there are many people here who are willing to help,” she says.

Other than having limited access to food, Gloria, who is in her 30s, also did not receive her salary during those two weeks. Yet, she decided not to complain to the consulate or the Labour Department out of fear of getting fired.

“I have three children and my husband doesn’t have a job now because of the coronavirus [crisis], so my salary is very important,” Gloria says.

Domestic workers are being placed in a vulnerable situation … Many don’t want to complain because they don’t want to be terminated and some are not aware of their rightsIndonesian Migrant Workers Union

Domestic workers are being placed in a vulnerable situation … Many don’t want to complain because they don’t want to be terminated and some are not aware of their rights Indonesian Migrant Workers Union

She is among dozens of domestic workers who have recently returned from their home countries – mostly the Philippines and Indonesia – to Hong Kong as travel restrictions are slowly being lifted.

With thousands of other migrants expected to land in the city in the coming months, rights groups are urging the government to make sure domestic workers are given proper accommodation and food during quarantine, while instructions upon arrival should be provided in multiple languages. They also call on authorities to set up a special complaints mechanism that deals only with queries related to Covid-19.

Sringatin, chairwoman of Indonesian Migrant Workers Union, says that at least 10 Indonesian workers have complained about poor conditions during quarantine, but total numbers are yet to be compiled.

Domestic workers seen on their day off in Central on April 12, 2020. Photo: SCMP / Edmond So

The union leader says she is aware of cases of domestic workers who were fired after they experienced some symptoms similar to those of Covid-19, although they have not tested positive. She has also come across workers whose salaries were not paid during the quarantine.

“Domestic workers are being placed in a vulnerable situation – put under quarantine and not paid. Many don’t want to complain because they don’t want to be terminated and some are not aware of their rights,” Sringatin says.

Others have to deal with technological and language barriers that prevent them from understanding the instructions given by authorities.

Why are overseas Filipinos worried about Duterte’s anti-terror law?
14 Jun 2020


Food that does not meet their religion requirements has also been an issue, she says.

“We know of this domestic worker who was sent to a government quarantine centre, where she was not given suitable food. She is Muslim, so she can’t eat pork,” the migrant activist says.

Sringatin says she is particularly worried about the newcomers who are unfamiliar with the city. Thousands are expected to arrive in the coming months.

“The government needs to provide clear information and instructions in multiple languages on how they can ensure their rights,” the union leader says.

Sringatin says the Labour Department should introduce a complaints system to deal with coronavirus-related queries, instead of having the workers using the general support line.

The union leader also calls for a subsidy to help employers with the costs of the mandatory quarantine. “We know that employers are also facing some financial difficulties. So if workers don’t go to quarantine centres that meet the standards, the government could help employers to cover the cost of a hotel where workers can do the quarantine,” she says.

Thousands of Filipino migrant workers to return to homes after Covid-19 quarantines

In Hong Kong, those who hire domestic workers are required to provide suitable accommodation in their homes as well as food or an allowance.

Last weekend, a group of employment agencies called for newly hired domestic workers to be quarantined in government centres on their arrival in Hong Kong, as most local families did not want to house them over the quarantine period and take health risks.

Dr Leung Yiu-hong, chief port health officer of the Centre for Health Protection, said at a Legislative Council committee meeting on Monday that the government was in talks with the hospitality industry on finding cheap hotels where the workers could spend the compulsory 14 days of isolation.

Singapore to build new dorms, raise migrant workers’ living standards
1 Jun 2020


Cynthia Abdon-Tellez, head of the Mission for Migrant Workers, says her group has received multiple quarantine-related queries, mostly from Filipino domestic workers.

“Food has been a major issue. We encountered one case where she was made to eat only noodles for several days,” she says.

Abdon-Tellez says that from March to May, her group received 135 queries from domestic workers who have raised mostly coronavirus-related issues. The lack of a day off has remained a problem since the beginning of the pandemic, with some workers being prevented from leaving the house of their employers for several months now.

“We talked to this worker who told us that she hasn’t had a day off since January. She is not allowed to go out, although the members of the family go in and out the house. She is under a lot of stress, but she does not want to be fired,” the activist says.

Malaysia’s law delay on improving migrant worker housing criticised
29 May 2020


Filipino consul general Raly Tejada says his office has received some complaints, such as “workers not getting enough food or crowding in facilities used as quarantine centres”.

Tejada estimates that about 12,000 Filipino workers are expected to arrive to Hong Kong in the next few months, including about 7,000 newly hired workers and another 4,700 who had been previously fired and had found new employers.

“We are working with the Hong Kong government to ensure that agencies and their employers comply with their obligations pertaining to the two-week quarantine rule for arriving workers in Hong Kong,” he says.

The Indonesian consulate did not respond to queries sent by This Week in Asia.

A spokesman for the Labour Department says that unless domestic workers come from countries or places where after risk assessment returnees are required to stay at quarantine centres, their employers should make “prior arrangements” so the workers can do the compulsory quarantine.

“Employers are also reminded to comply with their obligations under the standard employment contract, including bearing the accommodation expenses, providing food allowance … and not to compel their foreign domestic helpers to work outside of their residence,” the spokesman says.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: quarantine hits domestic helpers hard

COMMENTS

Raquel Carvalho is Asia Correspondent for the Post. She joined the newspaper in 2014. Most of her investigative and in-depth stories have been focused on human rights, cross-border security, illicit trade and corruption. She was previously the chief reporter at a Portuguese daily newspaper in Macau, where she moved to from Europe in 2008.

Free Julian Assange now

The prisoner of conscience is being persecuted by two self-styled leaders of Western democracies, while his own country, Australia, silently ignores his abuse and torture

Published: 28 Jun, 2020

Julian Assange has been detained under inhumane conditions amounting to torture by the British government at the behest of Washington for more than a year.
Last Friday was the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. Doctors for Assange, an international group of medical workers, have exposed the terrible conditions in which the founder of 

WikiLeaks has been held, and called for his immediate release.

As his health has deteriorated, 216 doctors from 33 countries have called for an end to “The ongoing torture and medical neglect of Julian Assange”, the title of a correspondence published in the latest The Lancet, the prestigious British medical journal.

“As a person incarcerated solely for publishing activity, continuing to hold Mr Assange under these conditions represents the torture of a publisher and journalist,” they wrote.

The prisoner of conscience is being persecuted by two self-styled leaders of democracies, while his own country, Australia, silently ignores his abuse and torture.

Assange travelled to Europe and Asia trying to recruit hackers, US government claims
25 Jun 2020


Assange’s crimes are nothing more or less than exposing the war crimes and hypocrisy of the US and those of its allies. The US extradition case against Assange is a direct assault on international journalism and publishing.

In May last year, Nils Melzer, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and two medical experts visited Assange and described his treatment in prison as amounting to psychological torture.

The Lancet article warns: “In the context of attacks against and arrests of journalists at the recent global protests, his treatment and the precedent it sets are of international concern.”

Besides withholding medical treatment, “isolation and under-stimulation are key psychological torture tactics, capable of inducing severe despair, disorientation, destabilisation, and disintegration of crucial mental functions”.

Among his many key exposes are the US military’s targeting of civilians in Iraq, conducting secret drone strikes in Yemen, and spying on UN representatives.

The US extradition case against Assange is similar to that against Chinese telecoms giant
Huawei’s No 2 Meng Wanzhou in Canada.

Both involve the abusive application of American laws against foreigners on foreign soil, with the connivance of allied governments.

It is also part of America’s cover-up of its war crimes, a campaign which most recently imposes sanctions against officials of the International Criminal Court – and their family members – for investigating possible atrocities committed by US military and intelligence agents.

If Americans can get Assange and Meng, they can get anyone.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Free Julian Assange from his jail cell now

Alex Lo has been a Post columnist since 2012, covering major issues affecting Hong Kong and the rest of China. A journalist for 25 years, he has worked for various publications in Hong Kong and Toronto as a news reporter and editor. He has also lectured in journalism at the University of Hong Kong.

SCMP VIDEOS:BLM PROTESTS SWEEP THE GLOBE

Must the United States demonise China?

Simply existing as a prosperous power is enough to make China an enemy, which must be isolated, contained, if not destroyed, like a disease. Hong Kong is but another factor in this hegemonic calculus


Alex Lo
SCMP Columnist
My Take by Alex Lo

Published:  26 Jun, 2020

“She goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colours and usurp the standard of freedom.

“The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force … She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit …” – John Quincy Adams, 1821

America has always needed an enemy. China is but the latest in a long series of “monsters” in need of destruction. What Adams, the sixth US president, famously warned against has long ago become the blueprint for the United States’ engagement with the world.


Every post-war president, including Donald Trump, went into office trying to follow Adams’ wise advice but ended up doing the opposite. When you have a democracy, public opinion must be managed or manufactured.

US Senate passes bill to punish China for Hong Kong national security law
26 Jun 2020



When you run a national security state, you must control your own citizens domestically and use all your powers, hard, soft and sharp, to bring to heel allies and rivals alike. Disobedience demands punishment, which can range from relatively bloodless sanctions to outright invasion and war.

When your military is deployed in more than 150 countries in a world that has fewer than 200, you are running a global empire, regardless of what fanciful claims you make to justify their worldwide presence. Simply existing as a rising power – like China – is enough to make someone an enemy, which must be isolated, demonised, contained, if not destroyed. Hong Kong is but another factor in this hegemonic calculus.

But to create an enemy, your opposing entity has to behave like one, or openly declare itself as one. Here’s the problem for Washington. China doesn’t want to be an enemy

That’s why frustrated American politicians are poking and provoking Beijing at every opportunity. China has so far refused to take the bait. But for how long? The answer to that question will determine the war and peace, and poverty and prosperity, of this century.

Who’s a ‘bad actor’ on the world stage?

Washington says it’s China but, from arms control to human rights, America poses a far greater threat

Alex Lo
Published: 16 Jun, 2020
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has slammed China for the umpteenth time for being “a bad actor”, by which he didn’t mean the Hollywood variety. China is no angel. But that pernicious title more appropriately belongs to the United States.

This conclusion can be justified by looking at not what officials like Pompeo say but what they do in terms of international law, treaties and norms.

Washington is expected to pull out of the 35-nation, 20-year-old Open Skies treaty allowing unarmed surveillance flights at short notice over member countries. Last year, it withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty as well as the Arms Trade Treaty, set by the United Nations.

The latter regulates the transfers of conventional arms and has long been the target of the right-wing National Rifle Association, the main barrier to proper gun control legislation within the US. Together, they amount to the greatest assault on global arms control in recent years. The US, of course, unilaterally broke off the Iran nuclear deal.


Trump administration bans Chinese passenger airlines from flying to US destinations

US President Donald Trump and Pompeo have been criticised for making Washington an unreliable international partner. But they are merely continuing a long US tradition.

According to Human Rights Watch, these are commonly accepted international human rights treaties that the US has ignored: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; Convention on the Rights of the Child; Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance; Mine Ban Treaty; Convention on Cluster Munitions; Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Optional Protocol; and the Convention against Torture.

Of the 18 human rights agreements under the UN, America has only ratified five. Even China has done eight.

Trade war cost US firms US$1.7 trillion in market value, New York Fed says
30 May 2020



But, in light of the latest development, Washington’s rejection of the International Criminal Court is especially relevant. China, too, has not signed on to the ICC but continues to be officially engaged with it.

The Trump White House has just imposed sanctions on ICC officials for investigating whether US forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan.

Pompeo has called the ICC a “kangaroo” court. Incredibly, he said the latest sanctions could also apply to the family members of ICC officials. Don Corleone in the Godfather would have been proud.

Intriguingly, Washington thinks it can sanction China for allegedly breaching a bilateral treaty, the Joint Declaration with Britain over Hong Kong, to which it is not even a party. Guess if you can sanction the ICC, you can sanction anyone!

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Who’s a ‘bad actor’ on the world stage?

Alex Lo has been a Post columnist since 2012, covering major issues affecting Hong Kong and the rest of China. A journalist for 25 years, he has worked for various publications in Hong Kong and Toronto as a news reporter and editor. He has also lectured in journalism at the University of Hong Kong.

Opinion-Editorial - by SCMP 

US is shunning its responsibilities on arms control

Observers believe the American strategy is a cynical ploy to complicate and derail negotiations

SCMP Editorial Published: 28 Jun, 2020

US envoy Marshall Billingslea tweeted a photo of Chinese flags on an empty negotiating table before the start of US-China arms control talks in Vienna on June 22, 2020. Photo: Twitter

The disparity between China’s global aspirations and those of the United States under President Donald Trump could not be more plainly on show than in attitudes towards weapons pacts. Beijing has agreed to join the United Nations’ Arms Trade Treaty, which the American leader announced last year he would withdraw his country from.

Negotiations between Washington and Russia on a new agreement to cap their arsenals of nuclear warheads are being jeopardised by America’s insistence of Chinese involvement. The world is being made evermore dangerous with each accord the Trump administration shuns.
Arms treaties are complex arrangements that involve much bargaining. The new START pact between the US and Russia expires next February, already a tight deadline;
yet the American side treated the latest round of talks in Vienna this week as less about meeting a deadline than ensuring it would be missed by trying to complicate matters with China’s inclusion.

‘New battlefield’ as China refuses to join nuclear talks with US, Russia
11 Jun 2020



Trump has already left two treaties with Russia, one on overflights and the other on intermediate-range nuclear forces. He withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, despite international weapons inspectors insisting that the agreement struck with seven nations in 2015 was working.

Russia and the US have by far the world’s biggest nuclear weapons arsenals, with an estimated 6,300 and 5,800 respectively. The new START, negotiated by Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, allows the nations to each deploy a maximum of 1,550 nuclear weapons and halve the number of strategic nuclear missile launchers.

China, with an expanding nuclear programme but far fewer arms, has repeatedly rejected American pressure to participate and Russia has countered by also calling for the joining of American allies France and Britain, which have 290 and 215 warheads. Observers believe the US strategy is a cynical ploy to complicate and derail the negotiations.

Beijing’s motives are for the global good, not self-interest. By joining the Arms Trade Treaty, it has signed on to a multilateral pact aimed at regulating cross-border sales of several categories of conventional arms and prohibits their transfer under certain circumstances. Participating in such accords is what is expected of a responsible world power.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: US amiss in talks to control arms trade

Rolling Stones Working With BMI to Stop Trump's Use of 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' at Rallies


LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) - For years, it has seemed as if Donald Trump can always get what he wants, at least when it comes to using classic rock and pop hits at his campaign rallies against the wishes of the original artists. But the Rolling Stones, who have tried for years to keep the president from appropriating “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” as his walk-off music, have not thrown in the towel.

On Saturday, the group sent out a statement saying it is enlisting BMI, the performing rights organization that oversees public use of the song, in their quest to keep the track from being used for politically partisan purposes. And the band says there’ll be a lawsuit if the president continues using the song without a license.

“This could be the last time President Donald Trump uses Stones songs,” reads the headline to a release sent out by the Stones’ reps. The statement reads, in part: “Despite cease & desist directives to Donald Trump in the past, the Rolling Stones are taking further steps to exclude him using their songs at any of his future political campaigning. The Stones’ legal team [is] working with BMI... BMI (has) notified the Trump campaign on behalf of the Stones that the unauthorized use of their songs will constitute a breach of its licensing agreement. If Donald Trump disregards the exclusion and persists, then he would face a lawsuit for breaking the embargo and playing music that has not been licensed.”

As these disputes have arisen, at issue is whether a song’s use in a campaign rally is covered by a blanket license held by the host venue for all performance purposes. BMI is joining the Stones in contending that the Trump campaign is subject to a license specifically established for political uses, which allows songwriters to object to and withhold use.

Jodie Thomas, BMI’s executive director of corporate communications, clarified the performing rights org’s position for Variety Saturday after the Stones’ statement was released.

“BMI’s Political Entities License was implemented about ten years ago to cover political campaigns,” Thomas says. “Since many political events and rallies are often held at places that don’t typically require a music license, such as airport hangars or community fields, a Political Entities License ensures that wherever the campaign stops, it is in compliance with copyright law. A venue license was never intended to cover political campaigns. So if a campaign attempts to rely on a venue license to cover its music use, there’s risk involved.”

Continued Thomas, “BMI licenses political campaigns and events through its Political Entities or Organizations License, which clearly states that a campaign cannot rely on a venue license to authorize its performance of an excluded work. Therefore, a political campaign cannot and should not try to circumvent BMI’s withdrawal of musical works under its Political Entities License by attempting to rely on another license.”

The Rolling Stones perform during their No Filter U.S. Tour at Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California, U.S., August 22, 2019. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
News of the Stones and BMI working together on the issue was first reported by Deadline.

In a statement released earlier to Variety and Deadline, BMI said: “The Trump campaign has a Political Entities License which authorizes the public performance of more than 15 million musical works in BMI’s repertoire wherever campaign events occur. There is a provision, however, that allows BMI to exclude musical works from the license if a songwriter or publisher objects to its use by a campaign. BMI has received such an objection and sent a letter notifying the Trump campaign that the Rolling Stones’ works have been removed from the campaign license, and advising the campaign that any future use of these musical compositions will be in breach of its license agreement with BMI.”

News of the Stones taking up the fight to have their song excluded from campaign appearances follows on the heels of the Tom Petty family uniting last weekend to release a statement objecting to “I Won’t Back Down” at the president’s contentious campaign rally in Tulsa. Brendon Urie soon followed with a strongly worded statement condemning Trump’s use of the Panic! at the Disco song “High Hopes” at the same rally. The long list of musicians who’ve previously publicly objected to Trump campaign song use includes Neil Young and R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe.
Left unaddressed, as it has been since Trump began using “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” at the end of his campaign speeches in 2016, is what message the candidate even intends to send with a song whose very title expresses the thought that expectations should be tempered.

Dozens arrested as Hong Kongers protest planned national security laws

Scott Murdoch

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong police arrested at least 53 people on Sunday after scuffles erupted during a relatively peaceful protest against planned national security legislation to be implemented by the mainland Chinese government.

Riot police ask ORDER people to leave to avoid mass gathering during a protest against the looming national security legislation in Hong Kong, China June 28, 2020. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

Armed riot police were present as a crowd of several hundred moved from Jordan to Mong Kok in the Kowloon district, staging what was intended as a “silent protest” against the planned law.

RELATED COVERAGE

China lawmakers review draft of Hong Kong national security bill: Xinhua

However, chanting and slogans were shouted towards police and later scuffles broke out in Mong Kok, prompting police to use pepper spray to subdue parts of the crowd.

Hong Kong Police said on Facebook that 53 people had been arrested and charged with unlawful assembly, adding that earlier some protesters tried to blockade roads in the area.


The proposed national security law has raised concerns among Hong Kong democracy activists and some foreign governments that Beijing is further eroding the extensive autonomy promised when Britain handed the territory back to China in 1997.

“The governments wants to shut us up and to kick us out,” one protester, Roy Chan, 44, said. “We must stand up and strike down all those people who deprive Hong Kong people’s freedom.”

Sunday’s event came a day after Hong Kong police refused permission for an annual march usually held on July 1 to mark the 1997 handover, citing a ban on large gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic.


China has said the new security law will target only a small group of troublemakers as it tackles separatism, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference in Hong Kong.

China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee reviewed a draft of the bill on Sunday.

Chinese state media reported that lawmakers overwhelmingly supported the draft. The Chinese government has “unshakable determination to push ahead with enactment of the security bill and safeguard national sovereignty and interest,” state broadcaster CCTV reported, citing a government spokesperson.


Reporting by Scott Murdoch; Additional reporting by Jessie Pang, Tyrone Siu and Joyce Zhou; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Tom Hogue, Frances Kerry and Peter Graff

Pandemic curtails most U.S. Pride events, but some will march on

Ben Kellerman

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The coronavirus pandemic has forced the cancellation of most Pride events this year, but organizers of a march in Manhattan on Sunday expect to draw tens of thousands of people to the streets in solidarity with protesters demanding an end to racial injustice and police brutality.


Rainbow flags fly at Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan in support of the LGBT community, prior to the 51st anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, in New York City, New York, U.S., June 26, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar

The second annual Queer Liberation March will cap a month of Pride events, virtual and live, during which the celebration of LGBTQ lives has merged with the nationwide demonstrations ignited by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month.

“It has to be centered on the movement for Black lives, it has to be focused on issues of police brutality,” said Jay W. Walker, co-founder the Reclaim Pride Coalition, the group organizing the march.

The group staged its first protest last year by walking in the opposite direction to New York City’s marquee Pride parade, rejecting that event’s large uniformed police presence and the ubiquitous corporate-sponsored floats that normally drift down Manhattan’s 5th Avenue each year.


This year, the march promises to be the city’s main in-person event on Pride Sunday, after the official parade was canceled in April for the first time in its 50-year history due to the pandemic.

On June 28, 1969, patrons of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, fought back during a police raid, sparking days of sometimes violent demonstrations against harassment and giving birth to the modern LGBTQ rights movement.

Activists memorialized the first anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion with what they called Christopher Street Liberation Day, starting an annual Pride tradition that is now celebrated around the world.

Marches and rallies with a focus on racial injustice, and the struggle of Black transgender people in particular, are planned in other U.S. cities on Sunday.


In Chicago, a Pride march will aim to draw attention to the historic origins of Pride as a movement of protest.

Grassroots activist group ACTIVATE:CHI said it was working with the organizers of this year’s Pride, spurred on by “the current political, social, and economic climate coupled with the clear inability of our government to protect the most vulnerable members of our communities.”


Reporting by Benjamin Keller in New York; Additional reporting and writing by Maria Caspani in New York; Editing by Daniel Wallis
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

'The money's gone': Wirecard collapses owing $4 billion

Arno Schuetze, John O'Donnell

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Wirecard collapsed on Thursday owing creditors almost $4 billion after disclosing a gaping hole in its books that its auditor EY said was the result of a sophisticated global fraud.

The payments company filed for insolvency at a Munich court saying that, with 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) of loans due within a week its survival as a going concern was “not assured”.

Wirecard’s implosion came just seven days after EY, its auditor for more than a decade, refused to sign off on the 2019 accounts, forcing out Chief Executive Markus Braun and leading it to admit that $2.1 billion of its cash probably didn’t exist.

“There are clear indications that this was an elaborate and sophisticated fraud involving multiple parties around the world,” EY said in a statement.

EY said while it was completing the 2019 audit, it was provided with false confirmations with regard to escrow accounts and reported them to the relevant authorities.

RELATED COVERAGE

Factbox: German payments firm Wirecard goes from boom to bust

Wirecard declined to comment following EY’s statement.

The financial technology company is the first member of Germany’s prestigious DAX stock index to go bust, barely two years after winning a spot among the country’s top 30 listed companies with a market valuation of $28 billion.

“The Wirecard case damages corporate Germany. It should be a wake-up call for reforms,” said Volker Potthoff, chairman of corporate governance think-tank ArMID.

Creditors have scant hope of getting back the 3.5 billion euros they are owed, sources familiar with the matter said. Of that total, Wirecard has borrowed 1.75 billion from 15 banks and issued 500 million in bonds.

“The money’s gone,” said one banker. “We may recoup a few euros in a couple of years but will write off the loan now.”

‘TOTAL DISASTER’

The collapse of Wirecard, once one of the hottest fintech companies in Europe, dwarfs other German corporate failures. It has shaken the country’s financial establishment with Felix Hufeld, head of regulator BaFin, calling it a “total disaster”.

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz described the collapse as a “scandal”, acknowledging it was time to review regulation.

“We must rethink our supervisory structures,” said Scholz, adding he had asked his ministry to come up with ideas in the next few days.

“If legal, legislative, regulatory measures are needed, we will embrace them and implement them,” he said. “A scandal like Wirecard is a wake-up call that we need more monitoring and oversight than we have today,” he said.

Wirecard shares, which were suspended ahead of an earlier announcement that it would seek creditor protection, crashed 80% when trading resumed. They have lost 98% since auditor EY questioned its accounts last Thursday.


EY, one of the world’s “Big Four” accountancy and consulting firms, faces a wave of litigation in a debacle that has drawn comparisons with Arthur Andersen’s disastrous oversight of U.S. energy company Enron.

German law firm Schirp & Partner said that with Wirecard now effectively sidelined, it would file class actions against EY on behalf of shareholders and bondholders.

“It is frightening how long Wirecard AG was able to operate without being objected to by the auditors,” partner Wolfgang Schirp said.

Wirecard’s new management had been in crisis talks with creditors but pulled out on Thursday morning “due to impending insolvency and over-indebtedness”.

The insolvency filing did not include its Wirecard Bank subsidiary, which holds an estimated 1.4 billion euros in deposits and is already under emergency management by BaFin.

FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of Wirecard AG, an independent provider of outsourcing and white label solutions for electronic payment transactions is seen in Aschheim near Munich, Germany April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Michael Dalder/File Photo

‘COMPLETE VINDICATION’

A second source close to talks with creditors said although the company had a healthy core, it had faked two-thirds of its sales. This meant there was no way it could repay all its debt, notwithstanding all the legal challenges it will face.

The ascent of Wirecard, which was founded in 1999 and is based in a Munich suburb, was dogged by allegations from whistleblowers, reporters and speculators that its revenue and profits had been pumped up through fake transactions.

Braun fended off the critics for years before finally calling in outside auditor KPMG late last year to run an independent investigation.

KPMG, which published its findings in April, was unable to verify 1 billion euros in cash balances, questioned Wirecard’s acquisition accounting and said it could not trace hundreds of millions in cash advances to merchants.

“Today is a complete vindication for those that exposed the fraud,” said Fraser Perring, who bet on a fall in Wirecard’s shares and co-authored a 2016 report that alleged fraud.

The Munich prosecutor’s office, which is investigating Braun on suspicion of misrepresenting Wirecard’s accounts and of market manipulation, said: “We will now look at all possible criminal offences.”


Braun was arrested on Monday and released on bail of 5 million euros a day later. Former chief operating officer Jan Marsalek is also under suspicion and believed to be in the Philippines, according to justice officials there.

($1 = 0.8903 euros)