The Hong Kong police green-lit every public event application last year, but the leader of one of the city’s last remaining pro-democracy groups has said the 100 per cent approval rate fails to reflect the public’s right to peaceful assembly.
Chan Po-ying, chair of the League of Social Democrats (LSD), told HKFP on Friday that the figure did not show “the full picture.” Her comments came after Secretary for Security Chris Tang said on Wednesday that police received 341 applications for public events last year, all of which were approved.
According to Public Order Ordinance, those holding a public meeting of more than 50 people – or a procession of more than 30 people – should apply for a Letter of No Objection from police.
Chan referred to two incidents last year where activists applied to the police to hold marches to mark International Women’s Day and Labour Day, but – eventually – pulled their applications.
Last March, the Hong Kong Women Workers’ Association applied to organise a march to government headquarters to promote gender equality, and received verbal approval. But the group cancelled the march the night before without explanation while police said they learnt that “violent groups” would attend the event.
Two months later, two former members of the defunct Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) applied to police to hold a Labour Day march. A week before the march, when it had yet to receive police approval, one of the organisers Joe Wong was reportedly taken away by police in the morning.
Hours later, the other organiser – Denny To – said Wong had withdrawn the application but could not disclose why. To cited a clause in the security law which prohibits the disclosure of information involved in national security cases.
Chan said the two incidents were examples of what happened when groups tried to apply to hold public events that involved making demands of the government.
“They faced a lot of pressure and in the end, they gave up the applications,” she said in Cantonese.
‘Power of the collective’
Hong Kong has not seen any democracy protests since the passing of the 2020 national security law, under which the dozens of civil society groups that used to organise such events have disbanded.
Last year, police received 71 applications for public meetings and 207 in 2023 for processions, all of which were approved, Tang said on Wednesday.
The police’s website only publishes information related to events in the previous and current month. According to the calendar, the events that received police approval in May included church fundraisers and celebrations for the Tam Kung Festival and Cheung Chau Bun Festival.
“They approved 100 per cent of the applications, but the nature of the events are… not what we commonly understand as processions, where we show our strength and make demands of the government,” Chan said, adding that most of the applications were made by religious and pro-establishment groups.
Chan also said police had been imposing strict rules on public events, including asking organisers to ensure participants wear tags or other identifiers.
“Even if the event is approved, there will be many restrictions that cause participants to feel reluctant to join,” Chan said. “If few people join, that undermines the power of the collective. So there is no value in this.”
Beijing imposed a national security law in Hong Kong in 2020 after months of protests and unrest against a controversial national security law. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts – broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure.
The move gave police sweeping new powers and led to hundreds of arrests amid new legal precedents, while dozens of civil society groups disappeared. The authorities say it restored stability and peace to the city, rejecting criticism from trade partners, the UN and NGOs.
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