The governments in Beijing and Hong Kong are constantly tightening up to stem the continuing protests in Hong Kong. The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party decided Thursday to "strengthen the legal system and enforcement mechanisms to protect national security."
Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, a court issued an injunction prohibiting users from spreading messages that "encourage or instigate" violence, according to public radio station RTHK. Expressively, activists call popular platforms such as LIHKG or Telegram. Messages calling for the intimidation of others or destruction of property are also prohibited. The injunction is initially valid until a hearing on 15 November.
However, it is currently unclear how the ban should be implemented. There is also uncertainty about who ultimately decides what is considered a possible incitement to violence. More than five months of demonstrations in the former British Crown Colony were increasingly escalating into riots, vandalism or clashes with the police.
Beijing: most important party meeting in 20 months
The decision of the Communist Party in Beijing "the legal system and the enforcement mechanisms for the protection of national security" remained unclear. A communiqué merely said that the Special Administrative Region should be governed "strictly" by law, and that prosperity and stability should be secured in the long term. The people and the party should "flock even more closely around the Central Committee with comrade Xi Jinping."
The plenary session of the approximately 370 members and candidates of the Central Committee was the most important party meeting in 20 months and, as always, took place behind closed doors in a Beijing hotel. The leadership elite meeting had been postponed for an unusually long time, triggering speculation about possible opposition to the omnipotence of state and party leader Xi Jinping.
In Hong Kong, meanwhile, there were on the occasion of Halloween celebrations to new protests, which were directed against the vermummungsverbot and against police brutality. Protesters appeared wearing Halloween masks. The police threatened arrests if demonstrators did not give up their disguise and used tear gas again.
Since its return in 1997, Hong Kong has been governed by China as an autonomous territory according to the principle of "one country, two systems". The seven million people are under China's sovereignty, but, unlike the people of the Communist People's Republic, they enjoy more rights such as freedom of expression and assembly, which they now fear.
