ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
One of the biggest remaining opposition parties in Hong Kong is planning to shut down after more than three decades. The leaders of the Hong Kong Democratic Party this week announced their plans to dissolve the party. This move comes after years of political pressure from Beijing that includes a national security law. NPR's Emily Feng has covered Hong Kong and mainland China for the last decade, but she's here in our studios now...
EMILY FENG, BYLINE: Hey, Adrian.
FLORIDO: ...To give us an update on Hong Kong. Hi, Emily.
FENG: Thank you for having me.
FLORIDO: Thanks for being here. Tell us more about this party that's in the process of shutting down. What prompted this decision?
FENG: Well, they've just been squeezed by a slew of actions from both the Beijing and Hong Kong governments in recent years as part of this broader crackdown on the city's democracy movement. One of those actions was back in 2021, when Hong Kong passed a law that ensured only candidates they deemed as pro-Beijing serve in the legislative council or be local councilors. And this effectively barred the Democratic Party from meaningful participation in Hong Kong politics, even though it's one of the largest opposition parties.
And then you mentioned the national security law which was suddenly implemented in 2020. That effectively banned any political activity that's seen by Beijing authorities as endangering national security, with up to life in prison if you're found guilty. That law has ensnared some of Hong Kong's most influential political figures such as Jimmy Lai. He's been imprisoned for publishing and his democratic organizing work under that law.
FLORIDO: Now, what is the latest with Lai? We know that his paper, Apple Daily, was closed about four years ago, and you've been reporting on his arrest and his trial for some time now.
FENG: Right. Lai is this billionaire textile and fashion mogul, but he's spent the last decades funding pro-democratic publications like his own newspaper, Apple Daily, and also supporting pro-democracy demonstrators. Beijing sees him as a traitor, though, and under the national security law, he was one of dozens of activists and opposition figures who were arrested. And he's still waiting for his verdict in that case. He spent nearly four years waiting in prison on multiple charges, and then finally, last November, he started giving his own oral testimony for the first time in the national security trial. And that testimony, by the way, is still going on.
This week, he was grilled by a national security court in Hong Kong over two articles he wrote years ago in his paper, which has now been closed. And in one article from 2020, he warned that Hong Kongers would, quote, "return to slaves living at the mercy of Emperor Xi" Jinping - that's China's leader - something the court said could have, quote, "incited public hatred."
And while all of this is happening in Hong Kong, in the U.S., where we are, the Trump administration has frozen foreign assistance funding this month, and that's hit Hong Kong rights groups based here in the U.S. pretty hard.
FLORIDO: Right. The context here is that the Trump administration has been trying to slash the federal budget and has frozen a lot of foreign aid, including by trying to shut down USAID. Which Hong Kong-focused groups have been affected by this effort by the Trump administration?
FENG: Rights groups, labor rights groups, human rights research organizations - they got funding from the U.S. State Department, the U.S. aid agency USAID. And this trio of this - these U.S. government agencies supported this ecosystem of often China-focused and Hong Kong-focused civil rights groups here in the U.S. The administration says they're wasteful, but the timing of these cuts are pretty crucial. These organizations are running into big financial troubles now - furloughing employees, pausing programs at a time when China is competing with the U.S. in this space. And as my reporting this week found on this topic - found that while the U.S. is slashing its support for China-based advocacy groups, Beijing has been quietly working to replace some of that U.S. funding and influence.
FLORIDO: A lot at stake here. That's NPR's Emily Feng. Thanks for your reporting.
FENG: Thanks, Adrian.
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