‘We are in every corner, watch’

From a woman who swings with a flag from the colonial era in a shopping center, to bakery staff who sells cakes with protest symbols on it – dozens of Hong Kongers have been reported to the police by one man for what he thinks were violations of national security.

“We are in every corner of society, to see, to see if there is something suspicious that can infringe the National Security Act,” says former Banker Innes Tang The BBC World Service.

“If we find these things, we will report this to the police.”

When the UK brought Hong Kong back to China 28 years ago, internationally binding treaties guaranteed the rights and freedoms of the city for 50 years. But the National Security Law (NSL), imposed by Beijing A year after the massive pro-democracy protests of Hong Kong 2019, was criticized for scutting freedom of expression and press, and for heralding a new culture of informing.

The law Criminalizes activities that are considered calls for “separation” (breaking down China), “subversion” (the power or authority of the government undermine) and collusion with foreign forces.

An extra security law called Article 23voted last year, the restrictions has further tightened.

With new laws and arrests, there has been limited reports on Hong Kong’s Pro-China “Patriots” – The people who now run and control the city, as well as the ordinary citizens who openly support them. But the BBC has spent weeks interviewing Innes Tang, 60, a prominent self -described patriot.

He and his volunteers have taken screes of social media from all activities or comments that they think are contrary to the NSL.

He also established a hotline for tip-offs from the public and encouraged his online followers to share information about the people around them.

Almost 100 individuals and organizations have been reported to the authorities by him and his followers, he says.

“Works reporting? We wouldn’t do it if that wasn’t the case,” says Mr. Tang. “Many had opened things by the police … with some who resulted in prisoners.”

Mr. Tang says that he himself has not investigated alleged law breakers, but simply reported incidents that he thinks that the righteous audit is “correct cooperation on the community policy”.

MR Tang is not the only so -called patriot that deals with this type of surveillance.

The authorities of Hong Kong have set up their own national security hotel and received 890,000 tip – offs received from November 2020 to February this year – the city security agency told the BBC.

For those who are reported to the authorities, the pressure can be ruthless.

Since the NSL was adopted in 2020, until February of this year, more than 300 people had been arrested for national security delicents. And an estimated 300,000 or more Hong Kongers have left the city permanently in recent years.

Pong Yat-Ming, the owner of an independent bookstore that organizes public conversations, says that he often receives inspections from government services that quote “anonymous complaints”.

He received 10 visits in a period of 15 days, he says.

Kenneth Chan, political scientist and university teacher, who has been involved in the pro-Democracy movement of the city since the 1990s, that he “is a bit radioactive nowadays”.

Some friends, students and colleagues now keep his distance because of his outspoken views, he says. “But I would be the last person to blame the victims. It’s the system.”

In response, the Hong Kong government said that “it is important to maintaining academic freedom and institutional autonomy.” But it adds that academic institutions “have the responsibility to ensure that their activities are in accordance with the law and the interests of the community in general”.

Innes Tang says he is motivated to report people by a love for Hong Kong, and that his views on China were cultivated when he was young when the city was still a British colony.

“The colonial policy was not really great,” he says. “The best chances were always given to the British and we (the locals) did not really have access.”

Like many of his generation, he provided a desire to be united with China and to be taken out of colonial administration. But he says that many other Hong Kongers were more concerned with their livelihood than their rights at the time.

“Democracy or freedom. These were all very abstract ideas that we didn’t really understand,” he says.

An average citizen should not get involved in politics too much, he says, and explains that he only became politically active to recover what he calls “balance” to the Hong Kong -society after the 2019 turbulence.

He gives a voice, he says, what he calls ‘the silent majority’ of Hong Kongers who do not support China’s independence, nor the disruption created by the protests.

But other Hong Kongers regard meetings and demonstrations as a long -term tradition, and one of the only ways to express public opinion in a city that now has no fully democratically chosen leadership.

“We are no longer a city of protests,” says Kenneth Chan, who specializes in Eastern European politics. “So what are we? I don’t have the answer yet. “

And patriotism is not inherent in something negative, he says.

It is “a value, perhaps even a virtue,” he argues, although it must allow citizens to “retain a critical distance” – something that does not happen in Hong Kong.

The reform of the elections was implemented in 2021 – in which it was stated that only “patriots” that “loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party Zwoeren” could hold important positions in the government or the Legislative Council (Legco) – the parliament of Hong Kong.

As a result, the Council is struggling to function, the China commentator Lew Mon-Hung, a former member of the Chinese government advisory body, believes the CPPCC.

“The public thinks that many of these patriots are ‘verbal revolutionaries’ or political opportunists – they don’t really represent people,” he says.

“That is why ridiculous policy is still passing by with a large majority. There is no one to limit or move, no one to investigate.”

Even Patriot Innes Tang says he wants to see the current system challenged.

“I don’t want to see every policy passing by 90% of the votes,” he says the BBC.

There is a danger that the National Security Act will be armed, he says, with people who say, “If you disagree with me, I accuse you of infringing the National Security Act.”

“I don’t agree with things like this,” says Mr. Tang.

Hong Kong’s government said: “The improved Legco is now rid of extremists who want to hinder and even paralyze the functioning of the government without the intention of entering into a constructive dialogue to represent the interests of all people in Hong Kong.”

For now, Mr. Tang says, he stopped reporting about people. Balance and stability, he believes, has returned to Hong Kong.

The number of large -scale protests has not decreased at all.

In the academic world, fear of surveillance – and how life can change for someone who infringes the laws – means that self -censorship and censorship have become the “order of the day”, says Kenneth Chan.

Pro -Democracy parties are no longer represented in the legislative council and many have been dissolved – including the Democratic Party of Hong Kong, once the most powerful party.

Innes Tang has now set his sights abroad.

“There are no specific problems in Hong Kong now, so I wondered – should I not even see how I can continue to serve my community and my country?” he says.

“For a non-politician and citizen like me, this is an invaluable chance.”

He now works as a representative for one of the different Pro-Beijing non-profit groups, who regularly visit the UN in Geneva to speak in conventions that give China’s perspective on Hong Kong, human rights and other issues.

Mr. Tang is also busy establishing a media company in Switzerland, and registers as a member of the press.

For Kenneth Chan in Hong Kong, his future is in balance.

“A third of my friends and students are now in exile, a third of my friends and students are in prison, and I am a bit … in the uncertain,” he says.

“Today I am telling you free … Nobody would promise me that I would continue to do it for the rest of my life.”

In a written answer to the BBC, a spokesperson for the Hong Kong government said that national security is a top priority and inherent right for every country. It “only focuses on an extremely small minority of people and organizations that pose a threat to national security, while protecting the life and property of the general public”.