Activists and Winnie the Pooh mark the first anniversary of a Hong Kong security law at a Taipei event. Activists say they want to make Taiwanese more vigilant against threats from China.
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00:00In downtown Taipei, activists commemorate political prisoners in Hong Kong,
00:06anxious that the world does not forget them or the lessons the city holds for Taiwan.
00:21Taiwanese activist Li Mingzhe spent five years in Chinese detention on charges of subversion.
00:28He's one of the speakers at this event to mark the first anniversary of a Hong Kong
00:33security law, which critics say has further chipped away at civil liberties in the city.
00:39The law, Article 23, was first mooted more than 20 years ago.
00:46In 2003, hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers protested against it.
00:51But after Beijing's grip over its territory tightened,
00:55in 2024 Hong Kong's government brought it in.
00:59Article 23 allows for closed-door trials for charges like treason and external interference.
01:07Hong Kong's government said the law was necessary for stability.
01:11But activists see it as another blow to the territory's freedoms,
01:16with Hong Kong under increasingly restrictive Chinese rule.
01:20Amnesty International says over the past year, Article 23 has been used to entrench
01:27a new normal of systematic repression of dissent,
01:31criminalising peaceful acts in increasingly absurd ways.
01:36Here in Taipei, Taiwanese NGOs and a Hong Kong youth organisation
01:41have chosen a central shopping district to bring attention to what's going on.
01:46There's a big change in Hong Kong. That's why nowadays we can't
01:51speak too much in Hong Kong. That's why we hope that today we are in a Taiwan
01:57country with democracy and freedom. That's why we came here,
02:00to help to spread our voice to the Taiwanese public.
02:05They hope to make Taiwanese more vigilant,
02:08through a figure that's come to represent the Chinese President Xi Jinping,
02:14giving away balloons in what seems like a friendly gesture.
02:21But inside, photos of Xi and what the activists call his evil deeds,
02:27destroying Hong Kong's democratic movement and threatening to annex Taiwan.
02:33Taiwan has one of the largest Hong Kong diasporas.
02:36The people here say that while protest has been all but extinguished in Hong Kong,
02:42they will use their voices here to rally support for their city and keep its defiance alive.
02:49Scott Wong and Louise Watt in Taipei for Taiwan Plus.