"China's Great Firewall descends on Hong Kong internet users"

From The Guardian, July 8:

Residents rush to erase digital footprints as law gives police powers over online activity

At midnight on Tuesday, the Great Firewall of China, the vast apparatus that limits the country’s internet, appeared to descend on Hong Kong.

Unveiling expanded police powers as part of a contentious new national security law, the Hong Kong government enabled police to censor online speech and force internet service providers to hand over user information and shut down platforms.

Many residents, already anxious since the law took effect last week, rushed to erase their digital footprint of any signs of dissent or support for the last year of protests. Charles Mok, a pro-democracy lawmaker who represents the technology sector, tweeted: “We are already behind the de facto firewall.”

Hong Kong is facing a dramatic decline of one of its most important advantages – a free and open internet – a defining trait that sets it apart from mainland China where Facebook, Twitter, Google and most major foreign news sites are blocked.

The prospect of Beijing-style internet controls – where residents are not just restricted but monitored and punished for what they post online while companies are forced to censor their platforms – is worrying for citizens, activists and businesses in Hong Kong.

The law gives authorities the power to demand individuals and service providers remove content, or access to content deemed threatening to national security. Noncompliance can result in fines and imprisonment for company staff or individuals. Police investigating national security cases can surveil communications and confiscate electronic devices....

....MUCH MORE

It's the job of Radio Free Asia and its parent, the U.S. Agency for Global Media to break through the great firewall, now isn't it?

Via Aeolus 13 Umbra:

The 1971 Radio Free Europe (RFE) Public Service Announcement (PSA), “The IN Sound from Outside,” features Peter, a young Hungarian expatriate who fled his native country’s Communist government following the 1956 Revolution and subsequent Soviet military occupation. He runs up the steps to his radio studio and, with his coat coolly draped on his shoulders, introduces The Drifters’ “On Broadway.”....MUCH MORE

See, here's the thing, by law anyone doing business in or into China has to give up any information the Chinese Communist Party apparatchiks request.
It's the problem with TikTok, it's the problem with Huawei, it's the problem with Google and Apple in Hong Kong/China.
It's the law:
How the state runs business in China"
.... The author rather blithely skips over the National Security Law.
Here via China Law Translate:

There is not a lot of wiggle room in Article 7

Article 7: All organizations and citizens shall support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts in accordance with law, and shall protect national intelligence work secrets they are aware of.
The State protects individuals and organizations that support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts.

All means all, including foreign companies operating in China.
Ditto articles 14:

Article 14: National intelligence work institutions lawfully carrying out intelligence efforts may request that relevant organs, organizations, and citizens provide necessary support, assistance, and cooperation.

And 16:

Article 16: When national intelligence work institutions staff lawfully perform their tasks in accordance with relevant national provisions, with approvals and upon the presentation of relevant identification, they may enter relevant restricted areas and venues; may learn from and question relevant institutions, organizations, and individuals; and may read or collect relevant files, materials or items.

And then there's The Cybersecurity Law and the Foreign NGO Law (2016) and the Counter-espionage Law (2014) and all worded vaguely enough that the laws can mean whatever the Party and the authorities want them to mean.

Making a bit of a straw man argumentum ad absurdum, the top Canadian spinmeister for one of the companies subject to the National Security Law said:

‘At Huawei, we’re not attaching laser beams to the heads of sharks’

—Alykhan Velshi, Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Huawei Technologies Canada, Markham, Ont.

Letter to the Editor, Maclean's Magazine, published July 23, 2019

Personally I think laser-enhanced sharks would be kind of cool, it's the required handing over of data should the Chinese government request it that gives one pause.

Apparently quite a few folks who want to make nicey-nice with ZTE or Huawei are not aware of this.
Last seen in July 1's "How to Respond To China's Claim That The New Hong Kong Security Law Applies To Actions Everywhere In The World".