China once again claiming universal jurisdiction. They don't just want the song to be unavailable in Hong Kong, they want it scrubbed from the entire internet.
From AFP via Courthouse News Service, May 8:
Reversing a lower court's decision from last year, appellate Judge Jeremy Poon wrote that the composer of the song had "intended it to be a 'weapon' and so it had become."
Hong Kong demanded on Wednesday that a protest song popular during pro-democracy demonstrations be removed from the internet after a court banned it, judging it was a "weapon" to incite violent protests in 2019.
The case has been closely watched for how it would affect tech firms and internet platform operators — a concern that has been raised internationally over the free flow of information in Hong Kong.
Wednesday's ban comes after a campaign by the city's authorities against the song, which has seen them demand it be removed from Google's internet search results and other content-sharing platforms — a request that has been largely rebuffed.
"The government, in the next step, will communicate with relevant internet service providers, request or demand them to remove relevant content in accordance with the injunction order," said Paul Lam, the semi-autonomous city's Secretary for Justice.
"The effect is to persuade the internet service providers not to provide the convenience and not to facilitate the commission of unlawful acts," Lam told reporters.
"Glory to Hong Kong" is the first song to be banned in the former British colony since it was handed over to China in 1997.
The song grew popular during the protests, and was also secretly recorded by an anonymous orchestra. Its defiant lyrics incorporate the key protest slogan "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times."
The Hong Kong government's first attempt to get an official injunction was refused by the High Court last year in a surprise ruling, which said a ban could have a "chilling effect" on innocent third parties.
Angering the city's government, the song has in recent years been played at several international sporting events, with event organizers mistaking it for the Chinese territory's anthem.
Hong Kong is a semi-autonomous territory with no anthem of its own, and uses China's "March of the Volunteers." ....
....MUCH MORE
Here's the Court's judgement on the appeal via Scribd:
Glory to Hong Kong ban by HKFP
And previously on China's claims to rule the world:
How to Respond To China's Claim That The New Hong Kong Security Law Applies To Actions Everywhere In The World
*****
....When we looked at a couple of China's other laws, what stands out is how Soviet they are.
So You Want To Do Business In China Do You? "China’s New Cybersecurity Program: NO Place to Hide"
We mentioned the National Security Law (and the cybersecurity law and the NGO law) back in July,* anyone doing business in China WILL comply, here's a deeper dive.
From China Law Blog:
The Chinese government has been working for several years on a comprehensive Internet security/surveillance program. This program is based on the Cybersecurity Law adopted on 2016. The plan is vast and includes a number of subsidiary laws and regulations. On December 1, 2018, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security announced it will finally roll-out the full plan.....MUCH MORE
The core of the plan is for China’s Ministry of Security to fully access the massive amounts of raw data transmitted across Chinese networks and housed on servers in China. Since raw data has little value, the key to the Ministry’s success will be in processing that data. Seeing that this is the key issue, the Ministry has appointed Wang Yingwei to be its new head of the Cybersecurity Bureau. Wang is a noted “big data” expert and he will be tasked with making sense of the raw data that will be gathered under the new system.
The plan for the new system is ambitious and comprehensive. As explained by Guo Qiquan, the chief cheerleader for the plan, the main goal of the new system is to provide “full coverage”. As explained by Guo, “It will cover every district, every ministry, every business and other institution, basically covering the whole society. It will also cover all targets that need [cybersecurity] protection, including all networks, information systems, cloud platforms, the internet of things, control systems, big data and mobile internet.”
This system will apply to foreign owned companies in China on the same basis as to all Chinese persons, entities or individuals. No information contained on any server located within China will be exempted from this full coverage program. No communication from or to China will be exempted. There will be no secrets. No VPNs. No private or encrypted messages. No anonymous online accounts. No trade secrets. No confidential data. Any and all data will be available and open to the Chinese government. Since the Chinese government is the shareholder in all SOEs and is now exercising de facto control over China’s major private companies as well, all of this information will then be available to those SOEs and Chinese companies. See e.g. China to place government officials inside 100 private companies, including Alibaba. All this information will be available to the Chinese military and military research institutes. The Chinese are being very clear that this is their plan....
HT: The Register
*"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.All means all, including foreign companies operating in China.
The State protects individuals and organizations that support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts.
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....
This attitude is not a recent development. In 1382 when the Hongwu Emperor demanded tribute from Japan, Prince Kanenaga had to remind the founder of the Ming Dynasty that he did not have suzerainty over the entire globe. From 2014's Oil and China's Territorial Ambitions: "The World Is the World's World"
....The part of the headline in quotation marks is not to be found in the story, rather it is from a 1382 letter sent by Japan’s Prince Kanenaga to the Hongwu Emperor of China, founder of the Ming Dynasty, explicitly denying the legitimacy of Chinese dominance:
Heaven and earth are vast, they are not monopolized by one ruler.
The universe is great and wide, and the various countries are created each to have a share in its rule.
Now the world is the world's world; it does not belong to a single person.
For some reason I've never been able to get that quote out of my head but I promise that is as esoteric as I'll ever get.
Here's a ref. via Oxford Journals.
UPDATE: The Oxford Journals link to The Chinese Journal of International Politics is now gated with a stub entry.
If interested here is "Chinese Hegemony: Grand Strategy and International Institutions in East" with the quote and some background on what Prince Kanenaga was dealing with.
Quite an inspiring guy.
