More Propaganda, National Security in HK

China's control over Hong Kong expands with two departments

 

It was bound to happen eventually. Beijing is now setting up two departments in Hong Kong, one to handle national security, the other propaganda.

The new department for national security affairs will be headed by former liaison office legal affairs director Wang Zhenmin, while Yang Guang will lead the department that will manage media outlets and public opinion in the city.

Yang Guang warned HK protesters in 2019

Some may remember Yang is one of the spokesmen for the Hong Kong Macau Affairs Office, and during 2019 he was the one hosting press conferences on the anti-government protests.

At these press conferences -- the first the HKMAO made since the handover in 1997 -- Yang gave strongly-worded warnings to the protesters against street violence.

The propaganda department will take up part of the work from the office's liaison department and cater to the increasing needs to disseminate official information, host more press conferences, approve and coordinate Hong Kong and Macau journalists on the mainland, and "manage the media scene" in the two administrative regions.

Meanwhile Wang served as legal affairs director at Beijing's liaison office in Hong Kong from 2015 to 2018. 

Currently the director of the centre for Hong Kong and Macau Research under Tsinghua University, Wang published a 232-page book in January he co-authored with two mainland academics detailing the rationale and legislative process of the sweeping national security law.

Wang Zhenmin is a national security legal expert

In an article in Sing Tao Daily in February 2020, Wang wrote an article explaining the urgent need to reform the central government's governance regime regarding Hong Kong and Macau.

Veteran China watcher Johnny Lau Yiu-siu says these latest developments are a systemic approach by Beijing to enhance ideological security.

"Beijing firmly regarded Hong Kong's political turmoil as a result of foreign collusion with an aim to overturn the government, so that Beijing planned a series of organizational measures to step up ideological control," he said.

Meanwhile pro-China academic Lau Siu-kai of the semi-official think tank the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies says the departments will step up the fight against anti-China forces. 

"There is a lot to be done to weed out incorrect viewpoints about the central people's government," he said. "The new departments [in the HKMAO] will focus on monitoring public opinion and raising the awareness of Hongkongers' obligation to abide by the law at the societal level," Lau said.

Can China overturn HK people's opinions?

But will the propaganda department make any headway with so many Hongkongers skeptical of anything from across the border? It could make them even more paranoid than before, if reaction to the origins of the pandemic is any indication. 

And with information still relatively free in Hong Kong, including disinformation and misinformation, will the propaganda department be able to cut through all the noise to present its own side of the story in a convincing manner?

It will be interesting to watch its presentation and messaging, though another reminder the motherland is breathing down Hong Kong's back is a sign integration continues whether residents like it or not...