After several books and movies about China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown were pulled from library shelves, Hong Kong’s leader stated on Tuesday that public libraries must verify materials don’t infringe on local laws.
Private bookshops sell these books. “If they want to buy, they can buy,” Hong Kong’s chief executive John Lee told reporters about June 4 books and documentaries being removed from public libraries.
“What libraries need to do is to ensure that there’s no breach of any laws in Hong Kong, including of course, copyrights etc., and also if they spread any kind of messages that are not in the interests of Hong Kong,” Lee said, without elaborating.
Hong Kong, which returned to the Chinese administration in 1997 with the promise of broad freedoms, has recently restricted individual rights under a broad national security statute.
After major pro-democracy protests in 2019, Chinese officials say the security law has delivered stability.
Unlike mainland China, Hong Kong authorized public commemorations of China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Hong Kong authorities have banned an annual June 4 candlelight vigil on COVID social distancing grounds in the past three years and removed public monuments from three colleges, including a “goddess of democracy” statue.
With COVID-19 restrictions lifted this year, some activists want the June 4 vigil to restart.
Since 2020, Hong Kong’s Ming Pao newspaper stated that over 40% of film and book materials with “political themes” have been taken from public libraries.
In an April report, the government-backed Audit Commission stated a two-year government examination of library items had virtually finished removing “library books which are manifestly contrary to the interests of national security and removed them from the library collections.”
Some countries, notably the US, have called the national security law, which punishes subversion and cooperation with foreign forces with life imprisonment, repressive.
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