US Report on Hong Kong seriously flawed

The US State Department’s so called 2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which severely criticizes Hong Kong for its national security laws and detention of Jimmy Lai is seriously flawed.

In fact, it is hardly worth the paper it’s written on. But it did draw criticism from the Hong Kong SAR Government, and others, noting that “the US is once again overriding the rule of law with politics and politicising human rights issues. Such attempt to interfere in Hong Kong's law-based governance and undermine the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong is doomed to fail."

Specifically, the government responded to criticism of the Correctional Services Department and its treatment of Jimmy Lai currently facing treason-associated charges. The rights of [prisoners] are safeguarded through a system of regular visits by independent visitors, namely Justices of the Peace (JPs), who are vested with the statutory duties to inspect the prisons once or twice every month..."

The Chinese foreign ministry office in Hong Kong also expressed its “firm opposition” to the US report.

It said that the US was “rehashing” cases involving “anti-China, destabilising forces in Hong Kong” and openly supporting them. It urged the US to stop interfering in Hong Kong’s affairs and to respect China’s sovereignty and the city’s rule of law.

“This fully exposes the US’s politicisation and instrumentalisation of human rights issues, as well as its sinister attempt to use Hong Kong to contain China’s development — an act that is despicable,” the statement read.

The report is very different from last year’s document, issued under the Democratic administration of Joe Biden. Compared to previous editions, sections in respect for gay rights and analyses of gender-based violence have disappeared.

Under the current President Trump administration, for example, the report on Israel is much shorter than its 2023 Biden version, which ran for 103 pages. The new Trump report is just nine pages long.

There is no reference to the thousands of Palestinian deaths in Gaza, which the Hamas-run Ministry of Health estimates at over 61,000. There is also no mention of the desperate humanitarian situation or Israel’s restrictions on food supplies. The section on war crimes and genocide concludes with two lines: “Terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah continue to engage in the indiscriminate targeting of Israeli civilians in violation of the law of armed conflict.” That’s it!

The reports started in the late ‘70s as a legal requirement of the US Congress which passed laws in 1961 requiring the State Department to report on human rights abroad as part of the Foreign Assistant Act. So, effectively the US is compelled to issue the report each year.

China, fed up with the US’s acrimonious ‘holier than thou attitude’ towards the world, hit back at the State Department’s country reports and produced its own Human Rights Record of the United States in 1998. Its latest report on 2023, published last year, targets gun violence in the US when 43,000 were killed, an average of 117 deaths per day. And police brutally persist with 1247 deaths attributed to police violence. It also noted that the US accounts for 25 per cent of the world’s prison population even though it has less than 5 per cent of the global population, earning the title of a “carceral state.”

Even some US politicians draw on the hypocrisy of the report. A new report by Democrat senator Jon Ossoff has catalogued hundreds of alleged human rights abuses in US immigration detention centres, including physical and sexual abuse, mistreatment of pregnant women, and inadequate medical care. The report said that it had received or identified 510 “credible reports” of human rights abuse against individuals held in immigration detention centres since 20 January 2025. These included reports of overcrowding and unsanitary living conditions, inadequate food and water, exposure to extreme temperatures, denial of access to attorneys, and family separations.

Another government that is a close ally of the Trump administration, El Salvador, has seen its ratings greatly improved, and the report’s dedicated space has been significantly reduced: comments take up 75 per cent less than in previous editions. Mentions of the country’s prison conditions, which Amnesty International had described as “inhumane,” and allegations of arbitrary arrests have disappeared.

Brazil, on the other hand, whose relationship with Washington has plummeted and on which the Trump administration has imposed new tariffs due to the house arrest of former president Jair Bolsonaro — a former international ally of Trump — is vilified in the report. The State Department attacks the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, arguing that the restrictions it imposes on access to internet content disproportionately harm the far-right leader’s supporters.

Mark Pinkstone

** The blog article is the sole responsibility of the author and does not represent the position of our company. **

The conclusion of the Jimmy Lai Chee-ying trial, which lasted 156 days, was a showcase on law and order in Hong Kong and showed that justice seen is justice done.

A panel of three judges – Esther Toh Lye-ping, Susana D’Almada Remedios and Alex Lee – delivered their verdict on Monday that Jimmy Lai was guilty of national security charges involving two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one count of conspiracy to print seditious articles.

In their ruling, detailed in an 855-page document, the judges said Lai was the “mastermind” behind the conspiracies, with his sole intent was to “seek the downfall” of the ruling Communist Party.

The trial, which spanned two years (December 2023-2025), with breaks in between, drew international attention through a global campaign by his son, Sebastien, and his team of public relations cum legal experts, Doughty Street Chambers, of London.

They kept the story alive visiting world leaders and TV networks pleading for Lai senior’s release from custody citing poor health. And they got the sound bites they wanted, but the end result was useless. Jimmy Lai was found guilty as charged and could face life imprisonment, the maximum penalty for collusion.

Before passing sentence, the judges will hear mitigating arguments from Lai’s solicitors on January 12 as to why he should be sentenced and if so for a minimum period. They will surely use Lai’s deteriorating health as their main argument.

After the mitigating hearing, which is expected to last about a week, the judges will retire to decide Lai’s fate.

An interesting aspect of the trial is its open transparency. Although Hong Kong is rated 6th in the Asia/Pacific region and 24th out of 143 countries worldwide by the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index, the Lai lobbyists branded the High Court as a “sham court.”

The territory’s prosecuting office and the Chief Executive decided on a three-member panel of judges to hear the case instead of going for a full jury hearing. The reason is obvious: it would be difficult to find a seven- or 12-member panel of ordinary citizens who had not heard of the Jimmy Lai arrest and formed an opinion before the trial started.

The courtroom was specially configured to allow 58 seats in the public gallery and another 42 for the press in the main courtroom. Of those, 21 are allocated to local media, 14 to international outlets and seven to digital news platforms.

A group of about 16 western diplomats arrived at the court at around 8.20am on Monday morning with representatives from the UK, the US, the EU and Canada among them to hear the verdict and report back to their respective foreign ministers. Most of them attended the hearings every day to observe the fairness of the court. Never has a Hong Kong court hearing been under such intense scrutiny.

It could not be more transparent. It was open to the world. From the first day that prosecution witnesses gave their evidence to the closing remarks by the defendant, the foreign diplomats and international press were there recording every word spoken.

There is absolutely no reason for anyone to call it a “sham court” and international reaction will be interesting. Their comments could implicate their complicity in Lai’s masterplan to overthrow the Chinese government.

Speaking outside the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on Monday, shortly after the guilty verdict was delivered, Chief Superintendent Steve Li Kwai-wah of the police force’s National Security Department said Lai’s conviction was “justice served.”

Lai “exploited his media enterprise” and used his wealth and “extensive foreign political connections” to collude with foreign powers, Li said.

His views were echoed by Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung who believed that the trial illustrates how safe Hong Kong is and how we are able to interdict all the national security concerns and all the attempts to affect the national security. “I think this is a good showcase to show that Hong Kong is safe and it is safe to do investments in Hong Kong,” he said.

Indeed. The Jimmy Lai trial was a showcase on how Hong Kong’s rule of law and judicial prudence can shape the city to make it the Pearl of the Orient.