Hong Kong to toughen national security checks for food, entertainment spots

By James Pomfret and Jessie Pang

Hong Kong will toughen screening of caterers and other food and entertainment businesses for potential violations of national security, which civil servants should accord top priority in deciding licence approvals, the city's leader said on Tuesday.

Critics see the move as targeting the Asian financial hub's many businesses, including cafes and restaurants, that have displayed posters, symbols or images expressing solidarity with its embattled pro-democracy movement.

Numbering in the hundreds, and sometimes called "conscience-driven businesses", they face growing pressure from authorities, such as greater tax scrutiny and fire safety and customs checks, at a time when many reel from an economic and retail downturn.

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"Food and environmental hygiene officers ... should place national security as the most important consideration and make appropriate assessments," John Lee told reporters.

He called the move "appropriate and necessary", saying all civil servants were expected to rate security as the highest priority under the national security law.

The city's food and hygiene department would follow the law in considering new licences and renewing existing ones, he added.

In recent years, authorities in the Asian financial hub have made use of sweeping national security laws imposed after mass anti-government protests in 2019 to systematically crack down on many of its liberal pockets.

In May, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department sent letters to thousands of food and entertainment premises, obliging them to accept new terms related to national security.

In one document seen by Reuters, the government told business owners to ensure no activity in which they were engaged or involved in "may constitute or cause the occurrence of an offence endangering national security".

One owner of several eateries run on lines he described as "values-based", said he would "simply carry on with a calm and steady mindset", and strive to follow all regulations.

"Regardless of one's social or political stance, over 90 percent of Hong Kong's businesses are currently struggling under the weight of the economic downturn," added the owner, who sought anonymity for fear of reprisals.

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The former British colony's crackdown on dissent, from arresting democratic activists to shuttering liberal media and civil society groups, has drawn criticism from countries such as Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States.