On Sept. 22, the European Commission and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy released the 2025 Annual Report on Political and Economic Developments in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
The report said that during the five years since the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law, Hong Kong’s autonomy and residents’ fundamental freedoms and rights have continued to deteriorate.
The report said that although the Chinese Communist Party has pledged to maintain Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and residents’ freedoms and rights unchanged for 50 years, those rights have been significantly eroded in practice.
According to the report, the Hong Kong government has used the National Security Law and other legislation against pro-democracy figures, with several high-profile political prosecutions and trials, including the cases involving Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, the primary-election defendants, and Joshua Wong, who was serving a sentence for subversion when he was additionally charged with conspiracy to collude with foreign forces.
The report noted that defendants in these cases had been held in detention for extended periods before trial. It also highlighted new prosecutions under the National Security Law. Wong, one of the defendants in the primary-election case, is serving a sentence for subversion and was originally scheduled for release in January 2027, but was subsequently charged with conspiracy to collude with foreign forces.
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The report also examined the impact of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, commonly known as Article 23, which took effect in 2024. It said the father of wanted overseas Hong Kong activist Kwok Fung-yee, Kwok Yin-sang, became the first family member of a political fugitive to be convicted under Article 23 after handling his daughter’s insurance policy.
The Hong Kong government subsequently invoked Article 23 to place bounties on 15 additional overseas Hong Kong activists, bringing the total number of people wanted on national-security-related charges to 34, according to the report. The government has also brought prosecutions under Article 88, which prohibits obstructing investigations into offenses endangering national security, as well as under the ordinance’s provision concerning “unlawful drilling.”
Freedom of expression in Hong Kong further restricted
The report also said that “freedom of expression and the space for diverse viewpoints have been further narrowed” in Hong Kong.
It cited the Tai Po Wang Fuk Court fire in November last year, which killed 168 people. Chinese University of Hong Kong student Kwan King-fung launched a petition calling on the government to take responsibility for the disaster and its aftermath. Former district councillor Cheung Kam-hung also provided voluntary assistance to affected residents at the scene and shared information about the fire online. Both were eventually arrested by authorities on sedition-related charges, according to the report.
The report emphasized that the EU has repeatedly expressed concern over the erosion of Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and fundamental freedoms, both through public statements and private exchanges with Hong Kong and central government officials.
Although the report’s assessment of Hong Kong’s political and human rights situation was largely negative, the EU also noted that the city’s economy continued to grow. Hong Kong recorded economic growth for the third consecutive year last year, with GDP increasing 3.5 percent year over year. The report also said that European companies’ confidence in Hong Kong’s business environment had improved, although the city’s political climate remained a major concern for them after operating costs.
In response to the EU report, the Hong Kong government issued a statement in the early hours of Sept. 23 expressing strong dissatisfaction with and opposition to what it called the report’s “groundless and inaccurate content.”
US State Department: Hong Kong should not receive same legal treatment as before 1997
In addition to the EU report, the U.S. State Department released its latest annual Hong Kong Policy Act Report in April, determining that Hong Kong no longer qualifies for the same treatment under U.S. law that it received before 1997.
The U.S. said the Chinese Communist Party and the Hong Kong government had continued to systematically undermine Hong Kong’s political autonomy, civil rights, and rule of law. The report cited the implementation of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, related arrests, and the case of Jimmy Lai, founder of Next Digital.
The State Department said the U.S. viewed China’s actions during the previous year as continuing to threaten U.S. interests and being inconsistent with the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law. The U.S. secretary of state determined that Hong Kong should not receive differential treatment under U.S. law. The report reiterated that Hong Kong continues to have separate commercial rules and trade policies from mainland China.
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