The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation

(4/4) Thank you @morton_wendy for highlighting the stark reality that #HongKong was once a place where religious communities operated with relative freedom. Since the National Security Law, civil society has been squeezed — and the space for fundamental freedoms, including religious liberty, has narrowed dramatically.

(3/4) Liberal Democrat MP @LukeTaylorTD is right: @KeirStarmer must speak up more forcefully for #FreeJimmyLai — and directly challenge Xi Jinping over the bounties placed on Hong Kongers here in the U.K. Silence isn’t an option.

🧵(1/4) Yesterday in the @UKParliament, Labour MP @MarieRimmer led a vital debate on the #CCP crackdown on religious freedom. As @MarieRimmer powerfully said, "freedom of religion or belief is universal. It is not diminished by geography, and it does not become negotiable because the offending state is economically powerful". Watch the full debate: parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/9d…

FLAME OF FREEDOM: @Stand_with_HK's Narayan Liu argues that Europe must tackle violations of the international order and #TransnationalRepression stemming from #HongKong if @vonderleyen's bid for the bloc to be more assertive and sovereign is to succeed... 🔥thecfhk.org/hong-kong-a-pi…

Thanks to all who joined for last night's U.K. launch of our "'We Were Made to Suffer': Systemic Abuse and Political Control in Hong Kong's Prisons" report, authored by @thecfhk's @frances_hui & @SamuelBickett. Special thanks to @jameswnaish MP for hosting and tabling questions to @UKParliamenton on #HK prisons following the event. We also thank @SarahLudford for attending and her attention to the ongoing problems with the U.K. government's failure to adequately account for #HongKongers who are victims of political persecution — we look forward to working with you to ensure they receive safe haven, in line with Britain's historical obligations to Hong Kong. We heard harrowing testimony from @TonyChungHonLam, who contributed to our report (link below), and witnessed widespread physical & sexual abuse, as well as solitary confinement as a form of torture, during his three years behind bars on political charges. Chung also called attention to how HK National Security Police monitor, harass, and intimidate political prisoners even after their release, including pressuring them to inform on other dissidents. @JFSteinfeld flagged that Hong Kong's prison system is, until our landmark report, an almost entirely hidden yet pivotal aspect of the regime's crushing of #FreedomofExpression in HK and part of a wider system of repression that seeks to silence democracy advocates wherever they may be through #TransnationalRepression. Our President @MarkLClifford called for @UN_SPExperts to demand independent access to Hong Kong's prisons, and called on British and other democratic lawmakers to demand access to their citizens — not least #JimmyLai, himself a victim of most of the last five years spent alone in a tiny windowless cell. Read the full report: thecfhk.org/research/we-we…

A glimpse of Jimmy Lai years before his unjust imprisonment—out on the water, at home, living the life he worked so hard to build. Today, at 78, he sits in solitary confinement, serving a 20-year sentence for defending the freedoms that made moments like these possible. Jimmy Lai deserves to be free again. #FreeJimmyLai

Our president, @MarkLClifford is sharing key findings from our report on abuse and political control in #HK’s prisons: “We’ve uncovered a systemic culture of abuse and a broader cohesive structure focused on the more than 1300 political prisoners detained in #HongKong since 2019. “E.g. In 2024, there were more than 800 people in solitary in Hong Kong — 100% of them there of their own volition according to the HK govt, including #JimmyLai — that beggars belief.” We are calling on outside observers to request access to HK’s prison system and see for themselves.

.@JFSteinfeld of @IndexCensorship is focusing on how totalitarian regimes use coercion, threats and intimidation, including #TransnationalRepression, to crush opposition and silence those — like @TonyChungHonLam who manage to escape. “#HongKong has decided to make the price of dissent so high to try and stop it entirely — whether it be torture at home or locking up of loved ones for those overseas, like the case of @AnnaKwokFY’s father, sentenced to 8 months in prison just for being a dissident’s father.”

. @TonyChungHonLam, who carries a HK$1 million bounty from #HK national security police, is alongside @jameswnaish delivering his testimony of the physical and sexual abuse that was targeted at political prisoners like him during his unjust detention, including month-long solitary confinement and medical neglect leading to widespread infection of his cell mates as well as officers neglecting to provide hospital care to an epilepsy sufferer.

🚨HAPPENING NOW: Ready to go in a packed room ⁦@UKParliament⁩ with a stellar panel including ⁦⁦@MarkLClifford⁩, @JFSteinfeld & ⁦@TonyChungHonLam⁩ sharing shocking evidence & firsthand testimony of systemic abuse of political prisoners in #HongKong’s prisons.

Sebastien Lai, son of unjustly jailed #HongKong pro-democracy publisher #JimmyLai, tells @EditorsUK, that he recently received "very distressing news" about his father's health and warned that the 20-year prison sentence he received for standing up for a free press in #HK is equivalent to "a death sentence." #FreeJimmyLai independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…

🚨TONIGHT🚨 📷@UKParliament: Join us tonight for the U.K. launch of our new report in @HouseofCommons “We Were Made to Suffer: Systemic Abuse and Political Control Inside Hong Kong’s Prisons.” @jameswnaish will host a panel featuring @thecfhk President @MarkLClifford; @IndexCensorship CEO @JFSteinfeld and former #HongKongpolitical prisoner Tony Chung to discuss the harsh conditions political prisoners like #JimmyLai, Chow Hang-tung, Joshua Wong and 600+ others still detained are suffering in #HK’s prison system, and what the U.K. government can do to hold those responsible to account. Join us! Tonight at 17:30 RSVP required via info@thecfhk.org

.@thecfhk joined 34 other organizations urging Congress to mark up the bipartisan Transnational Repression Policy Act (H.R. 4829/S.2525) this spring. Between 2014 and 2024, 48 governments like China committed more than 1,200 acts of transnational repression across 103 countries, and diaspora communities in the U.S. are not safe. Congress must act now. #TransnationalRepression freedomhouse.org/article/reques…

#HongKong to lose another source of original reporting as @Yahoohongkong announces "phased wind-down" of news business stating in April. hongkongfp.com/2026/03/17/yah…

Yesterday, @thecfhk's @frances_hui joined family members of political prisoners and policy experts at @HudsonInstitute to discuss a roadmap for prisoner advocacy across China. If the U.S. engages Xi Jinping, @POTUS must press for the release of political prisoners, including #JimmyLai, #JoshuaWong, #GulshanAbbas, #PastorEzraJin, and #PastorGaoQuanfu.

📰 MUST READ: @KongTsungGan translates Chow Hang-tung's "statement to history" — part of her defense in the #HongKong regime's "incitement to subversion" prosecution targeting her and the #HongKong Alliance over their "end one party rule" slogan and #TiananmenSquare vigils. Chow's statement "cuts through the fog of deception that has prevailed in the #HK political and judicial system over the last six years" and gets to the heart of the "political status of Hong Kong as well as freedom and human rights." Rather than address the thorny constitutional questions raised by the NSL's imposition on Hong Kong, Chow argues the prosecution wants an open and shut case, centred on interpreting the meaning of a slogan that was certainly protected by Hong Kong's freedom of expression laws at the time it was made. briankernkongtsunggan.substack.com/p/chow-hang-tu…