National Security Law Threatens Hong Kong’s Publishers, Booksellers

Hong Kong’s booksellers and publishers, long known as champions of freedom of expression in the Chinese territory, are now under greater threat following the new National Security Law enacted in July.Now, booksellers could run afoul of laws that carry strict punishments for vague offenses such as “separating the country” and “subverting state power.”Hillway Press, an independent publishing house in Hong Kong, has been mainly publishing online novels and textbooks. After last year’s anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill movement, it began publishing books on social issues. The publisher said authorities are looking for an excuse to publicly punish someone as an example to others.”The printing house has received the information that politicians are looking for publishers of political books to kill the chickens to scare the monkeys,” said a Hillway Press executive who requested anonymity and is referred to as Mr. C.He said the chilling effect had appeared long before the adoption of the national security law. The company’s latest publication, “To Freedom,” which included articles about the anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill movement, was rejected by six printing houses.Bookseller Lam Wing-kee waves to supporters outside his Causeway Bay Books bookstore before taking part in a protest march in Hong Kong, June 18, 2016.The book’s planning and drafting began in April. When the draft was finished at the end of May, China’s Communist Party put the Hong Kong version of the national security law on the National People’s Congress Standing Committee’s agenda. A long-term printing house partner of the publishing house suddenly changed its mind and declined to print the book because of the sensitive content. Hillway Press had to have the book printed and bound at different companies so it could be published.”To Freedom” contains many words that criticize the Communist Party of China. To protect interviewees and business partners, the publishing house deleted the sensitive content. “Liberate” has been changed to “free” and “reconstruct.” “Anti-CCP” has been taken out. Paragraphs discussing “Hong Kong independence” have been deleted, and illustrations with the words “Liberate Hong Kong” on the cover have been reduced in transparency.”I am deeply saddened by this self-castration,” said Mr. C. “Under the new legal framework, the publishing industry’s biggest concern is where the red line is.”The blurry legal definition leads to white terror, which leads to fewer social issues that can be explored and, as a result, fewer books that can be published. Mr. C expects Hong Kong’s publishing industry to shrink.”The most frightening thing about the national security law is that there have been no official and clear instructions as to which words and subject matters can be published and which cannot be mentioned. Under such circumstances, we are actually very worried that we will break the law by accident,” he said.On the fourth day of the legislation becoming law, the Hong Kong Public Library immediately took at least nine political books off its shelves, including the works of Chen Yun, a scholar, Joshua Wong, an activist, and Tanya Chan, a Legislative Council member.”All along, what best reflected freedom of speech in Hong Kong is our freedom of the press,” said Mr. C. “For a long time, Hong Kong was a place where a hundred flowers bloomed, a hundred schools of thought contended. The books that are banned in Taiwan and mainland China could be bought in Hong Kong. With the national security law, some subjects can no longer be discussed, and some words will not be able to get published.”A column of books on the 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy movement, with a tag which reads “Don’t forget June 4th”, are displayed inside a bookstore in Hong Kong which sells books that banned in mainland China, Nov. 6, 2012.Hong Kong Reader Bookstore is an independent bookstore that sells books on humanities and social sciences, with political books accounting for about 30% of the bookstore’s sales. Daniel Lee, the store’s director, also said the terrible thing about the national security law was the blurring of the redlines.”The usual practice in Hong Kong is that as long as the government does not specify what is illegal, we can do it. However, it has always been the practice in the mainland that you do not know that you have broken the law until the moment you are arrested.”Lee pointed out that there was no clear list of which titles would be officially banned from sale, causing problems for bookstores.”Maybe until one day when the national security police suddenly show up at the bookstore, we won’t know that a book is forbidden. But we will have already broken the law by accident.”Lee said that when he opened the bookstore, he only wanted to promote Hong Kong’s reading culture and never thought that selling books would become a political mission.”We didn’t choose to be on the front line of freedom of speech,” he said. “But in the end, freedom of expression in Hong Kong is endangered, and as bookstores, we have become the reluctant center of this matter.”Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.

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US House to Subpoena Postmaster General Over Mail Delays

The House Oversight Committee intends to subpoena Postmaster General Louis DeJoy for documents about disruptions in mail delivery operations that are now central to questions over the ability to handle an onslaught of mail-in ballots expected for the November election. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., the committee chair, sent a memo Monday saying DeJoy blew past last week’s deadline to fully respond to the committee’s request for more information. He has not provided any new materials, she said. “It is clear that a subpoena has become necessary to further the Committee’s investigation and help inform potential legislative actions,” she said. Democrats are aggressively pursuing oversight of postal operations after President Donald Trump railed against mail-in ballots. Trump suggested he wanted to starve the Postal Service of funds to make it more difficult to handle the surge expected in November.DeJoy, who was tapped to lead the agency in June, started quickly initiating changes at a time when the agency was already straining under the COVID-19 crisis. Reports of delays soon piled up.  FILE – Postmaster General Louis DeJoy removes his face mask as he arrives to testify before a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on the Postal Service on Capitol Hill, August 24, 2020, in Washington.Communities across the nation complained about widespread disruptions in postal operations this summer as blue mailboxes and sorting equipment were removed and employees said changes in trucking operations and overtime hours left mail on the loading docks, undelivered.  The committee produced internal postal service data showing widespread summer service disruptions.  DeJoy, who testified before the panel earlier this month, reiterated in a letter last Friday that the changes he was initiating are now being suspended “until after the election is concluded.” The committee is seeking documents about the changes, including the removal of sorting equipment and changes to overtime rules, which could be impeding mail delivery. The panel also wants information about how DeJoy, who had no previous postal experience, was selected for the job, as well as any previously “undisclosed communication between Mr. DeJoy and the Trump campaign.” DeJoy in his Friday letter to the panel said the postal leadership team has expanded an Election Mail task force to work with local election officials in support of the November election to ensure ballots are delivered “securely and on time.”  DeJoy also said his staff was working with the committee to provide the materials being requested. FILE – Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 5, 2020.Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., chairman of the panel’s Government Operations Subcommittee, said, “Mr. DeJoy’s testimony before our committee has left us with more questions than answers. “Congress must assert itself,” Connolly said. “The public demands it. Today’s action is a necessary step in our efforts to hold the Trump administration accountable for its deliberate sabotage of the Postal Service, and to restore confidence in this revered American institution.” But the top Republican on the Oversight panel, Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, called the decision to subpoena DeJoy part of a pattern by Democrats “to promote a baseless conspiracy theory about the Postal Service.”  Comer called the subpoena “overly broad” and said Democrats should work with the Postal Service and Republicans “to address their concerns.” 

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US EPA Rolls Back Limits on Wastewater from Coal Plants

The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday rolled back Obama administration rules limiting levels of toxic materials in wastewater released from coal plants, its latest effort to slash environmental regulations for the coal industry as the Trump administration’s first term winds down. The EPA finalized “effluent limitations” for two types of waste from coal plants, a savings of $140 million annually for industry. “Newer, more affordable pollution control technologies and flexibility on the regulation’s phase-in will reduce pollution and save jobs at the same time,” agency administrator Andrew Wheeler said. A senior EPA official said the final rule would reduce pollution by nearly a million pounds per year over the 2015 rule, though environmental groups said the rollback lets industry use cheaper, less effective treatment methods on polluted wastewater that puts waterways at risk. The changes apply to flue gas desulfurization (FGD) wastewater and bottom ash transport waste. The rollback eases requirements for how they are treated before being released, offers a “flexible, phase-in approach” for implementation and pushes back compliance dates. “The Trump administration’s rollback will be responsible for hundreds of thousands of pounds of pollutants contaminating sources of drinking water, lakes, rivers and streams every year,” said Thomas Cmar, deputy managing attorney of Earthjustice, who said the group will sue the EPA over the rollback. The EPA proposed the rollback in November after initially delaying implementation of the 2015 Obama proposal, which sought to force coal-fired power plants to shut down unlined coal ash pits in 2019 and recycle 100% of their system’s water. The 2019 proposal gave coal plants more time to either retrofit or shut down unlined ash pits or ponds where plants store coal ash waste, which contain carcinogens like arsenic and neurotoxins that can seep from these into nearby waterways. The National Mining Association welcomed the final rule. “The coal industry wants to be able to compete while also safeguarding important environmental protections – this rule shows that balance is possible,” said its president, Rich Nolan.  

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