Thank you for the excellent question. The honourable member is clearly very well informed about Hong Kong and the use of sedition laws and other threats.
It's a broad-based attack on civil society. We've seen scores of civil society organizations disband. The legal tactics are the most effective because they tend to focus the minds of the heads of organizations with the threat of prison or the threat of bankruptcy of the organizations. Banks, notably HSBC, have been very active in freezing accounts when asked to by the government, but I also think we have to look at the role of the Hong Kong elite and of the pro-Beijing media. I am among many people who have been attacked by Wen Wei Po which, along with Ta Kung Pao, is one of the two communist-dominated newspapers in Hong Kong. We're seeing a pattern with these media often quoting mainland Chinese experts, who will start attacking an individual or an organization, and if that individual or organization doesn't cease, desist or flee the territory, then the lawfare starts.
It's a broad and remarkably effective, from the communist perspective, attack on civil society organizations, education, and obviously the legal system and the media. For example, anyone who wanted to commemorate the June 4 Tiananmen Square killings in 1989 was effectively threatened with jail, bankruptcy or other punishment.
I would say the area that honourable members should also be looking at going forward is religion, because religion is one of the last independent institutions in Hong Kong. The Catholic and Protestant churches in particular are a source of education and a source of free thinking, and I think it will be interesting to see if these tactics are extended to them as well.
I thank the members for their interest.