The U.S. State Department has expressed serious concerns about the continued deterioration of freedoms in Hong Kong, telling Beijing to cease its “politically motivated prosecutions” and release those “unjustly detained” in the regime’s ever-expanding clampdown. “We note in particular the increase in politically motivated prosecutions, including through the National Security Law, targeting Hong Kong’s teachers, labor unions, lawyers, journalists, health care workers, student unions, and individual citizens,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement. “We again call on the Beijing and Hong Kong authorities to release those unjustly detained and cease their crackdown on peaceful civil society organizations.” Price’s remarks come as Beijing has quickened its steps to roll back the territory’s freedoms, with observers noting that Hong Kong is on track to mirror other Chinese cities. Civil society groups in Hong Kong have been dissolving in quick succession under the Beijing-imposed national security law, which carries a maximum …
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