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Archives: Dispatches

All Lingua Sinica Dispatches

Hong Kong Security Bureau and i-CABLE Launch National Security Series

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On June 30, 2026, Hong Kong’s Security Bureau launched NS Files: Decoded (國安檔案解密), a five-episode television series produced directly by the bureau to mark the sixth anniversary of the Hong Kong National Security Law’s implementation. The series revisited five prosecuted national security cases, including that of motorcyclist Leon Tong Ying-kit (唐英傑), the law’s first convicted defendant. It aired on Hong Kong broadcaster i-CABLE’s HOY78 channel, hosted by television personality Ken Chan (陳啟泰) alongside National Security Department Chief Superintendent Steve Li Kwai-wah (李桂華). Security Secretary Chris Tang (鄧炳強) said the program aimed to remind the public that national security risks persist. In clear coordination of the campaign with PRC state media, the bureau confirmed to the Global Times, an outlet under the Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily, that each episode was also uploaded to its official Douyin account, extending the series to mainland Chinese audiences, while China News Service reported on the launch by citing Hong Kong media coverage. Hong Kong’s National Security Law was imposed directly by China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee in 2020. Because the law has a direct impact on the media environment and media freedoms in Hong Kong, and because the territory’s national security enforcement operates in coordination with central government bodies, this database treats media and national security cooperation in Hong Kong as a cross-territory engagement.

RTHK and China’s Foreign Ministry Office Produce Diplomacy Contest Series

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On June 22, 2025, Hong Kong’s public broadcaster RTHK aired coverage of the 17th Hong Kong Cup Diplomatic Knowledge Contest (香港盃外交知識競賽), part of an ongoing diplomacy-knowledge education program the broadcaster produces annually. Running since 2007, the contest is jointly organized by the Office of the Commissioner of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong’s Education Bureau, and the Better Hong Kong Foundation, and is aimed at secondary and primary school students. RTHK’s coverage, linked above, described its content as built around “diplomatic knowledge, the Basic Law, and the Greater Bay Area,” intended to deepen public understanding of China’s diplomacy and its relevance to Hong Kong. A launch ceremony for the 17th edition was held in December 2024 at the Foreign Ministry’s Hong Kong office, officiated by Deputy Commissioner Li Yongsheng (李永勝), Better Hong Kong Foundation chief executive Sonia Tang Shuk-tak (鄧淑德), and then-RTHK Director of Broadcasting Cheung Kwok-choi (張國財).

Sing Tao News Corporation and HK Police Run National Security Youth Contests

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Hong Kong’s National Security Department, a unit of the Hong Kong Police Force, organized NStudio (NStudio同心‧共創‧護國安), a national security-themed marketing proposal competition for primary and secondary school students, with Sing Tao News Corporation Limited listed as a supporting organization alongside the Security Bureau, the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau, and the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers. Students submitted creative campaigns built around the concept of a “holistic national security outlook” (總體國家安全觀), and under the competition’s official rules, copyright of entries was assigned to police, who could then edit, translate, and redistribute the material without further consent or payment. At an awards ceremony, Security Secretary Chris Tang and acting Police Commissioner Simon Kan Kai-yan (簡啟恩) attended to honor winning entries, which included AI-generated game cards and virtual-reality role-play scenarios. Sing Tao’s English-language paper, The Standard, covered a related police-run video contest, NStory, whose judging panel has included film director Lee Lik-chi and legislator Tang Fei. Hong Kong’s National Security Law was imposed directly by China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee in 2020. Because the law has a direct impact on the media environment and media freedoms in Hong Kong, and because the territory’s national security enforcement operates in coordination with central government bodies, this database treats media and national security cooperation in Hong Kong as a cross-territory engagement.

RTHK Produces Cross-Media Musical for National Security Education Day

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On June 26, 2022, Hong Kong’s public broadcaster RTHK premieredBauhinia in Bloom — Cross-Media Musical Performance (紫荊花開—跨媒體音樂匯演), a 70-minute, five-act production commissioned by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s Committee for Safeguarding National Security to mark 2022’s National Security Education Day. Composed, written, and directed by Mei Kwong-chiu (梅廣釗), chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Composers and a member of the China Musicians Association, a mainland state-affiliated body, the performance involved more than 170 performers, including the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, the Hong Kong Dance Company, and several lion dance and martial arts troupes, and used orchestral, choral, and dance elements to narrate what the Committee’s event page described as the “significant historical development of the motherland and Hong Kong over the past century,” promoting the “holistic national security outlook” (總體國家安全觀). That page confirms the program “was produced by RTHK.” National Security Education Day has been co-organized since 2021 by Hong Kong’s national security committee together with the Central People’s Government’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong and the central government’s Office for Safeguarding National Security, both directly named as supporting organizers in official announcements of the event.

Italpress Signs Deal with Xinhua

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On December 17, 2025, Italian news agency Italpress signed a cooperation agreement with Xinhua, China’s state news agency, a ministerial-level body operating under China’s State Council and the Chinese Communist Party’s Propaganda apparatus. The two agencies signed the deal at a media and think tank forum in Rome, which Xinhua’s European Regional Office organized with support from the Chinese Embassy in Italy. Neither Italpress nor Xinhua has published the text of the agreement, though Italpress has since created a dedicated “Xinhua” section on its website, republishing Xinhua-produced articles on Chinese politics, technology, and diplomacy, translated into English, as its own coverage. Italpress director Gaspare Borsellino called the deal a step toward “more qualified, thorough, and quality” journalism, language that echoes Chinese Communist Party framing of state media professionalism, and said Italpress would open a bureau in Beijing in January 2026 as part of its international expansion. Tian Fan (田帆), director of Xinhua’s European Regional Office, said the agency would continue presenting China to Italy in a “vivid and multifaceted” way. Chinese Embassy chargé d’affaires Li Xiaoyong (李小勇) said the deal would help “authentic information” “cross borders” and build “mutual trust” between the two countries.

Italpress and CCTV Sign Content-Sharing Agreement

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On May 28, 2025, Italian news agency Italpress, based in Palermo, announced a content-sharing agreement with CCTV+ (央視國際視訊通訊社), the international video news agency of China Media Group (中央廣播電視總台), which operates under the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department. Under the agreement, Italpress will distribute its multimedia content in China while incorporating CCTV+ footage into its own coverage for subscribers in Italy and abroad. Italpress founder Gaspare Borsellino called the agreement “an important and exciting international partnership” that would help the agency reach new markets. CCTV+ director Li Xia (李霞) said the partnership reflected “growing mutual trust and cooperation between Chinese and Italian media,” and that both sides would pursue “authoritative, credible, and internationally influential journalistic content,” a characterization consistent with CCP framing of state media as objective and professional — even as the same CCP discourse emphasizes the primacy of the Party leadership over media and public opinion, following hardline comments on media policy made by Xi Jinping in February 2016. 

Hong Kong Security Bureau

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The Security Bureau (保安局) is a policy bureau of the Hong Kong government responsible for law and order, immigration and customs control, offender and drug rehabilitation, and emergency fire and rescue services. It oversees Hong Kong’s disciplined forces (meaning “uniformed”), including the Hong Kong Police Force, the Correctional Services Department, and the Immigration Department, according to the bureau’s own description of its mandate. Since the 2020 imposition of the Hong Kong National Security Law by China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee, the bureau has taken a central role in implementing and publicizing national security enforcement, including gazetting amendments to the law’s implementing rules and producing its own media content, such as the 2026 television series NS Files: Decoded. The bureau is headed by the Secretary for Security, a principal official appointed by the Chief Executive.

Hong Kong National Security Department

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The National Security Department (國家安全處) is a specialized unit within the Hong Kong Police Force established to enforce the Hong Kong National Security Law. According to a Hong Kong government announcement made when the law was gazetted, police would establish the department on July 1, 2020, the day after the law took effect. The department is led by a Deputy Commissioner of Police for National Security, a position outside the force’s ordinary operations and management command structure, and works alongside the central government’s Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong. Its official mandate, as described by the police force, includes collecting and analyzing national security intelligence, investigating offenses that endanger national security, conducting counter-interference investigations and national security reviews, and carrying out tasks assigned by the territory’s Committee for Safeguarding National Security. The department has also organized national security-themed youth media competitions, including NStudio and NStory, and its officers have appeared as featured guests in Security Bureau-produced media content such as the television series NS Files: Decoded.

Sing Tao News Corporation Limited

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Sing Tao News Corporation Limited (星島新聞集團有限公司), also known as the Sing Tao Group (星島新聞集團), is a Hong Kong media company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange whose flagship title, Sing Tao Daily, was first published in 1938. The present holding company traces to 1996, when it was incorporated as Perfect Treasure Holdings before being acquired and renamed by businessman Charles Ho Tsu-kwok, who chaired the group from 2001 to 2021 and was, according to the South China Morning Post, a standing committee member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a national political advisory body under the Chinese Communist Party. In 2021, Ho sold a controlling stake to Kwok Hiu-ting, an executive of Mainland Chinese property developer Kaisa Group, and her father Kwok Ying-shing, Kaisa’s chairman, became Sing Tao’s chairman. The group’s titles include Sing Tao Daily, the English-language Standard, and free daily Headline Daily, and it has supported National Security Department-run youth competitions including NStudio and NStory.