Ines Tang is not the only self-righteous “patriot” who has devoted himself to causing trouble for others in conquered Hong Kong. But he’s the guy that the BBC interviewed for several weeks to see how a person of his type thinks (“ ‘We’re watching you’: Man reports dozens of fellow Hong Kongers for ‘anti-Chinese’ behavior,” Vijesti, May 11, 2025).
From a woman waving a colonial-era flag in a shopping mall to bakery employees selling cakes with protest symbols, one man has reported dozens of people in Hong Kong to the police for what he believes are violations of national security.
“We are lurking in every corner of society, watching to see if there is anything suspicious that might violate the National Security Act,” Ines Tang, a former banker, tells the BBC….
He and his volunteers take screenshots of any social media activity or comments they believe might violate national security law.
He also opened a tip line and urged followers on social media to share information about people around them.
Tang says he and his followers have reported nearly 100 individuals and organizations to the authorities.
“Does reporting work? We wouldn’t be doing it if it didn’t.”
“The police have opened cases against many, and some have received prison sentences,” he adds.
The report doesn’t say who did what to get the prison sentences that Tang (shown above) brags about.
His tip line is a minor supplement to the Hong Kong government’s national security hotline, also set up to enable people to sound the alert about such evildoing as waving the wrong flags and selling the wrong cakes. According to Hong Kong’s security bureau, this official hotline received 890,000 reports between November 2020 and February 2025.
The former British colony, turned over to the People’s Republic of China in 1997, is suffering under the repression imposed by two National Security Laws (2020, 2024) designed to crush any spirit of independence in the former British colony. An estimated 300,000 Hongkongers have left the city for good over the last several years.
Tang isn’t entirely on board with the way things are done in the new Hong Kong. He offers a skeptical note about the Legislative Council, which, after reforms in 2021, is now to be staffed only by Chinese Communist Party loyalists. “I don’t want every law to pass with 90 percent of the vote,” he allows.
The BBC notes in conclusion that Tang has stopped snitching on people for now. “Balance and stability, he believes, have returned to Hong Kong.”
Also see:
Human Rights Watch: Hong Kong: Targeting of Exiled Activists’ Families Escalates
“The Hong Kong police arrested the father of a prominent US-based activist, Anna Kwok, on April 30, 2025, and charged him with a national security crime, Human Rights Watch said today. The arrest of Kwok Yin-sang was the first such prosecution of a family member of an exiled activist.”
