Not just restaurants. Strictures now being imposed under Hong Kong’s National Security Law to punish criticism of the Chinese Communist Party “also apply to gaming centers, market stalls, and even funeral parlors,” reports Bitter Winter.
But Hong Kong restaurants are a top target, and it was restaurant owners who contacted Bitter Winter to express their fears (“Hong Kong: If Your Employee Criticizes the CCP, Your Restaurant Will Be Closed,” June 26, 2025).
According to letters issued in May by the Hong Kong’s Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, your license to run a business in Hong Kong can be revoked if you or anyone associated with it does anything to threaten “national security.” In Party propaganda, “national security” is an elastic concept used to rationalize repression or punishment of any kind of protest or criticism of the state, a citadel that can all too easily come tumbling down.
In the revised food business license application form effective May 2025, it is now required for applicants to endorse a specific clause through their signature. This amendment aims to ensure compliance with updated regulatory standards. It reads as follows: “I shall ensure that no act or activity engaged or involved in by me or any of my related persons…may constitute or cause the occurrence of an offense endangering national security under the National Security Law or other laws of the HKSAR, or conduct [that] is otherwise contrary to the interests of national security or the interest of the public (including public morals, public order and/or public safety) of Hong Kong.”
Hong Kong’s regime is not concerned about fry cooks who are doubling as spies or saboteurs. “Endangering public safety” by doing something that discernibly endangers people, like poisoning or shooting customers, is presumably already illegal. This latest descent of the hammer is all about “mechanisms designed to suppress dissenting voices in Hong Kong.”
Enforcement will be selective. If every Hongkonger happens to bitch about the party-state simultaneously, officials will not shut down all businesses. But selective and arbitrary enforcement—production of plenty of examples to serve the function of putting everybody else on notice—is all that a totalitarian government needs to strike (more) fear into the hearts of men and extract the greatest possible submission.
