Hong Kong pro-democracy group Demosisto has Lunar New Year bags ‘censored’ after mainland Chinese firm refuses to print logo
- Demosisto claims its logo had to be removed from tote before it was cleared for production
- Democratic Party says request for satirical cartoons of Hong Kong politicians was also turned down
Mainland Chinese manufacturers have refused to print certain Lunar New Year products containing political slogans or satire, according to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp.
Localist group Demosisto claimed a mainland printing company, commissioned by a firm in Hong Kong, had asked to remove the group’s logo and name from a tote bag before it was cleared for production. Demosisto will sell the bags, without the logo, at a new year fair which opens on Wednesday.
“Staff [on the mainland] said they were told by the authorities about a list of Chinese or English words that could not be printed,” Demosisto chairman Ivan Lam Long-yin said.
“The staff said the list was not only against Demosisto – any reference to Hong Kong independence could not be printed.”
A Democratic Party request to print banners with satirical cartoons of Hong Kong politicians, including Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, was also rejected.
“The manufacturers flat out rejected us, even though the design did not contain the Democratic Party’s logo,” said Kelvin Lai King-wai, the head of the party’s creative media division.
