China's Hong Kong crackdown escalates with mass opposition arrests
HONG KONG, China — China's crackdown in Hong Kong escalated dramatically on Wednesday with police arresting more than 50 opposition figures in their largest operation since a draconian security law was imposed on the financial hub.
The sweep is the latest salvo in Beijing's battle to stamp out dissent in the semi-autonomous city after millions hit the streets in 2019 with huge and sometimes violent democracy protests.
Police confirmed 53 people — including a US citizen — were arrested for "subversion" in an early morning operation that involved about 1,000 officers.
The charges were sparked by an attempt by opposition groups last year to win a majority in the city's partially-elected legislature.
Hong Kong's security chief John Lee described the arrests as "necessary" and aimed at a group of people who tried to "sink Hong Kong into an abyss" and "overthrow the government".
Beijing's Liaison Office in Hong Kong said those facing prosecution "strategically organised or implemented a plan to paralyse the government".
But the operation sparked a rebuke from Antony Blinken, US President-elect Joe Biden's pick for secretary of state, who said authorities were launching "an assault on those bravely advocating for universal rights".
"The Biden-Harris administration will stand with the people of Hong Kong and against Beijing's crackdown on democracy," he added.
Those detained represented a broad cross-section of Hong Kong's opposition, from veteran former pro-democracy lawmakers such as James To, Andrew Wan, Lam Cheuk-ting and Claudia Mo to a host of younger activists.
Among the youth campaigners were Gwyneth Ho, a former journalist turned social activist, district councillor Tiffany Yuen and Jeffrey Andrews, a campaigner known for working with ethnic minorities.
Colleagues of Joshua Wong, one of the city's most famous democracy activists, who is currently in jail, said via his official Facebook account that his home was searched.
'Night of the long knives'
National security police also searched a law firm known for taking on human rights cases.
John Clancey, an American lawyer working for the firm, was arrested on suspicion of subversion, two sources told AFP. It is the first time a US national has been detained under the new law.
A fluent Cantonese speaker and long-term Hong Kong resident, Clancey is a veteran legal activist.
"Continue to work for democracy and human rights in Hong Kong," he told reporters as he was led away by officers.
The police operation also involved the media.
Three local news outlets — Stand News, Apple Daily and Inmediahk — said national security police visited to request documents.
Some of the remaining members of Hong Kong's rapidly diminishing pro-democracy block gathered for a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, raising fists and shouting "Free all political prisoners!"
Nathan Law, a prominent democracy leader who fled overseas last year, used social media to accuse authorities of trying to "extinguish the flames of resistance" in the city.
The foundations of Wednesday's mass arrests were laid last summer when pro-democracy parties organised an unofficial primary for local legislative elections which were ultimately scrapped altogether.
Only half the legislature's 70-seats are popularly elected. The campaign's aim was to win all 35 elected seats and take a majority in the legislature for the first time and try to block government policies.
More than 600,000 Hong Kongers turned out to vote in the unofficial poll which infuriated Beijing.
Chinese officials at the time warned any attempt to win a majority and block government policies constituted "subversion" under the new security law.
New security powers
The national security law was imposed on Hong Kong in late June in response to the 2019 protests, targeting acts Beijing deems to be secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.
Officials said the security law would only target an "extreme minority".
But it swiftly silenced dissent and outlawed a host of peaceful political views with dozens of prominent figures targeted even before Wednesday's operation.
Over the course of the last year, prominent democracy supporters have been arrested, jailed, barred from politics or have fled overseas.
National security crimes carry a maximum of life in prison and bail is not usually granted for those who are charged.
The law also toppled the legal firewall between Hong Kong's independent judiciary and the mainland's Communist Party-controlled courts.
China has claimed jurisdiction over especially serious security crimes and has allowed its security agents to operate openly in the city for the first time.
Millions march in Hong Kong in a powerful rebuke of an extradition law feared to expose them to China's capricious justice system.
Hong Kong national security police on Thursday detained four people, including the brother of prominent activist Dennis Kwok, one of eight fugitives with bounties on their heads for allegedly breaching national security.
The city's national security department "took in two men and two women from various districts in Hong Kong and Kowloon for investigation," a police source told AFP.
Among the four was the elder brother of former democracy lawmaker Dennis Kwok, who is currently in the United States.
"(Kwok's elder brother) is now under investigation in the Western District police station," the source said.
Three others, "two women and a man", were taken in Tuesday by the national security department, authorities told AFP earlier Thursday.
AFP has requested comment from police on the most recent detentions. — AFP
Three family members of exiled democracy activist Nathan Law have been taken in for questioning on Tuesday, days after authorities issued a bounty on him and seven others accused of breaching the city's national security law.
Police officers from the national security department brought in Law's parents and elder brother without formally arresting them, a police source confirmed to AFP.
"It's understood that officers from the NSD took three people -- Nathan Law's parents and elder brother -- in for questioning," they said.
"So far, no arrest has been made." — AFP
The United States condemns Hong Kong authorities for issuing bounties linked to democracy activists based abroad, saying the move sets a dangerous precedent that could threaten human rights.
Hong Kong police offered bounties of HK$1 million (about $127,600) for information leading to the capture of eight prominent dissidents who live abroad and are wanted for national security crimes.
"The United States condemns the Hong Kong Police Force's issuance of an international bounty" against the eight activists, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says in a statement.
"The extraterritorial application of the Beijing-imposed National Security Law is a dangerous precedent that threatens the human rights and fundamental freedoms of people all over the world," he adds, saying China is engaging in "transnational repression efforts."
"We call on the Hong Kong government to immediately withdraw this bounty, respect other countries' sovereignty, and stop the international assertion of the National Security Law imposed by Beijing." — AFP
Hong Kong's top court has quashed the conviction of a journalist in relation to her investigation into an attack on democracy supporters by government loyalists in 2019.
It was a rare victory for the press industry in a city where two major independent news outlets have been forced to shut down since Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020.
"Happy -- I could not think of another word that can describe my mood right now," veteran journalist Bao Choy said outside the Court of Final Appeal after the judgement was handed down.
"I think this kind of happiness belongs to everyone in society." — AFP
Hong Kong police detained Alexandra Wong, a prominent democracy activist better known as "Grandma Wong" on Sunday, the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, AFP reporters said.
Wong was carrying flowers in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay shopping district, an area that for years was the site of June 4, 1989, commemorations, before authorities escorted her to a police van. AFP reporters saw a total of six people bundled into police vehicles. — AFP
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