Hong Kong police yesterday arrested a seventh person under the territory’s new security law in relation to social media posts about commemorating Beijing’s 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre.
The latest arrest comes after an EU spokesperson said law enforcement actions suggest the new legislation “is used to stifle freedom of expression.”
Authorities said the 53-year-old woman taken in was suspected of “offenses in connection with seditious intention,” following the arrests of six people over the same case a day earlier.
Photo: AP
Hong Kong Secretary for Security Chris Tang (鄧炳強) had on Tuesday identified one of those arrested as Chow Hang-tung (鄒幸彤), a prominent activist who led the now-disbanded group that used to organize annual vigils to mark the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
The group of seven are the first people to be arrested under the “Safeguarding National Security Ordinance” — commonly referred to as Article 23 — which Hong Kong enacted in March and penalizes those found guilty of sedition with a prison term of up to seven years.
“The enforcement action is still ongoing, and the possibility of further arrests is not ruled out,” the National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force said yesterday.
Hong Kong used to be the only place on Chinese soil where people could openly mourn those who died on June 4, 1989, when the government sent troops and tanks to crush democracy demonstrations in Beijing.
Yet commemorative events have been driven underground in Hong Kong since Beijing’s crackdown on dissent, following huge pro-democracy protests in 2019.
A spokesperson for the EU yesterday said the “arrests seem to confirm the EU’s concerns about the new law and its effect on the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong.”
“While we need to assess the details of the individual cases, the arrests suggest that the new law is used to stifle freedom of expression of the people of Hong Kong,” they said.
The EU “calls on the Hong Kong authorities to protect the ability of the people of Hong Kong to exercise their rights and freedoms,” the spokesperson said.
Amnesty International’s China director Sarah Brooks called the arrests a “shameful attempt to prohibit people from marking the upcoming anniversary.”
The government has weaponized the new security law to “silence critique,” despite warnings from UN human rights experts, Brooks said.
Chow is already serving more than 30 months in jail for other charges, including “unauthorized assembly” for her attempt to publicly commemorate June 4.
She and two other leaders of the group who organized the vigil are awaiting trial for another national security case, where they are accused of “incitement to subversion.”
Authorities connected Chow’s latest arrest to a Facebook page called “Chow Hang-tung Club,” which in the past few weeks has called on the public to write about their experiences related to Tiananmen vigils.
“We hope that all Hongkongers worldwide ... who have participated in the candlelight vigils over the past 30 years will write testimonies together,” one post read.
The vigil, which once drew tens of thousands to Hong Kong’s Victoria Park, has been banned since 2020.
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
RSS