Strike against democracy movement: wave of arrests hits Hong Kong

Strike against democracy movement
Arrest wave goes over Hong Kong

The controversial State Security Act was introduced six months ago – since then, the Hong Kong government has been cracking down on the opposition and other democratic forces. Now the police are making their biggest blow to date.

In their biggest blow to date against the opposition since the introduction of the controversial security law, the Hong Kong police arrested around 50 democratic activists. As Hong Kong media reported, the arrests are related to the unofficial primaries held by opposition forces last year before the election to the legislative council, the Hong Kong parliament, which was later canceled due to the pandemic. The arrested were accused of having committed a threat to the state by participating in the primaries and the objectives pursued there, and of having violated the security law introduced at the end of June.

227992713.jpg "data-src =" https://apps-cloud.n-tv.de/img/22272618-1609919365000/4-3/750/227992713.jpg "class =" lazyload "/> </picture><figcaption><p class=Lam Cheuk-ting, a member of the Democratic Party, is arrested by police.

(Photo: picture alliance / dpa / TVB / AP)

According to the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post, those arrested included former MPs such as Lam Cheuk-ting, Andrew Wan and Alvin Yeung. Well-known activist Benny Tai was also arrested. In addition, the apartment of the prominent activist Joshua Wong, who is already in jail for organizing an illegal protest, was searched.

A US citizen is also among those arrested, as AFP learned from judicial and police circles. Accordingly, it is the lawyer John Clancey, who works for the law firm Ho Tse Wai and Partners. The firm is known for dealing with human rights abuses. The police searched their offices on Wednesday.

Opposition blockade plans

The democratic camp organized the primary elections in July with the aim of selecting candidates who enjoyed the greatest possible support from the population. Around 600,000 Hong Kong people took part in the elections. At that time there were plans in the opposition to systematically block important government decisions with a strong faction in the Hong Kong parliament.

This idea and the selection of candidates met with sharp criticism from the government, which is cracking down on the democracy movement with a hard hand. Several well-known activists had been sentenced to prison terms for relatively minor offenses in the past few months.

Sharp criticism from abroad

A number of Hong Kong activists had recently fled to other countries out of fear of prosecution under the new Hong Kong State Security Act. The enactment of the law at the end of June in response to demonstrations in Hong Kong that had been going on for a year had met with sharp international criticism. It is directed against activities that Beijing sees as subversive, separatist, terrorist or conspiratorial.

Since July 1, 1997, Hong Kong has been part of China again, but is governed according to the principle of "one country, two systems". This agreement actually provides that Hong Kongers will enjoy "a high degree of autonomy" and many freedoms for 50 years until 2047. However, since the Security Act was passed, many have only talked about "one country, one system".

. (tagsToTranslate) politics (t) Hong Kong (t) China (t) democracy