The election of President-elect Joe Biden as US Secretary of State denounced Hong Kong’s arrest of dozens of opposition figures under a controversial national security law, an unprecedented crackdown that included a US lawyer.
Police said they swept away 53 people in Wednesday’s operation and that about 1,000 officers were sent to make the arrests. Among those arrested were several prominent former parliamentarians, and the charges focused on an informal primary that drew more than 600,000 voters in July to choose candidates in the September legislative elections, which were later postponed by the government.
45 men and eight women were arrested, Li Kwai-wah, chief superintendent of the Hong Kong Police National Security Division, said in a briefing. He said police visited the offices of four local media outlets, asking for information about the mayor.
“The comprehensive arrests of pro-democracy protesters are an assault on those who bravely advocate for universal rights,” Antony Blinken, Biden’s candidate for secretary of state, wrote on Twitter. “The Biden-Harris administration will stand by the people of Hong Kong and against the repression of democracy in Beijing.”
Police arrested lawyer John Clancey, who served as treasurer for the primary organizers, according to Jonathan Man, a partner at Ho Tse Wai & Partners in Hong Kong, which has handled hundreds of protests and where Clancey is a lawyer. Man said Clancey is a US citizen, potentially providing a new source of tension between Beijing and Washington.
Photographer: Chan Long Hei / Bloomberg
Clancey is also chairman of the Asian Human Rights Commission and the Asian Legal Resource Center and a founding member of the China Rights Rights Lawyers Concern Group, according to his Ho Tse Wai biography page.
What are the new laws adopted by China for Hong Kong ?: QuickTake
The mass arrests of pro-democracy activists largely accelerate continued political repression in the Asian financial center, leading to the condemnation of foreign governments, US sanctions and the suspension of numerous extradition treaties with Hong Kong. The move comes as the outgoing Trump administration continues to hit Beijing over its assertive policies in the city and as Biden prepares to take office this month, with China being one of the main challenges to his administration’s foreign policy.
“This is a total sweep of all opposition leaders,” he said Victoria Hui, an associate professor at the University of Notre Dame, specializing in Hong Kong politics. “If you run for office and try to win elections, it means subversion, it is clear that NSL aims to completely subjugate the people of Hong Kong. There should be no waiting for the elections, in any sense that we know if and when elections will take place in the future. “
The authorities are responsible
Security Secretary John Lee he said in an afternoon briefing that the activists had been arrested for intending to create “mutual destruction” in an attempt to paralyze the government and that detention for the alleged subversion was necessary. Opposition figures wanted to throw the city into an “abyss,” Lee said.
Former MPs Alvin Yeung, James To, Andrew Wan and Lam Cheuk-ting, as well as prominent academician and activist Benny Tai, have been arrested by the national security branch of the police on charges of subversion, according to Facebook posts and media reports. Former MP Claudia Mo, one of the city’s most sincere critics of China’s Hong Kong policies, was also detained.
Benny Tai, the center, arrives at the Ma On Shan police station after being arrested in Hong Kong on January 6.
Photographer: Chan Long Hei / Bloomberg
The national security law was imposed by Beijing on the former British colony in June, prompting a US-led international condemnation that Beijing is giving up its promises to guarantee the city’s unique freedoms following its return to Chinese rule.
While Chinese officials have justified the law – which bans subversion, terrorism, secession and collusion with foreign forces – as a necessary tool to calm local unrest and restore the city’s stability after the historic protests of 2019, the law has so far been mainly used. against nonviolent political opponents and dissidents.
Hong Kong courts are the latest check on Beijing’s growing power
Pro-government lawmaker Holden Chow posted on Twitter that those arrested on Wednesday violated security law because they had a “clear purpose to paralyze” the local government and threatened to “remove Chinese sovereignty over Hong Kong.” Continental and Constitutional Affairs Secretary Erick Tsang said before the mayor in July last year that he could violate national security legislation.
At the time, Tai dismissed such criticism of the mayor as “absurd.”
Full primary
opposition the primary contest at the center of the last police tournament drew 610,000 people to the polls – more than 13% of the city’s registered voters – in a joint procedural exercise in democracies around the world. Participation highlighted the momentum generated by the historic protest movement in Hong Kong, which the pro-democracy opposition hopes to capitalize on in the Legislative Council elections originally scheduled for September.
Opposition figures hoped to access a provision in the city book to force chief executive Carrie Lam to resign by voting on his budget. The mayor was condemned by China’s top agencies for Hong Kong as an “illegal manipulation” of the city’s electoral system and a violation of national security law.
People line up at the polling station to vote during the informal primary election, to select candidates for the upcoming legislative elections, July 2020.
Photographer: Lam Yik / Bloomberg
The Hong Kong government first disqualified a number of opposition figures and then delayed the election by a full year, citing the coronavirus.
US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said at the time that there was “no valid reason for such a long delay” and that “regrettable action confirms that Beijing does not intend to honor its commitments.” to the people of Hong Kong ”.
– With the assistance of Kari Soo Lindberg, Young-Sam Cho, Foster Wong, David Ingles, John Cheng and Chloe Lo
(Updates with police information.)