Protest in Hong Kong

Around 50 former opposition lawmakers and activists were arrested on Wednesday morning on subversion charges over a primary election run-off, marking the biggest crackdown under the national security law since it took effect on June 30 last year.

Most of those detained had either organised or taken part in primary contests held by the pan-democratic camp last July as part of a “35-plus” strategy to maximise its chances of taking control of the 70-member legislature.

Police on Wednesday also served court orders at the offices of the Apple Daily tabloid and online news portals Stand News and In-Media, seeking “documents in connection with national security cases” within seven days, the three outlets said. Apple Daily and Stand News co-organised election forums for the candidates, while Inmedia ran advertisements related to the campaign.

Sources confirmed, meanwhile, that more than 30 police officers were searching the offices of Ho Tse Wai & Partners, a law firm hired by numerous opposition figures, and had arrested lawyer John Clancey.

An associate at the firm, Clancey also serves as treasurer of Power for Democracy, which helped organise the primary.

Among those detained earlier were former Democratic Party and Civic Party lawmakers James To Kun-sun, Lam Cheuk-ting, Andrew Wan Siu-kin, Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu and Wu Chi-wai, according to their public Facebook pages.

One of the poll’s architects, Occupy Central co-founder Benny Tai Yiu-ting, who drafted the opposition’s “35-plus” strategy, was also arrested.

Arrested localists activists include Owen Chow Ka-sing, Lester Shum and Gwyneth Ho Kwai-lam, who outcompeted veteran politicians in the primaries.

Ng Kin-Wai, a Yuen Long district councillor who secured a place in the unofficial election, live-streamed the police operation on Facebook at 7am. The video showed an officer arresting him at his residence for alleged subversion under the national security law due to his participation in the race.

“Your goal was to veto all budgets and bills, hence forcing the chief executive to resign,” Ng was told.

“Your act aimed at realising Benny Tai Yiu-ting’s plan was advocated in an article titled ‘Ten steps of real collateral damage’ in Apple Daily and other media, which has an objective of obstructing Hong Kong authorities in the discharging of their duties in accordance with the law.”

The primary contests last July in five constituencies saw more than 610,000 city residents defy government warnings and a fresh coronavirus outbreak to vote to determine who would run in the Legislative Council election in September, which was later postponed.

The “35-plus” strategy, if successful, would have enabled the camp to form a powerful bloc in Legco, allowing them to block budgets, stall bills and effectively paralyse the government.

Others arrested on Wednesday included Robert Chung Ting-yiu, who led an independent pollster commissioned by the camp to design the voting system, former lawmaker Au Nok-hin, and Power for Democracy convenor Andrew Chiu Ka-yin, who coordinated the poll and later withdrew from the task force.

Ahead of the primaries, the secretary for constitutional and mainland affairs, Erick Tsang Kwok-wai, had warned that the “candidates” of the primary poll could be in breach of the new national security law as well as the city’s election laws.

The city’s leader, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, had also warned that any planned action to paralyse policymaking was potentially subversive.

Police on Wednesday morning also searched the residence of activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung, now in prison, alleging he had also violated the national security law, according to his Facebook page.

The morning operation marks the largest mass arrest operation since the national security law took effect six months ago.

Activist Nathan Law Kwun-chung, now living in self-exile in London, said the police allegations were unsubstantiated and that he believed the action was aimed at inducing panic among Hong Kong residents who took part in the unofficial poll.

“[The allegations] deny the fact that vetoing the budget is allowed under the Basic Law, and it is impossible to verify whether all candidates in the primary agreed with the ‘10 steps of real collateral damage,’” he said on Facebook.

Before Wednesday, only 40 people had been arrested by the special security unit – with four charged – including media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and a 30-year-old protester accused of chanting pro-independence slogans in public.

Under the national security law, a principal offender convicted of subversion faces imprisonment of 10 years to life, while an “active participant” can be sentenced to between three and 10 years’ jail.

A minor can face a fixed term of not more than three years’ imprisonment or short-term detention or restriction.

The five men fled by boat to Taiwan in July, soon after China imposed Hong Kong’s harsh national security law. This week, they landed in New York.

By Michael Forsythe

Last July, five young men boarded a recreational boat in a remote harbor in Hong Kong. They passed through waters patrolled by the Chinese authorities and headed east, across the South China Sea.

When they neared Taiwan, they cut off their motor, hoping to be rescued by the Taiwanese Coast Guard. They were in luck.

Now, after months in Taiwan, they intend to seek asylum in the United States, where they arrived at Kennedy International Airport in New York on Wednesday.

They are part of a trickle of political activists who have fled Hong Kong since China’s central government imposed a harsh national security law on the city in June, snuffing out many forms of political dissent, including the pro-democracy protests in which the five men had participated.

The account of their escape from Hong Kong, their stay in Taiwan and their arrival in the United States was provided by Samuel Chu, founder of the Hong Kong Democracy Council, a Washington-based advocacy group that arranged for the men’s travel and lodging and is helping them apply for asylum. None of the five men wanted to be identified out of concern that it could endanger their relatives in Hong Kong. One of them spoke on the condition of anonymity.

While in Taiwan, they were held on a military base and not allowed to communicate with their family and friends, though the man who agreed to be interviewed said they had been treated well. They believed that the United States offered the best chance for them to restart their lives, he said.

After weeks of negotiations, the men were allowed entry into the United States on humanitarian grounds, Mr. Chu said.

Their arrival in the United States could create further tensions between China and the United States, posing an early challenge for the incoming Biden administration just as relations between the two countries are at their lowest point in decades.

China has cast Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters as criminals, while the United States and other democracies have challenged China over its crackdown on the city’s liberties. The involvement of Taiwan, a self-governing island democracy that is claimed by China, only adds to the sensitivity.

Spokeswomen for the State Department and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services declined to comment on the case, citing privacy concerns. A press officer for the American Institute in Taiwan, which serves as the de facto American embassy there, also would not comment, nor would a spokesperson for Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council.

All five protesters, who range in age from 18 to 26, fled Hong Kong fearing that they would soon face imprisonment, and at least one had previously been arrested in connection with his role in the protests, Mr. Chu said.

The Trump administration’s move, in its final days, to grant entry to the men on humanitarian grounds stands in contrast to its dramatic curtailing of refugee quotas over the past four years. In December, legislation in Congress that would have made it easier for Hong Kong residents to gain refugee status was blocked by Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican.

A few years ago, the idea of political dissidents fleeing Hong Kong, a former British colony that reverted to Chinese rule in 1997, would have seemed unimaginable. Hong Kong’s more than 7 million people have one of the world’s highest per capita incomes and enjoy political liberties that are unknown in mainland China.

But after Xi Jinping became China’s top leader in late 2012, Beijing began to rule over Hong Kong with an increasingly heavy hand. The national security law, imposed after massive and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests swept the city in 2019, has prompted some activists to leave. Most departed in much less dramatic fashion, boarding a plane for Europe or North America; others, fearing arrest at the airport, took to the sea.

In August, weeks after the five men made it to Taiwan, 12 other Hong Kong activists were caught by the Chinese Coast Guard while trying to reach the island. Most of them had been arrested in Hong Kong and were leaving to avoid trial. They were held for months in mainland China without charges; in December, 10 of the activists received prison sentences ranging from seven months to three years, two of them for organizing the escape attempt and the others for illegally crossing a boundary. Two other activists, both juveniles, were returned to Hong Kong.

Other countries have also taken in Hong Kong activists. Canada has granted asylum to 14 people from Hong Kong since the end of December, according to a statement from the New Hong Kong Cultural Club Canada, a volunteer group that assists political refugees from the city. In October, Hong Kong’s government protested Germany’s granting of asylum to a demonstration leader who faced charges of rioting.

Britain is offering a new visa to Hong Kong residents that may enable the millions of them who were born before the 1997 handover to eventually become British citizens.