Hong Kong police arrest 6 accused of violating city's new national security law

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong police arrested six people Tuesday, including a former organizer of the decades-long annual vigil commemorating China's Tiananmen Square crackdown, for allegedly posting seditious messages on social media, in what was the first publicly known arrest. under the city new national security law.

Security Secretary Chris Tang said Chow Hang-tung, former leader of the group behind the vigil, along with five others, used a Facebook page to post the messages anonymously. Police said their actions began in April and the suspects were targeting a “sensitive date.”

Authorities did not detail the content of the messages. But the page began publishing a series of articles on April 30 to mark the 35th anniversary of the 1989 crackdown, a politically sensitive issue in Hong Kong and mainland China.

Tang alleged that the group posted the messages with the intention of inciting discontent, and even hatred, against China's central government, the Hong Kong government and the judiciary. These messages also aimed to encourage internet users to organize activities “endangering national security”, he said.

“Even though Hong Kong has embarked on a path from stability to prosperity these days, we cannot let our guard down. We still face national security risks,” Tang told reporters at a press briefing.

Authorities did not specify the content of the messages or identify the five other suspects.

The introduction of the new security law in March – four years after Beijing imposed a similar law that had all but wiped out public dissent – ​​has heightened concerns about the city's eroding freedoms.

The new law, known locally as “Article 23,” expanded the government's power to deal with future challenges to its power, punishing treason and insurrection with up to life in prison.

Under the legislation, offenders who commit sedition offenses face harsher penalties than before. They face a maximum prison sentence of seven years if found guilty of seditious acts or uttering seditious remarks – up from a maximum sentence of two years previously.

But Tang said it was not illegal to simply mention sensitive dates.

“The main crime is not the subject. It’s about using the subject to incite hatred,” he said.

The six suspects are between 37 and 65 years old. Authorities searched the homes of five of them and seized items, including electronic devices, that officers suspect were used to post seditious messages, police said.

When Britain returned Hong Kong to China in 1997, Beijing promised to keep the city's Western-style freedoms for 50 years. However, since the introduction of the 2020 law, Hong Kong authorities have severely restricted freedom of expression and assembly in the name of maintaining national security. Many activists have been arrested, silenced or forced into exile.

Dozens of civil society organizations were disbanded under the law, including the group behind the vigil. Chow and two former leaders of the group have also been charged with subversion under the Beijing-imposed law and are detained.

The governments in Beijing and Hong Kong say the law helped restore stability after huge anti-government protests in 2019.

The annual commemoration at Hong Kong's Victoria Park attracted thousands of people in memory of the victims of the bloody repression of June 4, 1989.

Amnesty International's China director, Sarah Brooks, criticized the arrests, saying the government had again taken steps to suppress freedom of expression.

“The government's shameful attempt to ban people from celebrating the upcoming anniversary is an insult to those killed in the Tiananmen crackdown and their family members,” she said.