HONG KONG – Hong Kong officials accused dozens of pro-democracy figures on Sunday of violating China’s harsh new national security law, the latest blow to the ever-diminishing hopes for democracy in the former British colony.
It was the strongest use to date of the broad security law, which consolidated the Communist Party’s control over a territory long known for its individual freedoms, independent judiciary and the rule of law.
Before Sunday, only a handful of people had been formally accused of violating the security law, although about 100 were arrested on suspicion of doing so. Those convicted of violating the law can be sentenced to life imprisonment.
The police said that each of the 47 people was charged with a single charge of “conspiracy to commit subversion”. They include Benny Tai, a former professor of law at the University of Hong Kong and chief strategist in the pro-democracy field.
Lester Shum, an activist, was also charged. He said the road to Sunday’s arrests started with the massive anti-government protests that convulsed the city in 2019.
“We decided a long time ago that we would not bow to authoritarianism,” he said. “I hope everyone will make that decision in the difficult days ahead.”
The charges brought on Sunday are the latest escalation in the Chinese government’s efforts to keep Hong Kong under control. His increasingly tight grip sparked protests in 2019, which included peaceful marches of hundreds of thousands of people, as well as fights between protesters and police, who sometimes filled the streets of the business district of the Asian financial capital with tear gas.
To contain the protests, the Chinese government last year imposed the national security law, which prohibits what it defines as terrorism, subversion, secession and collusion with foreign forces.
The 47 people charged on Sunday were accused of violating the law by helping to organize an informal primary election last July for Hong Kong’s pro-democratic political camp. In doing so, the authorities argue, they may have violated the provisions of the subversion law, which prohibit interfering, interrupting or undermining the functions of the Chinese or Hong Kong governments.
Participants say the primary was slightly different from others held in democracies around the world. More than 600,000 people nominated their preferred choices for running for legislative office in September, generally favoring candidates closely associated with the 2019 protests.
According to a strategy proposed by Tai, the pro-democracy bloc could use the majority in the city’s Legislative Council to block the government’s budget, which, under Hong Kong law, could eventually force the chief executive, Carrie Lam , to resign.
The September elections were finally postponed by Ms. Lam’s government, which cited restrictions on the pandemic. Pro-democracy activists said the delay was most likely an effort to prevent the defeat of pro-establishment candidates, who lost badly in the 2019 neighborhood-level elections.
In November, the pro-democracy bloc of the Legislative Council resigned en masse after Beijing expelled four of its members from office. This month, the Chinese government has signaled that it plans to change Hong Kong’s electoral system to bar candidates viewed as disloyal to the ruling Communist Party. Although the details of these changes have not yet been finalized, they are expected to prohibit the possession of everyone except the most conciliatory figures of the opposition.
The 47 accused on Sunday were among 55 who were arrested in January and then released on bail while the police continued their investigations. Some of those arrested last month were not charged on Sunday, including John Clancey, 79, an American human rights lawyer and former priest who has lived in Hong Kong since the 1960s.
“Most people are ready to sacrifice themselves when they see someone in need,” said Clancey, outside a police station before a bail bond. “I think we must maintain the positive view that the people of Hong Kong have had for so many years of being able to build a better society based on human rights and working for democracy.”
The accused will be indicted on Monday in a court in the West Kowloon area, where another trial of pro-democracy activists continues. In that case, seven veteran political figures are facing charges of illegal mounting for a demonstration in 2019, including editor Jimmy Lai, labor leader Lee Cheuk-yan, lawyer and former legislator Margaret Ng and Martin Lee, often called ” father of democracy ”in Hong Kong, who helped write the mini-constitution of the territory.
The defendants on Sunday had received an order of days in advance to report to the police, and since then, many have said goodbye to their loved ones and bought what they needed for prison, such as running shoes.
Under the strict requirements of the security law, defendants are unlikely to receive bail before trial.
Owen Chow, a 24-year-old activist who ran in the primaries and was one of the defendants on Sunday, posted an online photo of a Buddhist chant recently tattooed on his right arm. “It seems that the suffering will continue indefinitely,” he wrote. “What we need is not imagination about suffering, but hope and determination beyond suffering.”