Hong Kong police arrest dozens of opposition politicians for alleged subversion

The police operation is the largest since the national security law was imposed six months ago, and activists said the arrests were the first to be linked to the alleged subversion, a serious crime under the law. The variety and profile of those arrested, including most of Hong Kong’s opposition, marked a dramatic escalation in authorities’ efforts to crush dissent in the city, which was devastated by months of anti-government street protests in 2019.

Less than two weeks after the security law was imposed, on the weekend of July 11 and 12, the opposition camp participated in self-organized primaries to select preferred candidates for the elections scheduled for September. The aim was to increase the chances of obtaining a majority in the legislature, which participants said would allow them to block government legislation. The organizers then said that about 600,000 members of the public voted.

Many of the politicians were informed weeks after their candidacies were invalid, with officials citing concerns about their loyalty to the city and its constitution. Shortly after the disqualifications, the government postponed the elections for a year, citing the coronavirus pandemic.

The democratic camp resigned en masse in November, after several of its peers were expelled from the legislature for being disloyal following a Beijing decision.

The police did not comment on the arrests.

The inmates on Wednesday included politicians from various pro-democracy parties, including ex-lawmakers James To and Alvin Yeung and new generation activists such as Gwyneth Ho, a former journalist, and Lester Shum, who was a student leader during 79 one-day street occupation in 2014, known as the Umbrella Movement.

Also arrested, according to local media, legal scholar Benny Tai, one of the organizers of the primaries; and researcher Robert Chung, who helped with logistics. Authorities also visited Joshua Wong’s home, according to social media posts from friends who wrote on his behalf. He is already serving a prison sentence for organizing a protest in 2019.

“This is shameful and ridiculous. How can people who participate in a primary election to select candidates be subversive? ”Said Emily Lau, who served seven terms as legislator and previously headed the city’s Democratic Party. “It is a blatant attempt to intimidate pro-democracy activists and to warn people not to get involved in politics and collaboration.”

Ng Kin Wai recorded his arrest on a Facebook live broadcast, which shows a policeman saying he was arrested for attending primary schools designed to cause a malfunction in the Hong Kong government – subversion under national security law. The primaries were designed by Tai to revise the Hong Kong system, an official in the video said, citing the scholar’s writings in the media.

Primary cheerleader Sunny Cheung said the arrests show that her decision to flee abroad after the national security law came into force was correct, though painful.

“This is obviously a political purge to wipe out the entire pro-democracy camp,” said Cheung. “The purge will continue.”

The law, imposed by Beijing on June 30 after massive pro-democracy protests that brought the city to a standstill at times in 2019, gives authorities ample freedom to prosecute people for acts deemed collusion, secession or sedition.

—Wenxin Fan contributed to this article.

Write to Natasha Khan at [email protected]