Election of President-elect Joe Biden for US Secretary of State denounced the arrest in Hong Kong of dozens of opposition figures under a controversial national security law, an unprecedented crackdown that included a lawyer American.
Police said they had devastated 53 people in Wednesday’s operation and that about 1,000 officers had been sent to carry out the arrests. Among those arrested were several prominent former lawmakers and allegations focused on informal primaries that drew more than 600,000 voters in July to choose candidates for a September legislative election that was later postponed by the government.
There were 45 men and eight women detained, according to Li Kwai-wah, senior superintendent of the national security division of the Hong Kong police force. He said police had visited the offices of four local media asking for information about the primary.
“The radical arrests of pro-democracy protesters are an assault on those who bravely defend universal rights,” tweeted Antony Blinken, Biden’s candidate for secretary of state. “The Biden-Harris administration will position itself with the people of Hong Kong and against Beijing’s repression of democracy.”
Police arrested lawyer John Clancey, who served as treasurer for the main organizers, according to Jonathan Man, a partner at Ho Tse Wai & Partners in Hong Kong, which has handled hundreds of protest cases and where Clancey is a lawyer. Man said Clancey is an American citizen who can provide a new source of tension between Beijing and Washington.
Photographer: Chan Long Hei / Bloomberg
Clancey is also the chairman of the Asian Commission on Human Rights and the Asian Legal Resource Center and a founding member of the Executive Committee of the Concern Group for Human Rights Lawyers of China, according to his biographical page Ho Tse Wai.
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Mass arrests of moderately moderate democratic defenders are accelerating the ongoing political repression in the Asian financial center, which has led to condemnation by foreign governments, US sanctions and the suspension of numerous extradition treaties with Hong Kong. The move comes as the outgoing Trump administration continues to impact Beijing for its assertive policies in the city and as Biden prepares to take office this month, with China representing one of the major policy challenges outside its administration.
“This is a total reach of all opposition leaders,” he said Victoria Hui, an associate professor at the University of Notre Dame specializing in Hong Kong politics. “If running for office and trying to win elections means subversion, it is clear that the NSL is aimed at the total subjugation of the people of Hong Kong. There should be no election expectations in any sense that we know if and when elections will be held in the future.
Authorities respond
Security Secretary John Lee He told an information conference in the afternoon that activists had been arrested for planning to create “mutual destruction” with the aim of paralyzing the government and that arrests were needed for alleged subversion. Opposition figures wanted to plunge the city into an “abyss,” Lee said.
Former lawmakers Alvin Yeung, James To, Andrew Wan and Lam Cheuk-ting, as well as prominent academic and activist Benny Tai, were arrested by the national security branch of the police on allegations of subversion, according to Facebook posts and media reports. Former lawmaker Claudia Mo, one of the city’s most outspoken critics of China’s policies in Hong Kong, was also arrested.
Benny Tai, center, arrives at Ma On Shan police station after being arrested in Hong Kong on January 6th.
Photographer: Chan Long Hei / Bloomberg
The national security law was imposed by Beijing on the former British colony in June, provoking US-led international condemnation because Beijing renounced promises to guarantee the city’s unique freedoms after its return to Chinese rule.
Although Chinese officials have justified the legislation – which bans subversion, terrorism, secession and collusion with foreign forces – as a necessary tool to quell local unrest and restore stability in the city after historic protests. of 2019, the law has so far been used against nonviolent political opponents and dissidents.
Hong Kong courts are the last control of Beijing’s growing power
Official lawmaker Holden Chow he tweeted that those arrested on Wednesday had violated the security law because they had a “clear goal of paralyzing” local government and threatening to “eliminate Chinese sovereignty over Hong Kong.” The Secretary of Continental and Constitutional Affairs, Erick Tsang, said before the primaries last July that he could violate national security legislation.
At the time, Tai dismissed these criticisms of the primaries as “absurd.”
Full primary
The opposition The primary contest at the center of the last round of police drew 610,000 residents to the polls (more than 13% of the city’s registered voters) in an exercise of common procedure in democracies around the world. Turnout underscored the momentum generated by Hong Kong’s historic protest movement, on which the pro-democracy opposition hoped to capitalize on the Legislative Council elections originally scheduled for September.
Opposition figures hoped to agree to a provision in the city’s charter to force chief executive Carrie Lam to resign by voting on his budget. Top Chinese agencies condemned the primary in Hong Kong as an “illegal manipulation” of the city’s electoral system and a violation of national security law.
People line up at a polling station to vote during an unofficial primary election and select candidates for the next legislative election, in July 2020.
Photographer: Lam Yik / Bloomberg
The Hong Kong government first disqualified several opposition figures and then delayed the election by a full year, citing the coronavirus.
At the time, U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said there was “no valid reason for such a long delay” and that the “unfortunate action confirms that Beijing has no intention of maintaining the commitments made.” with 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.)