Hong Kong Government Arrests Four Members Of Pro-Democracy Hong Kong Alliance, Shuts Down Its Online Presence

from the collect-them-all! dept

The Chinese government's national security law -- adopted/acquiesced to by Hong Kong politicians apparently handpicked to serve the country that agreed not to interfere in Hong Kong's government business until 2047 -- is still paying off for the region's impatient overseers.

The handover of Hong Kong to China has provoked an never-ending stream of pro-democracy protests. China doesn't care for democracy, nor does it care for any other form of autonomy. To combat its opponents, the Chinese government -- with an assist by a China-controlled Hong Kong government -- has declared advocating for democracy to be an act of terrorism. Dissent has been equated with undermining national security, and will be punished accordingly.

The latest news in this ongoing attack on Hong Kong's autonomy -- one that is being committed in broad daylight in front of a world full of witnesses -- is the arrest of even more pro-democracy activists and the shuttering of their website.

Earlier this month, the Hong Kong police state came for activists who ensured the Chinese government was never allowed to forget 1989's Tiananmen Square Massacre -- an act that made it clear what the government thought about people who demanded some say in their representation. In response to its annual Tiananmen-related rally and other demands for democracy, four activists were arrested.

Activist and barrister Chow Hang Tung of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China was arrested along with three others, the group said.

“I want to tell Hong Kongers that we need to continue to resist, don’t surrender to the unreasonable power quickly and easily," Chow told media on Tuesday when she went to police headquarters to tell officers she would not provide information they had requested.

Police sent a letter to the alliance in August requesting information about its membership, finances and activities by Sept. 7, according to a copy the group sent to reporters.

The letter accused the alliance of being "an agent of foreign forces". Failure to provide the information by the deadline could result in a HK$100,000 fine and six months in jail, the letter said.

The follow-up arrived a little later, with the Hong Kong police exercising new powers under the national security law that allow officers to literally police the internet.

If you can't see the tweet, it reads:

NEW: Hong Kong Alliance said police has invoked power to remove messages on its website and social media under NSL, and will comply starting from 10pm tonight. New FB to come, it added.

And the Hong Kong Alliance website is now offline as well, with a notice stating only that "the authors have deleted this site." This suggests some more demands made by Hong Kong law enforcement, as even the involuntary deletion of a site will trigger the same WordPress notice.

It's all far from subtle. The Chinese government is big enough and threatening-to-world-peace enough that things like this will go unchallenged until it has brought Hong Kong under its ideological as well as its physical control.

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Filed Under: censorship, china, democracy, free speech, hong kong, hong kong alliance, national security, national security law