On Friday, the anniversary of the 228 Massacre, Next Media Group founder Jimmy Lai (黎智英) was arrested by the Hong Kong police for taking part in an illegal assembly during the anti-government protests on Aug. 31 last year and for criminal intimidation at an event in 2017.
Two veteran democracy advocates, former Hong Kong legislators Yeung Sum (楊森) and Lee Cheuk-yan (李卓人) — who is also the former chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic and Democratic Movements in China — were also arrested for illegal assembly.
Although Lai posted bail, the arrests sent shock waves through Hong Kong and raised eyebrows in Taiwan.
Especially concerning was the date the Hong Kong police appear to have chosen to make the arrests. Although it is unclear whether they were aware of the significance of that date in Taiwanese history, that they chose to round up well-known democracy figures on the anniversary of the 228 Massacre sends out a clear political signal, and should not be ignored.
Lai’s arrests itself is not so significant; the likelihood that the investigation is in its late stages is quite low. If the reason for the arrest is really, as they say, the Aug. 31 illegal assembly, why conflate it with the alleged intimidation of a reporter?
Perhaps the Hong Kong government wants to maximize the negative impact of Lai’s alleged crimes, and intends to sit on the case until such time as a good opportunity arises to proceed.
Chinese state media’s choice of words in reporting the arrests was very strong, branding the trio as belonging to “a treasonous Gang of Four bent on disrupting Hong Kong” and “agents of the US and the UK in Hong Kong,” using the same kind of language as was used during the peak of the protests last year.
The Chinese state media are acting in unison with Hong Kong police in what is clearly an attempt at intimidation.
The arrests came shortly after China sentenced Swedish national Gui Minhai (桂民海), one of the owners of the Causeway Bay Books bookstore in Hong Kong, to 10 years in prison.
Clearly, Beijing has entered a new stage of intimidation against Hong Kong. This has particularly been the case since Luo Huining (駱惠寧) was appointed head of China’s Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in Hong Kong.
Do people see his hand guiding a string of Hong Kong government initiatives, complying with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “Four Consciousnesses”?
Are they now exploiting the slowdown of the pro-democracy protests amid the COVID-19 crisis to arrest the leaders of the democracy movement in Hong Kong and increase the level of intimidation?
To a certain extent, there is nothing really new about the Hong Kong police working in cahoots with the Chinese Communist Party.
It is just that carrying out these arrests on 228 gives Taiwanese even more reason to reflect on their history and remember the need for vigilance against allowing a return to authoritarianism.
The question is, is this a point that escaped Luo and Xi, or was it their intention to send out a warning of a “Hong Kong 228”?
This is something Hong Kongers and Taiwanese ought to think long and hard about.
Chen Kuan-fu is a graduate law student at National Taipei University.
Translated by Paul Cooper
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