A Hong Kong resident linked to the territory’s pro-democracy opposition was arrested in China over a plot to use a drone to disrupt a visit to the territory by a top Chinese Communist Party (CCP) member, state media reported on Sunday.
The man, identified as a 56-year-old Hong Konger surnamed Guo (郭), who had “financed several figures in the [Hong Kong] opposition,” was arrested in the Chinese border city of Shenzhen, Xinhua said.
According to the report, a member of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement “had told Mr Guo to buy a drone” that would be used for “disruptive activities” during this week’s visit to the semi-autonomous territory by third-ranked CCP member Zhang Dejiang (張德江).
Zhang, chairman of China’s National People’s Congress, the nation’s top legislature, who is also responsible for Hong Kong affairs, is scheduled to meet with business leaders and members of the local parliament during the trip.
The Hong Kong police confirmed the arrest on Sunday.
“We received a notification from [the] mainland this morning and we are trying to seek more information about this,” Hong Kong Police Assistant Commissioner Nelson Cheng (鄭耀武) told reporters.
Cheng said protesters would be banned from using drones during Zhang’s visit.
“We will, by all necessary means, prevent any suspicious objects from entering the security zone,” Cheng said.
Hong Kong is self-governing and retains liberties not seen in China under a “one country, two systems” deal, made before the territory was handed back to China by colonial power Britain in 1997. However, there are fears those freedoms are being eroded by increasing interference from Beijing.
Zhang is the most senior member of the CCP to visit Hong Kong since pro-democracy protests paralyzed parts of the territory for months in 2014.
Guo was described by the Shenzhen police as the “head of a criminal gang,” who was also arrested for money laundering, telephone fraud and the illegal sale of more than 800 Hong Kong residency cards, according to Xinhua.
Four other people — one Hong Konger and three Chinese — were also arrested.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema