Hong Kong pro-democracy tycoon Jimmy Lai (黎智英) yesterday told his reporters to “fight on” after his dramatic arrest, as China widens its crackdown against critics in the territory.
The clampdown has gathered pace since Beijing imposed sweeping security legislation on the global business hub on June 30, with opposition politicians disqualified and pro-democracy advocates arrested for social media posts.
Lai was among 10 people on Monday detained under the legislation as about 200 police officers searched Next Digital’s (壹傳媒) offices and the newsroom of his Apple Daily tabloid, which is unapologetically critical of Beijing.
Photo: AFP
The 71-year-old was yesterday cheered by staff and handed a bouquet as he returned to the newsroom following a late-night release on bail after 40 hours in custody.
“Fight on. Let’s fight on,” Lai said. “We have the support of the Hong Kong people. We can’t let them down.”
In images broadcast live on Facebook by his own reporters, he told staff to continue filing the kind of unvarnished dispatches that have infuriated China and pro-Beijing politicians in Hong Kong.
However, Lai told staff that it is becoming “increasingly difficult” to run a media business in the territory.
“Luckily, I was not sent back to the mainland,” he said in a characteristic display of dark humor.
The crackdown has provoked outrage in the West and deepened fears for millions who last year took to the streets to protest China’s tightening grip on the territory.
China has declared that it has jurisdiction over especially serious national security crimes, toppling the legal firewall between Beijing-controlled courts and Hong Kong’s independent judiciary.
Beijing imposed the national security legislation in response to huge and often violent pro-democracy protests last year.
It has described the law — its contents kept secret until it was enacted on June 30 — as a “sword” hanging over the heads of opponents in Hong Kong.
Police have given limited details of their alleged case against Lai and those arrested on Monday.
They say that the group was involved in lobbying for foreign sanctions before the legislation was passed and that they continued to operate in some form once the legislation came in.
Among those arrested were two of Lai’s sons, senior Apple Daily executives and three members of the now-disbanded pro-democracy party Demosisto — including prominent activist Agnes Chow (周庭).
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