Hong Kong police yesterday arrested a seventh person under the territory’s new security law in relation to social media posts about commemorating Beijing’s 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre.
The latest arrest comes after an EU spokesperson said law enforcement actions suggest the new legislation “is used to stifle freedom of expression.”
Authorities said the 53-year-old woman taken in was suspected of “offenses in connection with seditious intention,” following the arrests of six people over the same case a day earlier.
Photo: AP
Hong Kong Secretary for Security Chris Tang (鄧炳強) had on Tuesday identified one of those arrested as Chow Hang-tung (鄒幸彤), a prominent activist who led the now-disbanded group that used to organize annual vigils to mark the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
The group of seven are the first people to be arrested under the “Safeguarding National Security Ordinance” — commonly referred to as Article 23 — which Hong Kong enacted in March and penalizes those found guilty of sedition with a prison term of up to seven years.
“The enforcement action is still ongoing, and the possibility of further arrests is not ruled out,” the National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force said yesterday.
Hong Kong used to be the only place on Chinese soil where people could openly mourn those who died on June 4, 1989, when the government sent troops and tanks to crush democracy demonstrations in Beijing.
Yet commemorative events have been driven underground in Hong Kong since Beijing’s crackdown on dissent, following huge pro-democracy protests in 2019.
A spokesperson for the EU yesterday said the “arrests seem to confirm the EU’s concerns about the new law and its effect on the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong.”
“While we need to assess the details of the individual cases, the arrests suggest that the new law is used to stifle freedom of expression of the people of Hong Kong,” they said.
The EU “calls on the Hong Kong authorities to protect the ability of the people of Hong Kong to exercise their rights and freedoms,” the spokesperson said.
Amnesty International’s China director Sarah Brooks called the arrests a “shameful attempt to prohibit people from marking the upcoming anniversary.”
The government has weaponized the new security law to “silence critique,” despite warnings from UN human rights experts, Brooks said.
Chow is already serving more than 30 months in jail for other charges, including “unauthorized assembly” for her attempt to publicly commemorate June 4.
She and two other leaders of the group who organized the vigil are awaiting trial for another national security case, where they are accused of “incitement to subversion.”
Authorities connected Chow’s latest arrest to a Facebook page called “Chow Hang-tung Club,” which in the past few weeks has called on the public to write about their experiences related to Tiananmen vigils.
“We hope that all Hongkongers worldwide ... who have participated in the candlelight vigils over the past 30 years will write testimonies together,” one post read.
The vigil, which once drew tens of thousands to Hong Kong’s Victoria Park, has been banned since 2020.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
‘BOOMING’: ’ The number of partners we have here is incredible. You can see from their stock prices. They’re doing so well, they’re so happy,’ Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp’s spending in Taiwan has ballooned to about US$150 billion a year, 10 times the US$10 billion to US$15 billion the company spent five years ago, Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, suggesting Taiwan’s strategic importance in the global artificial intelligence (AI) supply chain. “Taiwan is the epicenter of the AI revolution. This is where the chips come, packaging comes. This is where the systems are made. This is where AI supercomputers were created,” Huang said at a meeting for the company’s employees in Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei, the planned site of Nvidia’s Taipei headquarters. “Taiwan
RSS