A former Macanese pro-democracy lawmaker became the first person to be arrested under the territory’s national security law, with authorities yesterday alleging that he had ties to foreign groups endangering China.
The Chinese casino hub, which has its own legal system largely based on Portuguese law, enacted national security legislation in 2009 and widened its powers in 2023, to bring it in line with similar laws in Hong Kong and China.
Macanese Judiciary Police said a 68-year-old local man surnamed Au (歐) was arrested and handed over to public prosecutors on suspicion of “establishing connections ... outside Macau to commit acts endangering national security.”
Photo: AP
Local media identified the man as Au Kam-san (歐錦新), a primary-school teacher who became one of Macau’s longest-serving pro-democracy legislators before deciding not to seek re-election in 2021.
The man allegedly provided “a large amount of false and seditious information to an anti-China group” for public exhibitions online and abroad since 2022, and “stirred up hatred” against the Macanese and Chinese governments.
He is also accused of spreading false information to groups, which allegedly disrupted the territory’s leadership election last year and caused foreign countries to take hostile action against Macau, police said in a statement, without naming the groups.
A stalwart of Macau’s tiny opposition camp, Au spent years campaigning on issues such as social welfare, corruption and electoral reform. He was one of the founders of several pro-democracy groups, including the New Macau Association.
Online news platform All About Macau reported that judicial police on Wednesday took away the former lawmaker and his wife, Virginia Cheang (鄭妙珊).
Cheang yesterday told the outlet outside the public prosecution office that she was listed as a witness and that she did not know why her husband was detained.
The former Portuguese colony reverted to Chinese rule in 1999 through a “one country, two systems” framework that promised a high degree of autonomy and rights protections.
For years it was regarded by Beijing as a poster child in contrast with neighboring Hong Kong, which often saw boisterous protests.
The high-water mark of Macau activism came in 2014 when 200,000 people rallied to oppose granting perks to retired government officials, an event that Au helped organize.
After Beijing cracked down on Hong Kong after months of huge and sometimes violent democracy protests in 2019, curbs established in that territory were extended to Macau.
Macanese officials last month disqualified 12 candidates from the legislative elections set for next month, saying that they did not uphold Macau’s mini-constitution or pledge allegiance to the territory.
Additional reporting Reuters
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
RSS