Hong Kong national security police on Thursday arrested a labor rights advocate who is also the wife of an organizer of annual vigils commemorating China’s 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, two people close to her said.
Officers arrested Elizabeth Tang (鄧燕娥), the wife of Lee Cheuk-yan (李卓人), outside Stanley Prison on Hong Kong Island, but it was unclear why, said the people, who declined to be identified for fear of government retribution.
In a statement late on Thursday that did not provide a name, police said they arrested a 65-year-old woman on Hong Kong Island for suspected collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security.
Police said that she was being detained for investigation.
The arrest was seen as part of a crackdown on the territory’s pro-democracy camp following protests against the government in 2019. Many rights advocates have been jailed or silenced under a sweeping National Security Law imposed by Beijing.
Tang is the general secretary of the International Domestic Workers Federation.
She was a former leader of the now-defunct Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, the territory’s largest pro-democracy trade organization.
Before the group’s disbandment, it had been on a list of groups targeted by pro-Beijing media in the name of national security.
Lee was also a leader. He was also a leader of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which voted to disband in 2021 following the imposition of the security law.
The alliance was best known for organizing large candlelight vigils in Hong Kong on the anniversary of the Chinese military’s crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
Supporters say its closure shows the erosion of freedoms promised to Hong Kong when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Lee and two other former alliance leaders, Chow Hang-tung (鄒幸彤) and Albert Ho (何俊仁), were arrested and charged with inciting the subversion of state power under the security law in 2021.
The alliance itself was charged with subversion. Lee is now in custody.
The National Security Law criminalizes secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces to intervene in the territory’s affairs. Those found guilty can face up to life imprisonment.
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