HONG KONG – Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was arrested on Monday over suspected collusion with foreign forces under the new national security law in a wide-ranging police operation, the highest-profile arrest yet under the legislation.
It “bears out the worst fears that Hong Kong’s National Security Law would be used to suppress critical pro-democracy opinion and restrict press freedom,” said Steven Butler, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Asia programme coordinator.The new security law punishes anything China considers subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.
Hong Kong police said they had arrested seven people on suspicion of breaching the city’s new national security law, citing offences including collusion with foreign powers. They were all local men, aged 39-72, it said, without naming them.Apple Daily, which posted on its Facebook page a livestream of police entering its premises and taking the details of those who worked there, reported Lai was taken away from his home in Ho Man Tin early on Monday.
Around 10 other people were expected to be arrested on Monday, local newspaper South China Morning Post reported, without naming its sources.The law has steered China further on a collision course with the West, prompting countries including Australia, Canada and Britain to suspend extradition treaties with Hong Kong.
Before Monday, 15 people had been arrested under the law, including four aged 16-21 late last month over posts on social media.
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