Lai had robust ties in Washington, significantly with the Republican Party, and has testified earlier than US Congress in the previous.
Hours in a while Monday, Agnes Chow, a 23-year-old pro-democracy politician, was arrested on suspicion of inciting secession, one other new offense. Chow is a former member of Demosisto, a political get together based by outstanding activist Joshua Wong that was disbanded shortly after the security law got here into drive.
Another former Demosisto chief, Nathan Law, has fled abroad, the place he is being sought by Hong Kong police.
Earlier this month, a dozen pro-democracy candidates had been
barred from standing in upcoming legislative elections on nationwide security grounds. Soon after, the elections had been postponed till subsequent 12 months, which the authorities stated was because of a current spike in coronavirus instances in the city.
When the security law was launched, the authorities provided assurances that the laws was restricted in scope and would —
in the phrases of Hong Kong chief Carrie Lam — solely goal “an extremely small minority of offenders while the life and property as well as various legitimate basic rights and freedoms enjoyed by the overwhelming majority of citizens will be protected.”
Since then 24 arrests have been made utilizing the law, together with protesters and college students over social media posts. More broadly, the law has additionally stymied the work of quite a lot of
outstanding pro-democracy figures — and now certainly one of the city’s most-popular newspapers.
That has led to fears that Hong Kong is quickly transforming right into a city the place political opposition is muzzled, its as soon as free-wheeling press cowed, and on-line dissent
carries the danger of imprisonment.
Press crackdown
Apple Daily,
based by Lai in 1995, has lengthy been the city’s loudest, and most salacious, anti-government voice.
The tabloid, which mixes movie star gossip with political protection, has struggled to draw advertisers because of its stance, and Lai has confronted harassment, threats, and a number of legal instances for his activism.
Many observers, together with Lai, had predicted that he and the paper could be focused underneath the new law, however Monday’s raid was nonetheless met with shock by many in Hong Kong, significantly because of the scale of the police operation, which was livestreamed on-line by Apple Daily’s personal reporters.
Following the arrests, “Free Jimmy Lai” rapidly trended on social media, and a whole bunch of individuals — spaced out to adjust to coronavirus restrictions —
queued into the early hours of Tuesday to purchase copies of Apple Daily.
By 9 a.m., some outlets had been reportedly
offered out, regardless of the paper printing half one million copies, nearly eight occasions as many as standard, in anticipation of such a run. Tuesday’s entrance web page learn “Apple Daily shall fight on.”
In an announcement, the city’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club
stated Monday’s actions had been a “direct assault on Hong Kong’s press freedom and signal a dark new phase in the erosion of the city’s global reputation.”
The strikes towards Apple Daily had been additionally condemned by politicians in the US and Europe, worldwide press teams, authorized commentators, and the editorial board of the New York Times, which
referred to as them the “clearest signal that China intends to make full use of that sweeping new legislation to stifle free expression and undermine Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.”
An official representing the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong stated Monday that the FCC had “misrepresented the truth, heaped groundless accusations upon the National Security Law and law-enforcement efforts of the Hong Kong police, and tried to whitewash and justify Jimmy Lai and other criminal suspects.”
Changing setting
Speaking to CNN after Monday’s raid, pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo stated the city’s opposition was “being pushed into a dead end.”
Apple Daily was the “last bastion” of press freedom in Hong Kong, she added. “(The government) is sending a very dire signal not only to the local press but also the foreign press in Hong Kong: you watch out.”
Any doubt that the arrests of Lai, Chow and others had been supposed to ship a message may very well be dispelled by Chinese state media’s protection, which laid it out clearly.
The state-owned newspaper China Daily
stated Lai’s arrest was the value of “dancing with the enemy,” and stated that “instead of being grateful for having been condoned for the offenses he committed before the enactment of the new national security law … Lai continued with his treacheries, including intriguing with foreign elements to undermine national security.”
Another state-backed paper, Global Times,
quoted the outstanding Chinese authorized theorist Tian Feilong as saying that underneath the new law “the legal boundaries have become much clearer.”
“Opposition groups should know how to adjust to a changing environment,” Tian stated.
They could also be making an attempt to regulate, however as this week’s developments present, the setting is altering faster than many expected.