Beijing stepped up repression in Hong Kong

(Hong Kong) More than 50 pro-democracy opposition figures were arrested in Hong Kong on Wednesday in connection with the latest crackdown on critics in Beijing under the recent National Security Act. This is the name of a serious text.

Joshua Wang, one of the most famous faces in the pro-democracy movement currently in prison, said relatives searched his home on his Facebook account.

Police are searching for a law firm involved in the protection of human rights. John Clancy, an American lawyer working for the company, was arrested, and we learned of this from known sources. He was the first American to be arrested on behalf of the new law.

The police operation also targeted the media. Three Press Groups – Newsstand, Apple Daily And Inmediac – said they were visited by police.

“This is a real night of long swords, the biggest attack on democracy in Hong Kong so far,” protested Anthony Dapiran, a lawyer and author of a book on social movements in Hong Kong.

Nathan La, a fellow traveler of Joshua Wang who went into exile in July, accused authorities of trying to “extinguish the flames of resistance.”

Hong Kong police have not made an official comment.

“Serious provocation”

However, pro-democracy figures suggest that the arrests are linked to primaries held by the opposition ahead of the legislative elections in July.

The election, scheduled for September 2020, is, by this time, intended by the opposition to take advantage of the popularity of the 2019 mobilization, which the government has postponed for a year on the pretext of contagion.

The goal of the primaries, which involved more than 600,000 Hong Kongers, is to prevent the scattering of opposition votes and to nominate 35 candidates vying for seats in the allotted legislative (lego, local parliament) seats. By universal suffrage. The rest are given according to the winding system, which guarantees a majority to the pro-Beijing alliance.

Opposition parties have stated they will not run in the by-elections, but will use 35 seats to secure a majority in the Hong Kong executive alliance with Beijing.

China called the primaries “serious provocations” and campaigned to bring control over parliament, citing “repression” under the National Security Act, which came into force a few weeks ago.

The text, imposed without discussion by Beijing, is a response to the 2019 political crisis, with Hong Kong set to stage demonstrations against Chinese intervention for months.

Critics of the law present it as the last nail in the coffin of Hong Kong’s semi – autonomy, theoretically guaranteed until 2047 by the principle of “one nation, two systems”.

Very vague in its words, the text attacks four types of crime: separatism, repression, terrorism and conspiracy with foreign powers. It provides life imprisonment.

Officials initially assured that the law would only target the “extreme minority”. But it was used to stifle dissent and criminalize certain political views.