Six people in Hong Kong, including a former organizer of the city's annual Tiananmen Square vigil, were arrested for allegedly posting rebellious content on social media.
Hong Kong police on Tuesday arrested six people, including a former organizer of the city’s decades-long annual vigil that commemorated China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown, for allegedly publishing seditious social media posts, in what were the first publicly known arrests under the city’s new national security law. Secretary for Security Chris Tang said Chow Hang-tung, a former leader of the group behind the vigil, alongside five others, used a Facebook page to anonymously publish the posts.
Tang alleged the group made the posts with the intent to incite dissatisfaction or even hatred against the Chinese central government, the Hong Kong government and the judiciary. The posts also aimed to encourage netizens to organize activities 'endangering national security,' he said. 'Although Hong Kong has embarked on the journey from stability to prosperity these days, we cannot let down our guard.
The new law, known locally as 'Article 23,' has expanded the government’s power to deal with future challenges to its rule, punishing treason and insurrection with up to life imprisonment. Under the legislation, offenders who commit sedition offenses face harsher penalties than before. They face a maximum jail term of seven years if convicted for committing seditious acts or uttering seditious words — up from the previous maximum sentence of two years.
When Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, Beijing promised to retain the city’s Western-style liberties for 50 years. However, since the introduction of the 2020 law, Hong Kong authorities have severely limited free speech and assembly under the rubric of maintaining national security. Many activists were arrested, silenced or forced into self-exile. Dozens of civil society organizations were disbanded under the shadow of the law, including the group behind the vigil.
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