In early July 2023, Hong Kong police arrested five people for colluding with “external elements” alleged to be endangering national security. Derren Chan of Jurist reports:
As of this moment, the police have not released any further details regarding the case. However, Wenweipo, a media outlet which is fully funded by the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government, reported that the arrest was related to their operation of an online shopping platform…. Wenweipo also reported that the five men used the revenue to sponsor Nathan Law, who is one of the activists wanted by the police on Monday. . . .
The arrested men were members of Demosistō, a pro-democratic party formed in 2016. It was dissolved in 2020, following the enactment of the National Security Law.
The Hong Kong government claims to be justified in arresting the young men for “conspiracy to collusion [sic] with a foreign country or with external elements.”
Several days after Chan’s story was published, Amy Hawkins and Benn Quinn reported in The Guardian that the police had “raided the home of Nathan Law’s family, taking relatives of the UK-exiled pro-democracy activist away for questioning.” They too are suspected of helping persons wanted by the police for endangering national security. Law told The Guardian: “I can firmly declare that the involved parties have no financial connection with me, and my work is totally unrelated to them. The idea of ‘getting assistance from them’ is completely absurd.”
According to a press release posted at info.gov.hk:
Investigation revealed that the arrested persons were suspected of receiving funds from operating companies, social media platforms and mobile applications to support people who have fled overseas and continue to engage in activities that endanger national security. They were also suspected of repeatedly publishing posts with seditious intention on social media platforms, including content which provoked hatred towards the Central Authorities and the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and advocated “Hong Kong independence”. . . .
Police remind members of the public that “conspiracy to collusion [sic] with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security” and “conspiracy to doing [sic] an act or acts with seditious intention” are serious crimes. Offenders shall be liable upon conviction to imprisonment. Members of the public are urged not to defy the laws.
Worse than the grammar of this announcement is its dishonesty and its abetting of tyranny.
If the “external elements” referred to had been planning to launch a military attack on China, the press release would presumably have mentioned this. But this isn’t the kind of thing that the drafters of the 2020 National Security Law had in mind as constituting a threat to national security as they worked to extirpate the rights and liberties of Hong Kong.
In Hong Kong as in the rest of China, anyone who criticizes or protests against China’s autocratic actions is viewed by officials as “endangering national security” and “committing sedition.” Whatever else it may mean, to Chinese government officials, acting in defense of “national security” means that they may freely violate the individual security of any citizen-subject of China at any time for any reason without having to hear any complaints about it. In this elastic sense, the “national security” of the Chinazi regime is threatened as much by unpleasant opinions as by falling bombs.
