Hong Kong police make first arrests under new security law, amid fears of ‘white terror'

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Police in Hong Kong treated hand-lettered signs and protest chants as signs of secession, the first indication of the breadth of change brought to the city by a new national-security law drafted by the Chinese government that threatens life in prison for people accused of provoking hatred against Beijing or disrupting government function.

By late night Wednesday, officers in riot gear had arrested 370 people, including 10 under the national-security law, among them a 15-year-old girl. Their offences: carrying banners and signs that proclaimed “Hong Kong Independence,” along with printed caricatures depicting Chinese President Xi Jinping as a dictator with a scalp that resembled a spherical coronavirus.

The first arrest under the law was made less than 15 hours after Chinese authorities published its full text, on the eve of the 23rd anniversary of the city’s handover to Chinese control. Local authorities pledged it would affect only a small number of people and uphold human rights while bringing stability to a city riven by frequently violent protests.

But the swift application of the new law underscored how rapidly a new regime has descended upon Hong Kong, a city that long enjoyed Western-style freedoms but where residents and visitors are now subject to severe punishment for conduct that meets Chinese definitions of subversion, secession, terrorism or foreign interference.

As local media tycoon Jimmy Lai declared Hong Kong “dead,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson denounced China for a “clear and serious” violation of its promises to uphold the city’s freedoms and system. Britain will create five-year work and study visas for the city’s 2.9 million holders of British national (overseas) passports, giving nearly half of Hong Kong’s population a path to British citizenship.

In the U.S., the House of Representatives unanimously passed legislation to sanction officials who damage the city’s partial autonomy, and banks that do business with them. The U.S. Senate gave unanimous assent to similar legislation last week. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday declared Hong Kong “just another Communist-run city,” while the Canadian government warned that travellers to the city face “increased risk of arbitrary detention on national-security grounds and possible extradition to mainland China.”

Under the new law, any flag advocating independence or separatism from China is banned, according to Hong Kong police, who issued a statement specifying that the chant “Hong Kong independence, the only way out,” is “a slogan suspected to be inciting or abetting others to commit secession.”

The new law applies to anyone anywhere in the world, raising the new possibility that the city’s authorities can arrest travellers passing through the city’s airport, a key hub for global travel, for transgressions against Beijing.

By midday on July 1, police in the city had raised pink signs warning that displaying flags, chanting slogans “or conducting yourselves with an intent such as secession or subversion” could result in arrest under the new law, which threatens life in prison for a broad range of conduct.

Police said seven officers were injured, including one stabbed in the arm and another three rammed by a motorcycle during the protests Wednesday, which were smaller than in previous years. But thousands still came out, a demonstration of the willingness of some in the city to speak out, even if it now risks far greater consequences.

National security “is such a pervasive concept that it affects all areas of life,” and even if only small numbers of people are arrested, “it is the deterrent or chilling effect that is intended,” said Bing Ling, professor of Chinese Law at the University of Sydney Law School.

Lawyers, activists and artists in Hong Kong have deleted social-media accounts and online chat conversations in fear. Workers at human-rights-related groups have begun formulating plans to leave the city, worried that to stay could be dangerous.

The concern is that authorities “will just use the law to attack or target anyone they want,” said Baggio Leung, a Hong Kong activist and politician who joined the protest march Wednesday, and watched as the first person was arrested under the new law.

“We want to show a clear message to the world that we don’t want this national-security law. For all Hong Kongers, this law puts us in danger. And for all people who will come to visit or come to work in Hong Kong, the law will put them in danger as well.”

The new law can be used to criminalize the use of legislative filibusters, to jail people for petitioning foreign countries to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and to impose lengthy sentences on those who accuse police of brutality, if those accusations cause public anger and are deemed by authorities to be rumours.

The law also specifies that some cases, including those that involve “external elements,” can be handled by Chinese authorities. That means “mainland national-security agents can directly arrest people and transfer them to the mainland,” said Prof. Ling. There, “mainland prosecutors will bring the indictment, and a mainland court will rule.”

Hong Kong now faces a period of “white terror” – a reference to the decades-long repression of political dissidents in Taiwan under martial law – warned Albert Ho, a former legislator with the city’s Democratic Party who is one of the 15 recently arrested people that Chinese state media have called “riot leaders.”

The law specifically exempts security police from local rules, while granting them sweeping powers to search people and places, freeze assets and conduct surveillance – with no clear requirement for a prior court-ordered warrant. The law also makes it difficult for judges to allow bail.

The “enforcement institutions are so powerful, that one would be totally shattered even before he could appear in court – totally shattered, mentally and physically,” said Mr. Ho. And, he said, the new legal “net is very, very wide, aimed at catching a lot of people – even non-violent protesters.”

Authorities in Hong Kong and China, however, pointed to language in the law that says it will protect rights to speech and assembly.

“It is constitutional, lawful, reasonable and rational for the central government to introduce the national-security law in Hong Kong,” Carrie Lam, the city’s chief executive, said Wednesday.

“The law will neither undermine the high degree of autonomy, the judicial independence and the rule of law in Hong Kong, nor will it affect the legitimate rights and interests of Hong Kong people.”

“This law is the ‘patron saint’ of Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity,” said Zhang Xiaoming, executive deputy director of Beijing’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office. He described it as an effort to “improve” upon the one-country, two-systems formulation that has governed Hong Kong since its handover to China from British control.

“How can the central government turn a blind eye to all kinds of anti-China and anti-Hong Kong forces and let them wantonly engage in acts and activities that split the country and endanger national security in Hong Kong?” he asked.

The law gives Chinese authorities new power to constrain speech in the city, a response to the “subversive and hostile remarks against police” that proliferated over the past year, said Tian Feilong, a law professor at Beihang University who specializes in Hong Kong law.

“The effect it will have in Hong Kong is that it will draw a legal boundary for free speech and political freedom,” he said.

It is also universal in scope, making Hong Kong, a key centre for global finance and international travel, into a place where police can arrest anyone – foreign citizens included – if their conduct abroad is deemed a threat to Chinese national security. That can include actions considered a provocation of hatred against Beijing and local authorities.

“If a foreigner commits a crime that violates the regulations under the Hong Kong national-security law, there’s no doubt that he is very likely to be arrested once he’s in Hong Kong – even if he’s just transferring flights,” Prof. Tian said.

But he dismissed concerns about those measures, saying “the protection this law will bring to ordinary people will outweigh its impact.”

“People in Hong Kong will gradually go back to a peaceful and stable life, and the authority of Hong Kong’s legal system will be restored,” he said. “The outside world will have more confidence in Hong Kong, too.”

With reporting by Alexandra Li.

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