HONG KONG: Police in Hong Kong have arrested another man suspected of links to pro-democracy activists based abroad, picking him up on Thursday at the city’s airport a day after arresting four others for various national security offences.
Police had issued arrest warrants days earlier for eight prominent overseas-based activists, including former Demosisto member Nathan Law, now in the UK, and offered bounties of HK$1 million ($128,000) for information leading to any arrest.
Citing unnamed sources, media in Hong Kong connected the four men arrested on Wednesday to an online platform known as “Punish Mee” that was allegedly used to provide financial aid to the eight wanted activists overseas.
“Police do not rule out the possibility that more arrests will be made,” the police said in a statement on Thursday that withheld the name of the latest man arrested, but gave his age as 24 years.
One source with direct knowledge of the matter identified him as Calvin Chu Yan-ho, a former member of Demosisto.
The pro-democracy group was disbanded in 2020, hours after China imposed a national security law in Hong Kong. Its former leader, Joshua Wong, was arrested January, 2021, and charged with conspiracy to commit subversion for participating in an unofficial primary election organised by democracy supporters.
Ivan Lam, a former Demosisto chairman, was among the four men arrested on Wednesday.
China’s enactment of a sweeping national security law in 2020 has been criticised as a tool of repression by governments including the United States. Chinese authorities, however, say it has restored stability in the city after protracted pro-democracy protests in 2019.
Elected seats slashed
In a related development, Hong Kong’s legislature on Thursday unanimously approved a bill to drastically reduce the number of directly elected seats in local district councils in an overhaul that follows Beijing’s principle of “patriots administering Hong Kong”.
Under the amendment, the number of seats directly elected by the public is slashed from 452 to 88, while the overall number of seats will fall from 479 to 470.
The remaining seats will be filled by members chosen by the chief executive, rural committee chairpersons and local committees, according to media reports.
The next district council elections are scheduled for November.
The move comes after the pro-democracy camp clinched an unprecedented landslide victory in local elections in 2019, capturing over 80% of the 452 directly elected seats and gaining control over 17 of the 18 district councils.
Hong Kong leader John Lee said on Thursday he was “very pleased” with the bill’s passage, adding the city had reached a “new phase of advancing from stability to prosperity”.
