Hong Kongers mourn Apple Daily as Xi gets what he wants

It was a night to chant, cry and queue as fans of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily paid respects to a newspaper harassed into closure.

An Apple Daily worker holds a copy of the final edition aloft at the newspaper’s headquarters in Hong Kong. Picture: Getty Images.

It was a night to chant, to cry and to queue as fans of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily paid respects to a newspaper harassed into closure by Beijing.

Supporters of the city’s feisty tabloid held a vigil outside Apple’s offices, chanting “We will meet again!”

Inside, the paper’s staff wept as they put together the edition that would end the paper’s 26-year reign in what was once called “Asia’s world city”.

Throughout the early hours of the morning, Hong Kongers queued in their thousands to pay respect to a paper many can’t ­imagine living without.

“I got up at 3am,” Mr Ha told The Australian on Thursday afternoon, after waking from a nap.

The 30-year-old had set his alarm for a special assignment — to buy 20 copies to send to members of Hong Kong’s democracy movement who had moved to Australia, a safe distance from the Beijing-authored National ­Security Law.

He was in good company. By 7am, the paper’s one million copy run – its highest ever and the most its printers could manage – had sold out, as many of the city’s 7.5 million residents bought an inky piece of history.

As they queued, Apple took down its website and closed its Twitter and Facebook accounts in an effort to reduce the number of future arrests of former staff.

A sixth employee of Apple was detained on Wednesday, precipitating the end of a paper founded in 1995 by its now imprisoned owner Jimmy Lai.

They have reason to worry. Hong Kong police appear to be keen to demonstrate their “patriotism” to President Xi Jinping ahead of the Chinese Communist Party 100th anniversary celebrations next week.

Britain’s Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said the treatment of the paper demonstrated that the Hong Kong government was using the security law to “silence all opposition voices”.

“It is crystal clear that the powers under the (law) are being used as a tool to curtail freedoms and punish dissent – rather than keep public order,” he said.

Marcus Strom, the federal president of Australia’s Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, called it a “ruthless assault on press freedom”.

“Our thoughts go out to our many colleagues who tried valiantly to keep Apple Daily operational but who have now lost their jobs,” Strom said.

Not everyone was mourning.

Apple’s rival the Oriental Daily News gloated about the closure on its Thursday front page.

Mr Ha said he had to visit 10 convenience stores and news agencies in Tsuen Wan, a district in Hong Kong’s Western New Territories, to get his 20 copies. It took until after 4am.

He has read Apple everyday for 10 years and said it was the “best newspaper in Hong Kong”.

“It can tell the truth – it doesn’t always follow the government line,” he said.

After Apple’s forced closure, Hong Kong’s harried pro-democracy movement is gloomy about the future of the few remaining independent news websites.

“There will just be one voice,” Mr Ha said.