Pompeo condemns arrests of Hong Kong pro-democracy chiefs

The US condemned the arrests of at least 14 pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong on charges of joining protests last year.

Jimmy Lai, centre, is arrested at his home on Saturday. Picture: AP

Police in Hong Kong have carried out a sweeping operation against high-profile democracy campaigners, arresting 15 activists on charges related to massive protests that rocked the Asian financial hub last year.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday called Saturday’s arrests “deeply concerning”, saying in a tweet that “politicised law enforcement is inconsistent with universal values of freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly”.

Among those targeted was 72-year-old media tycoon Jimmy Lai, founder of anti-establishment newspaper Apple Daily, who was arrested at his home. The group also included former Legislative Councillors Martin Lee, Margaret Ng, Albert Ho, Leung Kwok-hung, Au Nok-hin and incumbent MP Leung Yiu-chung.

They are accused of organising and taking part in unlawful assemblies in August and October, according to the police.

Five were arrested on suspicion of publicising unauthorised public meetings in September and October. “The arrestees were charged or will be charged with related crimes,” Superintendent Lam Wing-ho said.

All 15 are due to appear in court next month.

“Finally I’ve become a defendant. How do I feel? I’m very much relieved,” Mr Lee, known as the father of democracy in Hong Kong, told media after he was bailed.

“For so many years, so many months, so many good youngsters were arrested and charged, while I was not arrested. I feel sorry about it,” the 81-year-old barrister and founding chairman of the city’s first political party said.

He said he did not regret his actions and is proud to walk with Hong Kong’s youngsters in their fight for democracy — remarks Police Commissioner Chris Tang said left him “very worried and surprised”. “As a veteran of the legal profession … he continues to incite youngsters to violate the law. I don’t think he should feel proud, he should feel ashamed,” Mr Tang said.

Mr Lai was also detained in February over his participation in another August rally banned by police for security reasons.

The semi-autonomous city was shaken by widespread and sometimes violent street protests in 2019, sparked by a now-abandoned proposal to allow extraditions to the Chinese mainland and its opaque judicial system. “Today’s arrests of pro-democracy figures in Hong Kong is another nail in the coffin of ‘one country, two systems’,” said Sophie Richardson, the China director at Human Rights Watch.

“It’s hard to know Beijing’s next precise move, but it seems Hong Kong officials will further enable abuses rather than defend Hong Kong people’s rights.”

Last year’s rallies morphed into a wider movement calling for greater freedoms in the most concerted challenge to Beijing’s rule since the former British colony returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. The protests and clashes with police have since died down, partly due to exhaustion and arrests but also because of the emergence of the deadly coronavirus.

China’s leaders have refused to accede to the protesters’ demands, which include fully free elections, an inquiry into alleged police misconduct during the protests and an amnesty for more than 7000 people arrested during the movement — many of them under 20.

Pro-democracy MP Claudia Mo said the local government “is trying very hard to introduce a reign of terror”.

AFP