HONG KONG: Hong Kong police have made their first arrest under a new national security law, arresting a protester for carrying a flag calling for Hong Kong independence at a protest Wednesday in the city’s Causeway Bay shopping district.
The man was intercepted by police and was arrested after police had issued multiple warnings to the crowd that they might be in violation of the national security law, which took effect Tuesday at 11 p.m. (1500 GMT).
The law makes secessionist, subversive, or terrorist activities illegal, as well as foreign intervention in the city's internal affairs. It was imposed by China after months of anti-government protests in the semi-autonomous territory last year.
Meawhile, Hong Kong’s leader strongly endorsed the new security law China's central government is imposing on the semi-autonomous territory in her speech marking 23 years of its handover from colonial Britain.
“This decision was necessary and timely to maintain Hong Kong’s stability,” Carrie Lam said following a flag raising ceremony and the playing of China's national anthem.
The law’s passage Tuesday further blurs the distinction between the legal systems of semi-autonomous Hong Kong, which maintained aspects of British law after the 1997 handover, and the mainland’s authoritarian Communist Party system. Critics say the law effectively ends the “one country, two systems” framework under which Hong Kong was promised a high degree of autonomy.
The law directly targets some of the actions of anti-government protesters last year, which included attacks on government offices and police stations, damage to subway stations, and the shutdown of the city’s international airport. Acts of vandalism against government facilities or public transit can be prosecuted as subversion or terrorism, while anyone taking part in activities deemed as secessionist would also be in violation of the new law.
Concerns have also been raised over the fate of key opposition figures, some of whom have already been charged for taking part in protests, as well as the disqualification of candidates for the Legislative Council elections scheduled for September.