Hong Kong Police Arrest Four Ex-Members of Demosisto: SCMP

Kari Lindberg and Kitty Donaldson
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(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong’s national security police arrested four men who had been members of now-disbanded political group Demosisto, South China Morning Post reported Wednesday, citing a person familiar with the case, as authorities kept up pressure on those associated with the Asian financial hub’s defunct protest movement.

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An official statement following the SCMP report said four men aged between 26 and 28 were arrested on suspicion of “conspiracy to collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security.”

Pro-democracy group Demosisto announced it was being disbanded in June 2020, soon after the passing of the Beijing-drafted national security law. Former lawmakers Nathan Law and activist Joshua Wong were also members of the group. Wong is facing subversion charges under the NSL for taking part in an unauthorized democratic primary in 2020.

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According to the police statement, an investigation showed that the arrested men were suspected of receiving funds from operating companies, social platforms and mobile applications to support people who have fled overseas and continue to engage in activities that endanger national security.

They were also suspected of publishing with “seditious intention” on social media platforms and advocating for Hong Kong’s independence, the statement showed. The men are being detained for further inquiries.

The SCMP identified three of those arrested as ex-Demosisto leader Ivan Lam Long-yin and two former members, William Liu Wai-lim and Arnold Chung Chin-ku, citing the person familiar. The official statement did not name those arrested or link them to the disbanded party.

“I feel so depressed to see that,” said Finn Lau, one of the eight overseas activists that Hong Kong authorities placed a bounty on this week.

The case could be the first in a series of coordinated actions, he said, speaking in the UK Parliament Wednesday at an event highlighting the dangers to Hong Kong dissidents in the UK.

“Maybe in the coming days there will be more people to be arrested,” Lau said. “I hope that they will be fine. But to be honest, this is a simply unrealistic wish.”

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee pledged a lifetime of police pursuit for eight democracy activists, including Lau and Law, who fled abroad to evade national security charges, and who now have a bounty of HK$1 million ($127,828) each. Lee said at a press briefing on July 4 that the arrest warrants sent a “strong message” that acts endangering national security “won’t be tolerated.”

Some 260 individuals, between the ages of 15 to 90, have been arrested for acts endangering national security in the past three years, Hong Kong Police Force Chief Superintendent Steve Li said earlier this week. He added that two-thirds of those had been charged. That figure includes arrests under the colonial-era sedition law that has been revived by security police.

--With assistance from Filipe Pacheco.

(Updates throughout with additional details and reaction.)

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