Hong Kong Media Tycoon Arrested in Blow to Democracy Camp
Hong Kong police arrested media tycoon Jimmy Lai and raided the offices of his flagship newspaper.
(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong police arrested media tycoon Jimmy Lai and raided the offices of his flagship newspaper, the highest-profile case yet against the city’s democracy activists under a national security law that has fueled U.S.-China tensions.
Lai was shown handcuffed as he was taken away by officers from his home on Monday morning. When a reporter asked Lai for his views on the arrest, he answered: “What views do I have? They want to arrest me.”
Apple Daily, which is under Lai’s media network Next Digital Ltd. and the biggest pro-democracy paper in Hong Kong, reported that nearly 200 officers were entering its offices.
The move was met with criticism from the U.K., which handed Hong Kong back to Chinese control in 1997. “We are deeply concerned by the arrest of Jimmy Lai and six other individuals in Hong Kong,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman James Slack said.
Police said 10 people were arrested on suspicion of “breaches” of the security legislation. A spokesman for China’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office supported the arrest and said in a speech that Lai is working with foreign powers to seriously endanger national security.
Those arrested include Lai, his sons Ian and Timothy, Next Digital Chief Executive Cheung Kim Hung, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer Royston Chow Tat Kuen and the Chief Executive of Next Animation Studio, Kith Ng, according to a police officer who asked not to be identified.
The South China Morning Post reported that ITV freelancer Wilson Li Chung-chak, a former member of the now-disbanded activist group Scholarism was arrested for foreign collusion alongside Andy Li, a member of an election monitoring group.
Police Enter
Police took away some 25 boxes of evidence for preliminary investigation, said Li Kwai-wah, senior superintendent of the police force’s national security department. He said the floor where the assignment and reporting desks are located was searched, as one of the people arrested had an office there.
Lai was shown being walked around the Apple Daily office in a Next Digital live feed. Research from the Chinese University of Hong Kong said last year that Apple Daily had the biggest market share in both print and online platforms among the city’s paid newspapers.
Shares in Next Digital rose as much as 344% to HK$0.40 in afternoon trading on heavy volume, reversing a morning decline that saw them slide to the lowest level on record following reports of the arrests. The surge came after pro-democracy supporters took to social media and urged people to buy the company’s stock.
The security legislation, which bars subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, has prompted fears among activists and foreign governments that it will be used to curtail basic freedoms.
“With the passage of the national security law, Beijing has launched a full-blown rectification of Hong Kong,” said Carl Minzner, a law professor at Fordham Law School and author of “End of an Era: How China’s Authoritarian Revival is Undermining Its Rise.” “The ultimate goal is the ‘mainland-ization‘ of Hong Kong -- welding it more tightly to China and neutering all political and social elements that Party authorities view as problematic.”
The U.S. has led foreign governments in expressing concern over the law, saying Hong Kong could no longer be considered sufficiently autonomous. It has revoked some special trading privileges, which help underpin the city’s reputation as a business hub, and sanctioned officials including Chief Executive Carrie Lam.
On Monday, China hit back with sanctions on 11 Americans including Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, and Human Rights Watch head Kenneth Roth -- although Beijing avoided sanctioning senior Trump administration officials.
“The arrest reflects that the HKSAR govt wasn’t intimidated by U.S. sanctions, which actually are pushing Hong Kong civil servants further to Beijing,” tweeted Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of China’s Communist Party-run Global Times.
The U.S. reacted strongly after Hong Kong barred a dozen pro-democracy lawmakers from campaigning for office and then delayed by a year legislative elections scheduled for September. The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislative body, is meeting in Beijing and expected to discuss issues arising from the postponement this week.
It wasn’t clear whether four sitting lawmakers who were disqualified from campaigning for the election would be allowed to remain for the legislature’s extended term. The South China Morning Post reported Monday, citing sources, that they would be allowed to stay.
In a weekend statement by the countries making up the so-called Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and the foreign ministers of the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand said they were “gravely concerned” by the disqualifications and election postponement.
“These moves have undermined the democratic process that has been fundamental to Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity,” the statement said.
‘A Dark New Phase’
“We are a beacon for the idea of freedom and democracy,” Lai previously told Bloomberg Businessweek.
In a May op-ed piece for the New York Times, he warned of the impact the security law would have on his city.
“Every sentence, every word will carry the risk of potential punishment on the mainland,” he wrote. “When it comes to free speech, this law will remodel Hong Kong so that it becomes like the rest of China.”
Lai’s media group and Apple Daily backed the protests that rocked the city in 2019, but it’s been years since he was seen as playing a central role in Hong Kong’s democracy movement.
He was arrested in February on suspicion of participating in an unlawful assembly in 2019 and intimidating a reporter two years before that, and granted police bail. Months later he was summoned to court for helping incite a vigil marking the June 4 anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre.
“The arrests, and the raid on the newsroom, are a direct assault on Hong Kong’s press freedom and signal a dark new phase in the erosion of the city’s global reputation,” the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong said in a statement.
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