HONG KONG – Hong Kong authorities on Sunday charged dozens of pro-democracy figures with violating China’s harsh new national security legislation, which is the latest blow to the waning hopes of democracy in the former British colony.
It was the most powerful use to date of the comprehensive security legislation, which strengthened the Communist Party’s control over an area long known for its individual freedoms, independent legal system, and rule of law.
Before Sunday, only a handful of people had been formally charged with violating the security law, although about 100 were arrested for suspecting it. Those convicted of violating the law can be sentenced to life in prison.
Police said each of the 47 people was charged with conspiracy to commit undermining. ‘This includes Benny Tai, a former law professor at the University of Hong Kong and leading strategist for the pro-democracy camp.
Lester Shum, an activist, was also charged. He said the road to Sunday’s arrests began with the massive protests that disrupted the city in 2019.
“We decided long before that we would not bow to authoritarianism,” he said. “I hope everyone will make this decision in the very difficult days ahead.”
The charges filed Sunday are the latest increase in the Chinese government’s efforts to bring Hong Kong firmly under control. The intensified grip fueled the 2019 protests, which included peaceful rallies by hundreds of thousands of people, as well as fighting between protesters and police officers, which sometimes filled the streets of the Asian financial capital’s business district with tear gas.
To quell the protests, the Chinese government last year enacted the National Security Act, which bans laws defining it as terrorism, undermining, secession and collusion with foreign forces.
The 47 people charged on Sunday are accused of violating the law by arranging an informal election for the pro-democracy political camp in Hong Kong in July last year. In doing so, the authorities allege that they may have violated the provisions of the law’s undermining, which prohibits the interference, disruption or undermining of the functions of the Chinese or Hong Kong governments.
Participants believe that pre-election differs little from others in democracies around the world. More than 600,000 people cite their preferred choices to run for office in September, and usually hold candidates in favor of the 2019 protests.
According to a strategy developed by mr. Tai proposed, the democracy bloc could use a majority in the city’s Legislative Council to block the government’s budget, which, according to Hong Kong law, could eventually force CEO Carrie Lam to resign.
The election in September was finally postponed by Mrs. Lamb’s government, which cited pandemic restrictions. Pro-democracy activists said the delay was more likely an attempt to avert the defeat of pro-establishment candidates, who lost badly in the 2019 local elections.
In November, the Legislative Council’s pro-democracy bloc resigned en masse after Beijing forced four of its members out of office. The Chinese government announced this month that it intends to change Hong Kong’s electoral system to eliminate candidates considered unfaithful to China’s ruling Communist Party. Although the details of the changes have yet to be finalized, it is expected to ban all but the most conciliatory opposition figures from acting.
The 47 charged on Sunday were among 55 who were arrested in January and then released on bail as police continued their investigation. Some of those arrested last month were not charged Sunday, including John Clancey, 79, a U.S. human rights lawyer and former priest who has lived in Hong Kong since the 1960s.
“Most people are ready to sacrifice when they see someone in need,” he said. Clancey said and stood in front of a bail deal outside a police station. “I think we need to uphold the positive view that the people of Hong Kong have had for so many years to build a better society based on human rights and to work for democracy.”
The accused will be arrested on Monday at a court building in the West Kowloon area, where another trial of pro-democracy activists is continuing. In that case, seven veteran political figures are facing illegal meetings for a 2019 protest, including publisher Jimmy Lai, labor leader Lee Cheuk-yan, lawyer and former lawmaker Margaret Ng and Martin Lee, who often the ‘ father of democracy ”in Hong Kong, who helped write the area’s mini-constitution.
Those charged Sunday were ordered to report to police days in advance, and since then many of their loved ones have said goodbye and bought jail supplies, such as sneakers without shoelaces.
Under the strict requirements of the security law, the accused are unlikely to be granted bail before being tried.
Owen Chow, a 24-year-old activist who ran into the primary school on Sunday and was one of the accused, posted a photo online of a Buddhist song that had just been tattooed on his right arm. “It seems that the suffering will continue indefinitely,” he wrote. “What we need is not imagination about suffering, but hope and determination beyond suffering.”