HONG KONG — The Hong Kong authorities charged dozens of pro-democracy figures on Sunday with violating the Chinese language territory’s harsh new nationwide safety regulation, the newest blow to the dwindling hopes for democracy within the former British colony.
It was probably the most forceful use but of the wide-ranging safety regulation, which has cemented Communist Celebration management over a territory lengthy identified for its particular person freedoms, unbiased courtroom system and rule of regulation.
Earlier than Sunday, solely a handful of individuals had been formally charged with violating the safety regulation, although about 100 have been arrested on suspicion of doing so. These convicted of violating the regulation may be sentenced to life in jail.
The police mentioned that every of the 47 individuals had been charged with a single rely of “conspiracy to commit subversion.” They embody Benny Tai, a former College of Hong Kong regulation professor and main strategist for the pro-democracy camp.
Lester Shum, an activist, was additionally charged. He mentioned the highway to Sunday’s arrests had begun with the mass antigovernment protests that convulsed the town in 2019.
“We’ve lengthy earlier than determined that we might not bow to authoritarianism,” he mentioned. “I hope that everybody will carry this determination within the very tough days forward.”
The fees filed on Sunday are the newest escalation within the Chinese language authorities’s efforts to deliver Hong Kong firmly beneath management. Its tightening grip sparked the 2019 protests, which included peaceable marches by a whole lot of 1000’s of individuals in addition to brawls between protesters and law enforcement officials, which typically crammed the streets of the Asian monetary capital’s enterprise district with tear fuel.
To curb the protests, the Chinese language authorities final yr imposed the nationwide safety regulation, which outlaws what it defines as terrorism, subversion, secession and collusion with overseas forces.
The 47 individuals charged on Sunday have been accused of breaking that regulation by serving to to prepare a casual election main final July for Hong Kong’s pro-democratic political camp. In doing so, the authorities argue, they might have violated the regulation’s subversion provisions, which ban interfering with, disrupting or undermining the capabilities of the Chinese language or Hong Kong governments.
Individuals say the first was little totally different from others held in democracies all over the world. Greater than 600,000 individuals named their most well-liked decisions to run for legislative workplace in September, usually favoring candidates intently related to the 2019 protests.
Beneath a method proposed by Mr. Tai, the pro-democracy bloc may use a majority within the metropolis’s Legislative Council to dam the federal government’s funds, which beneath Hong Kong regulation may ultimately drive the chief govt, Carrie Lam, to step down.
The September elections have been finally postponed by Mrs. Lam’s authorities, which cited pandemic restrictions. Professional-democracy activists mentioned the delay was extra doubtless an effort to stave off the defeat of pro-establishment candidates, who misplaced badly in neighborhood-level elections in 2019.
In November, the Legislative Council’s pro-democracy bloc resigned en masse after Beijing pressured 4 of its members out of workplace. This month, the Chinese language authorities signaled that it deliberate to vary Hong Kong’s electoral system to bar candidates seen as disloyal to China’s ruling Communist Celebration. Whereas the main points of these adjustments have but to be finalized, they’re anticipated to ban all however probably the most conciliatory opposition figures from taking workplace.
The 47 charged on Sunday have been amongst 55 who have been arrested in January after which launched on bail because the police continued their investigation. A number of of these arrested final month weren’t charged on Sunday, together with John Clancey, 79, an American human rights lawyer and former priest who has lived in Hong Kong because the Nineteen Sixties.
“Most individuals are able to sacrifice after they see somebody in want,” Mr. Clancey mentioned, standing outdoors a police station earlier than a bail appointment. “I feel we should preserve the optimistic view the Hong Kong individuals have had for therefore a few years of with the ability to construct a greater society primarily based on human rights and dealing for democracy.”
These charged will probably be arraigned on Monday at a courthouse within the West Kowloon space, the place one other trial of pro-democracy activists is constant. In that case, seven veteran political figures are going through unlawful meeting expenses for an indication in 2019, together with the writer Jimmy Lai, the labor chief Lee Cheuk-yan, the barrister and former legislator Margaret Ng and Martin Lee, usually known as the “father of democracy” in Hong Kong, who helped write the territory’s mini-constitution.
These charged on Sunday had been ordered days prematurely to report back to the police, and since then, many had been saying farewell to family members and shopping for jail requirements, like sneakers with out shoelaces.
Beneath the strict necessities of the safety regulation, these charged are unlikely to be granted bail forward of trial.
Owen Chow, a 24-year-old activist who ran within the main and was a type of charged on Sunday, posted a photograph on-line of a Buddhist chant newly tattooed onto his proper arm. “It seems to be just like the struggling will proceed indefinitely,” he wrote. “What we’d like just isn’t creativeness in regards to the struggling, however hope and dedication past struggling.”