HONG KONG POLICE MAKE FIRST ARREST UNDER NEW LAW.
HONG KONG • A Hong Kong man who carried a sign saying “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” as he drove a motorcycle into police during a protest this week has become the first person charged with inciting separatism and terrorism under a new security law.
Beijing imposed the national security law on Hong Kong late on Tuesday after weeks of uncertainty, pushing China’s freest city and one of the world’s most glittering financial hubs on to a more authoritarian path.
The law punishes crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison, but critics say it is aimed at stamping out dissent and ending a long-running campaign for greater democracy in the city.
Police said the 23-yearold man charged under the law rammed into several officers at the unauthorized protest on Wednesday, injuring some. He was initially arrested for dangerous driving, media said.
A video circulating online showed the driver knocking over several officers with his motorbike on a narrow street, before falling off and getting arrested.
The charge against him, as shown in a court document on Friday, comes less than 24 hours after the city’s government said the protest slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” connotes separatism or subversion under the new law.
The rallying cry appears on placards at most rallies, is printed on T-shirts and accessories and scribbled on Post-it notes on walls across the Chinese-ruled city.
The government’s ruling on the slogan will compound fears about the suppression of the global finance hub’s freedoms.
China’s parliament adopted the security law in response to protests last year triggered by fears that Beijing was stifling the freedoms, guaranteed by a “one country, two systems” formula agreed when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Beijing denies the accusation.
Authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong have repeatedly said the legislation is aimed at a few “troublemakers” and will not affect the rights and freedoms that underpin the city’s role as a financial hub.
But the United States, Britain and others have denounced the new legislation and the UN said it feared it would restrict space for civil society and lead to the prosecution of activists.
Dozens of people gathered to protest outside another court where a man was charged with “wounding with intent” for stabbing a policeman in the arm with a sharp object during the Wednesday disturbances.
They held up blank pieces of paper to highlight what they fear will be the new law’s impact on free speech.
Under the new legislation, the agency can take enforcement action beyond existing laws in the most serious cases.
It also allows agents to take suspects across the border for trials in Communist Party-controlled courts.