Arrest of 50 Hong Kong activists 'absurd and totally unpredictable,' says pro-democracy leader
Activists accused of trying to 'overthrow' the government for organizing unofficial primary elections
The mass arrest of pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong is the government's way of telling people they cannot have free and fair elections, says a former lawmaker in the semi-autonomous region.
On Wednesday, Hong Kong police rounded up and arrested at least 50 activists and former lawmakers under China's contentious and wide-ranging national security law.
They are accused of trying to overthrow or undermine the government by holding an unofficial "primary" last year to pick opposition candidates ahead of postponed 2020 elections.
Hong Kong Security Minister John Lee told reporters those arrested were suspected of trying to paralyze the government by plotting to win a majority of seats in the legislature and force the chief executive to resign.
But there's nothing illegal or sinister about trying to win an election, says Lee Cheuk-yan, a longtime pro-democracy activist and former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. Here is part of his conversation with As It Happens host Carol Off.
Mr. Lee, these early morning raids in Hong Kong are just extraordinary. Did anyone anticipate such a police action?
This is very absurd and totally unpredictable. And that's where the fear part comes in. You know, how can we predict ... or expect that they can use national security law of subversion to charge those who participated in the primary election?
Participating in primary election and … seeking for a majority in the Legislative Council … is very normal in any society. Any party wants to have a majority. And you label that as a subversion act? Undermining, overthrowing the government? It's totally absurd.
This has involved more than 1,000 police in Hong Kong. They raided 72 premises. Tell us as much as you can about what happened this morning.
Suddenly, you know, 1,000 police [were] deployed to all the participants in the primary election and some of the co-ordinators of the primary election, and they arrested everyone in handcuffs.
Now they are still in the police station, and we do not know when they can come out. And imagine, you know, the wide net that they have cast in this police action. Fifty-three activists were being arrested. And some of them, you know, are just participating in the primary election. And some of them are just trying to co-ordinate that activity. And that's all.
And that happened, actually, in July last year. So it's half a year ago. So no one expected anything like this.
What exactly was this primary that they were running back in July?
There should [have been] an election in September last year. And so before the election, the pro-democracy camp tried to organize a primary election so that we can choose the best candidates to represent the camp, so as to look for a majority, or the highest optimum number of people getting elected, under the system.
Under the basic law, there's a provision that … anyone in the Legislative Council can vote down the budget…. If you vote down a budget, then the chief executive has to get a re-election again. And if it's voted down again, then he or she have to step down.
It's all a plan which would only materialize if there's an election. And then they postponed the whole election, so nothing happened.
What they have been arrested under is this extraordinary national security law that is … very ill-defined. No one really knows how sweeping it is, what its jurisdiction [is]…. And Chinese authorities had said that when they introduced it [that it] might target only a handful of activists. So what message are the authorities sending by the sweeping arrests this morning?
The national security law is trying to put a message to frighten the people, you know, so that they can rule by fear. So you can never know exactly what action in Hong Kong, what freedom you are trying to exercise, will result in a crime under the national security law.
For example, [Hong Kong publisher] Jimmy Lai … talked to some foreign press … and then they said [he] colluded with foreign power. Or now in this case, we try to organize … a primary election, and they called it illegal activity to overthrow the government.
They use it to, you know, suppress any dissent in Hong Kong. And in this case, they suppress all the opposition in Hong Kong. And I think the purpose of this exercise in this round, casting such a wide net, is to try to cleanse out all the opposition. So they don't want to see any opposition political party in Hong Kong. And how can there be a fair election if all the opposition are being silenced? And that's exactly what they want to achieve through the national law threat.
Police also went into the offices of media and news agencies, but it doesn't seem anyone was arrested there. Does it maybe seem that there are going to be more raids and more arrests under this law?
We do not know how many more arrests there will be. They tried to explain that they went to the four media [outlets] ... because they want to search for some documents, because the four media have done a primary election debate, which is, again, normal activities.
So I think that the whole exercise is trying to tell the people of Hong Kong that in the future, there cannot be any fair election. There can only be an election that the Communist Party wins. And any strategy or attempt to win on the opposition side will be labelled as a national security offence.
These activists who have been arrested — many, if not most of them, are very young. And even though they're so young, they're already veterans of having been arrested before for their political activity. But some of them are being arrested for the first time. How difficult do you think this is for them, especially given that the penalty under this law could be life in prison?
The penalty is under this law is very frightening. And there even is a provision in this law that you can be sent into China to be [put on] trial.
So how frightening do you think this is for those young people who are now incarcerated, probably being questioned, interrogated, and facing very Draconian penalties?
I think they must be frightened.
They're still in the police station, and they not know what will happen tomorrow. Will they have to go on trial already? And in some cases that happened to some of the arrested people is that they were put in custody for months before they get on trial.
Imagine how that frightens some some of the people that innocently believe that they just want to change Hong Kong, fight for democracy, through a very, very institutional means.
They are just doing what the basic law tells them to do — join an election. And how can that be a crime?
Do you worry that you might be targeted next for arrest?
I was already arrested four times, so I'm going to face four trials this year. So I think I will have to go to jail.
But there may be other charges. I do not know.
Speaking to foreign press can be a labelled as collusion with foreign power. We do not exactly know what exactly it means. And anyone in Hong Kong that are trying to exercise their freedom and to live in truth and try to change Hong Kong for democracy may be arrested with any charges they want to put on you.
Is it possible that this interview you are doing right now might lead to you being arrested under the national security law?
We do not know. Because collusion with foreign power — is this interview part of the collusion?
You can see the threats there that they're using. You know, Hong Kong is more and more like China now, where Chinese human rights defenders [are] being arrested.
Similarly to what happened in China, it is now happening in Hong Kong. And and so the basic law, the promise of autonomy, the signing of the British declaration, are all being thrown in the rubbish can.
Written by Sheena Goodyear. Interview produced by Chris Harbord. Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
