A man found in possession of a Hong Kong independence flag is the first person to be arrested under the new national security law, police said on Wednesday. "A man was arrested in possession of a Hong Kong independence flag in the Causeway Bay district, in violation of state security law," the police wrote on his Twitter account.
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Promulgated on Tuesday by Chinese President Xi Jinping after being adopted by the Standing Committee of Parliament, a body submitted to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the new law makes it possible to punish four types of crimes against state security: activities subversive, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.
"An attempt to stifle the opposition"
The law is accused by its critics of being an attempt to stifle the opposition in Hong Kong. It provides that Chinese justice has jurisdiction over "serious" security breaches and life imprisonment for crimes against national security.
Twenty-seven countries of the UN Human Rights Council, including France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan, have condemned the new law, while the United States has threatened China with retaliation, promising not to "sit idly by".