Hong Kong (AFP)

Copies of the Apple Daily were selling like hot cakes on Tuesday morning in Hong Kong, illustration of the public's support for this pro-democracy tabloid whose boss Jimmy Lai was arrested on Monday in the name of the controversial national security law.

Signs of a strong takeover of the semi-autonomous region have multiplied since Beijing imposed this very repressive text on it, as a response to the months of unprecedented protest in 2019.

Jimmy Lai, wealthy press mogul, is one of the 10 people who were arrested Monday in a wide net against the pro-democracy movement, before about 200 police officers carried out a search in the editorial room of his newspaper, notoriously Beijing critic.

But, in a further sign of the popularity of the opposition in the former British colony, its inhabitants rushed to newsstands on Tuesday to get the Apple Daily, which had anticipated this request by exceptionally printing 550,000 copies, against 70,000 in normal times.

Thus, a restaurateur in the working-class district of Mongkok bought about fifty copies, explaining that he intended to distribute them free of charge to his customers.

"Since the government does not want the Apple Daily to survive, we Hong Kong people have to save it ourselves," the man calling himself Ng told AFP.

- Featured: "We will fight" -

A sign of the prevailing concern over the new national security law, fewer and fewer Hong Kongers agree to testify under their identity.

"We will fight," the front page proclaims Tuesday's edition, a pledge written in bright red in a full-page photo of Jimmy Lai being driven by police into the newspaper's newsroom.

Another mark of solidarity with Jimmy Lai, the action of his press group Next Digital was up on Tuesday by nearly 800% since his arrest Monday morning, many individuals rushing to the title to support him.

The arrests and the search were condemned as "unprecedented" attacks on press freedom, of which Hong Kong was once a stronghold, attacks that were unimaginable a few months ago.

"The police are now openly fighting press freedom. I am very angry," a woman calling herself Chan, who bought 16 copies of the newspaper, told Mongkok.

Seen as Beijing's response to months of pro-democracy protests that rocked Hong Kong in 2019, the National Security Law imposed on June 30 gives local authorities new powers to crack down on four types of crimes against the security of the state: subversion, separatism, terrorism and collusion with outside forces.

A number of activists for democracy denounce a liberticidal text which, according to them, comes to an end with the principle "One country, two systems" established during the handover in 1997 and which guaranteed until 2047 to the Hong Kongers freedoms unknown in the rest of the country. China.

- "Troublemaker" -

They are further concerned that Beijing is using similar laws to muzzle the protest elsewhere in its territory.

Several foreign leaders have expressed concern over this new crackdown, including US Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo, whom Jimmy Lai had met last year, and who saw his arrest as "further proof that the Chinese Communist Party has gutted Hong Kong's freedoms and the rights of its people. "

Mr. Lai was arrested for collusion with foreign forces and fraud.

Two of his sons were also arrested, as were the young pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow and Wilson Li, a former activist posing as a freelance writer working for the British channel ITV News.

Beijing for its part welcomed the arrest of the 71-year-old magnate, presented as "an anti-Chinese troublemaker" who conspired with foreigners to "cause chaos".

In a press briefing Monday evening, police accused those arrested of having previously participated in a group that lobbied for sanctions to be imposed on Hong Kong.

"This group was still active after the entry into force of the security law," said Li Kwai-wah, a senior police official.

On Monday, Beijing announced sanctions against 11 US officials, including Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, in retaliation for similar measures Washington took on Friday against Chinese officials accused of undermining Hong Kong's autonomy, including Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam.

© 2020 AFP