Democracy movement leaders in Hong Kong, July 15, 2020 -

Kin Cheung / AP / SIPA

China is once again showing its strength in Hong Kong.

About fifty pro-democracy opposition figures were arrested there on Wednesday in the name of the recent national security law.

This is the biggest crackdown carried out under this drastic text imposed by Beijing.

Several personalities and opposition parties have confirmed on Twitter and Facebook at least 21 arrests, most of them on charges of "sedition".

Two high-ranking sources within the police, on condition of anonymity, reported “about 50” arrests carried out by the unit responsible for investigating offenses under the security law.

The operation targeted former pro-democracy parliamentarians like James To, Andrew Wan and Lam Cheuk Ting, but also younger activists.

Of the latter, two confirmed their own arrests via Facebook: Gwyneth Ho, a 30-year-old former journalist in activism, and Tiffany Yuen, a 27-year-old district councilor.

Relatives of Joshua Wong, one of the most famous faces of the pro-democracy movement, currently in prison, said on his Facebook account that his home had been searched.

The July primaries in Beijing's sights

Hong Kong police have not officially responded to any questions about the hack, whether it was the number of people arrested or the charges.

But pro-democracy figures said the arrests were linked to the primaries organized in July by the opposition before the legislative elections which were scheduled for September.

These elections, during which the opposition intended to capitalize on the popularity of the 2019 mobilization, were postponed for a year by the government on the pretext of the coronavirus epidemic.

The aim of the primaries, in which more than 600,000 Hong Kongers participated, was to avoid a scattering of the votes of the opposition and to nominate the 35 candidates who would run for the seats of the Legislative Council (Legco, the local parliament) which are attributed to the Universal suffrage.

The rest are awarded according to a convoluted system that almost certainly guarantees a majority for the pro-Beijing bloc.

"One country, two systems"

The National Security Law was imposed by Beijing, without discussion in LegCo, to respond to the political crisis of 2019, when Hong Kong had for months been the scene of almost daily, and sometimes violent, protests against the interference of the China.

Critics of this law present it as the last nail in the coffin of Hong Kong semi-autonomy, which was theoretically guaranteed until 2047 under the “One country, two systems” principle which had governed the handover.

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