Unable to get their hands on Nathan Law, the authorities in Hong Kong went for his friends and now also his family :(

Gone (as in covered up) but still not forgotten

 

"Hong Kong police searched the family home of exiled pro-democracy activist Nathan Law on Tuesday morning, taking relatives away for questioning, the city’s public broadcaster RTHK reported, citing sources.  It came just a week after police placed HK$1 million bounties on information leading to the arrest of Law and seven other prominent activists in self-imposed exile wanted for national security offenses, in a move strongly condemned by rights groups and Western governments."  Thus began a CNN piece on the latest development in a saga that is threatening to run and run -- and, in the process, drag Hong Kong's international reputation further down.  

 

I'm referring, of course, to the move by the Hong Kong government to put HK$1 million bounties on the heads of eight self-exiled pro-democracy activists -- four of whom had previously been elected to the Legislative Councillor (with far more votes than the likes of John Lee, Carrie Lam and Leung Chun-ying have ever received in over the course of their political careers); related actions of which have included arresting five individuals who used to belong to the same now defunct political party, Demosisto, as Nathan Law (and had been working on/for the Mee Yellow Economic Circle shopping app which now also is no more). 

 

For those who didn't know: Nathan Law is a former Legislative Councillor -- Hong Kong's youngest ever when he was elected to office in 2016 -- who went into exile days after China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong on June 30th, 2020. He was granted political asylum by the British government soon after.  Also, in August of that year, he publicly cut ties with his family -- presumably because he feared/foresaw that the Hong Kong government would try to use them to get him. But that has not prevented his parents and elder brother from being effectively harassed by the police, with the possibility of being arrested by them.

 

The CNN article also reported this: "Responding to the police action, Law issued a statement on Facebook denying any financial support from his family.  “I can say this with certainty. Those relevant people and I have no financial ties. My work has nothing to do with them,” he said. “Any suggestions of ‘assistance’ is purely absurd.”" 

 

And this: "The Hong Kong government has repeatedly denied the national security law is suppressing freedoms.  Instead, it insists the law has ended chaos and restored stability to the city."  To which I'll say: I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest that if you were to be able to get people in Hong Kong to speak their minds, I'd wager that far more reckon the former rather than the latter with regards to the effects of the national security law on the city.  And the fact that it's harder now than pre-June 30th, 2020, to get people freely speaking their minds already tells you a lot about Hong Kong's loss of freedom in the past three years or so.

 

On a personal note: Back in 2021, I met up with a friend who had, prior to the coming into effect of the national security law, divided his time between Hong Kong and the US.  I was surprised/shocked when he said he couldn't discern any sign of protest or major repression then (compared to when he was in the city in late 2019).  Even so, he did feel then that things would be taking a turn for a worse; so didn't know when he'd return to Hong Kong -- and when we said our goodbyes, I wondered whether I'd ever see him again, particularly in this part of the world.  

 

So I was quite surprised when he told me a couple of months back that he'll be returning for at least one more visit.  Well, he's back again now and/but this time around, he definitely notices the repression: as in some of his (other) friends are now apparently leery of meeting up with him -- and he shared that one of his friends has had her place broken into twice, and he suspects it now may be bugged!  This experience has made him more nervous and jittery than when I met him in just two years ago.  And I suspect that he really will be disinclined to return to Hong Kong again after he departs this time around.

 

Returning to Nathan Law, who I hope will not return to Hong Kong until it is truly free, and the recent CNN piece about him: "Last week, Law said in a statement that while the news of the bounties was stressful and meant he’d have to be more careful while traveling, it didn’t come as a surprise. He criticized the national security law as being used to “suppress dissenting voices,” and reiterated his hope for Hong Kong to one day gain full democracy.

 

"“I am just a Hong Konger speaking out for Hong Kongers – that’s all,” he said, and urged the public not to cooperate with the bounty offer. “We should not silence or limit ourselves, we should not be politically intimidated or blackmailed, or live in fear.”"  To which I'll say: "Hear, hear!"