Ten more national security law arrests made during what's been yet another horror week in Hong Kong

  

On the front page of Apple Daily three years ago today

-- news of the arrest of its owner, Jimmy Lai :S

This has been quite the horror of a week in Hong Kong with way too many political arrests and "brought to police stations for questioning" developments for my liking.  Re the latter: I refer you to this past Wednesday's blog post.  As for the former: "At least 10 people linked to the now-defunct "612 Humanitarian Relief Fund" were arrested for foreign collusion by national security police yesterday, sources say.  It was the first time second-tier workers of pro-democracy organizations have been held."  

 

So began the report in The Standard today on the latest wave of arrests by the Hong Kong security police, which then continued as follows: "National security police arrested four men and six women, aged between 26 and 43, for allegedly colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security.  It is understood that the 10 are all former staff of the fund, including activist Bobo Yip Po-lam, Cheuk Kai-kai, Helen Hui Kun-wing, Wong Tsz-yan and Suki Tsoi Yui-chi."  

 

In many of the early reports on these arrests, Bobo Yip was the only person identified and whom there were photographs of. A veteran activist (who had joined the protest in 2007 against the demolition of Queen's Pier, and opposed the introduction of moral and national education in primary and secondary schools in the early 2010s) and a former secretary of the Justice & Peace Commission of the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese, she appeared amazingly calm in the photos taken of her post arrest.  

The second of the 10 whose identity became known was Cheuk Ka-kai.  She -- Kevin Yam wrote the following over on Twitter about her -- "was into organic farming. The type that grew expensive, “artisan” stuff that elites would happily pay to buy and eat. People like her would, at worst, be considered tree-hugging hippies in the West, a long way from being a security threat"!

 

Here's the thing: when you look at the people involved, they really can come across as perfectly ordinary, nice, harmless folks. Quoting again from The Standard article: "Some of [the arrestees] are also members of a voluntary Chinese medicine group that provided assistance to protesters during the 2019 unrest, who had admitted they were financially supported by the 612 fund." 

 

Read that last line again: members of a voluntary Chinese medicine group. And let that sink in. And then try to link that to "colluding with foreign forces". What kind of foreign forces do you think people like that would collude with, if at all??

 

Quoting once more from The Standard report: "Police said the 10 were suspected of using the fund - set up to provide legal support to protesters in the anti-fugitive bill unrest - to accept donations from overseas organizations in support of people who had fled overseas or organizations that called for sanctions against Hong Kong."  

 

That's it? They are accused of using a humanitarian relief fund to accept money from overseas organizaations in support of people who had fled overseas or organizations that called for sanctions against Hong Kong?  And even if they did so, would this truly pose a danger to the national security of China -- you know, that country with 1 billion people that most people in the world view as a major superpower, and one with nuclear weapons and other impressive technologies that it can call upon?! 

 

More from The Standard article: "Officers searched the homes and offices of the 10 with a court warrant and seized documents and electronic communication devices.  In the afternoon, Yip was brought back to the Talentum Bookshop on Waterloo Road, Yau Ma Tei, by officers to search for evidence."

  

More than by the way, other media have identified that bookshop as a Catholic bookshop. And over on Twitter, you have a netizen writing thus: "I've been to that bookstore numerous times. As far as I know they only sell religious books, and the staff are super-nice. We don't know the details yet of course, but it looks like the social justice mission of Christians could be increasingly at odds with [the Hong Kong government's national security law] obsession."

 

A perspective, I suspect, that's shared by Cardinal Joseph Zen.  The same Cardinal Zen who is a former trustee of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund along with senior barrister Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, fellow legislative councillor Cyd Ho Sau-lan, Cantopop singer-activist Denise Ho Wan-see and cultural studies scholar Hui Po-keung.  And also the same Cardinal Zen who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize along with fellow Hong Kongers Jimmy Lai, Chow Hang-tung, Gwyneth Ho, Lee Cheuk-yan and Joshua Wong!  And the same Cardinal Zen who, if the national security police are unable to kerb their zealousness, may end up being arrested again along with his fellow former fund trustees -- not something I want to be see but, sadly, something that we cannot discount happening in national security law-era Hong Kong! :S