Media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, founder of Apple Daily is detained by the national security unit in Hong Kong, China August 10, 2020.Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai became the highest-profile arrest under a new national security law on Monday.
His arrest comes amid Beijing's crackdown against pro-democracy opposition in the city and further stokes concerns about media and other freedoms promised to the former British colony when it returned to China in 1997. Critics say it crushes freedoms, while supporters say it will bring stability after prolonged pro-democracy protests last year.
An Apple Daily source said that other senior executives in the company were among those targeted and that police were searching their homes. On major cases in Hong Kong, the central government in Beijing can claim jurisdiction. The legislation allows agents to take suspects across the border for trials in Communist Party-controlled courts, one issue that has raised alarm at home and overseas.Lai was also arrested this year on illegal assembly charges, along with other leading activists, relating to protests last year.
The new legislation has sent a chill through Hong Kong, affecting many aspects of life. Activists have disbanded their organisations, while some have fled the city altogether.
to think, U.S. leftists have covered for & defended china, to score political points against their political opponents lately they've been claiming china eradicated, or greatly reduced c19 cases based on chinas reports ignoring chinas history of falsifying data/authoritarianism