 Agnes Chow was taken by police from her home | |
| Native name | 周庭被香港警察國安處拘捕事件 |
|---|---|
| Date | 10 August 2020 |
| Location | Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong |
| Target | Agnes Chow |
| Charges | Collusion with foreign forces |
On 10 August 2020, Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow was arrested by Hong Kong police under Hong Kong national security law. Her arrest caused widespread controversy in the international community.
On 30 June 2020, after the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed the Hong Kong national security law, on the same day Chow announced her withdrawal from Demosistō on the social media. [1] [2]
Chow said that the arrest happened unexpectedly and described the police breaking the door and entering the process as horrible. On 12 August, she wrote on Facebook that she was not worried about her safety during her detention, but about whether the Apple Daily could continue to be published. She said that besides withdrawing from Demosistō, she would no longer participate in any international advocacy work, and she has not accepted any foreign media interviews. [3]
On 9 August 2020, Chow said on her Facebook and Instagram accounts that a group of suspicious men gathered outside her house. Four of them left in a car after several hours before another 3-4 men arrived to replace them. They took photos of her apartment. [4]
On the night of 10 August, after nine people including Jimmy Lai, the founder of Next Digital, were arrested by the National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police, [5] a group of police officers arrived at Chow's residence. At home, her lawyer went to follow up [6] and she was eventually arrested by the police. Shortly after her arrest, Senior Superintendent Li Kwai-wah of the National Security Department said during the meeting with reporters, that a total of 9 men and 1 woman, aged between 23 and 72 years old, were arrested on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces and conspiracy to commit fraud. [7]
Chow's Facebook post said that she was arrested by the police on the charge of "inciting secession" under the national security law. [8] The lawyer present stated that the police were searching her residence with a search warrant issued on 6 August. [9]
On 11 August, Chow posted an update on her Facebook page, stating that she was still being detained at the Tai Po Police Station. On the previous night, when she was accompanied by a lawyer, a video interview was conducted. Chow's computer, mobile phone and promotion materials were also seized by the police that night. [10]
At about 11 pm, after being detained for more than 24 hours, Chow was released on bail with a bail of HK$200,000 and a surety of HK$180,000. Her SAR passport was confiscated and she was ordered to report to the Tai Po Police Station on 1 September. Outside the police station that night, she was met by reporters, as well as activist Joshua Wong and Tiffany Yuen. [11] She said that the arrest was "the most shocking time". She believed that the reason for the arrest was very vague and "unknown" to her arrest. She criticized the regime for using the national security law to suppress political dissidents. [12] [13] She also says during her detention she is empowered by the Keyakizaka46 song "Fukyouwaon". [14]
The police have since claimed that Chow and others were running an organization that pressed for foreign sanctions against Hong Kong. [15]
Chow then broadcast live on her YouTube channel on the next day after her release, recounting her arrest in Cantonese and Japanese, and sharing her thoughts. She pointed out that although the detention time was not very long, she felt very scared because if she was prosecuted under national security law, she would not be able to obtain bail. She also revealed that she was very happy to learn that Apple Daily had printed 550,000 copies, and she urged Japanese people to pay attention to the situation in Hong Kong. [16] The live broadcast was supported by a large number of Japanese netizens. [17]
On 1 September, Chow reported to the Tai Po Police Station as part of her bail conditions. She said that she was only told to take another statement after arriving at the police station at about 3 pm. When she left the police station in the evening, she stated that the police asked her to report to the police station again on 2 December. She said that she "hoped to be released on bail safely" and to spend her birthday in freedom. [18] [19] However, because Chow was sentenced to prison for her unlawful assembly charges on 2 December, she could not report to the police station as she was remanded in custody.
On 3 August 2021, Chow reported to the Tai Po Police Station as part of her bail conditions for the first time after she was released on her unlawful assembly charges. [20] There were no reporters present outside the police station. After leaving the police station, she did not speak to the media and left without comment. [21] [22]
After netizens heard that Chow was arrested, many netizens called Chow as 'the real Mulan' on Twitter, praising for her bravery, and voiced their intention to boycott the movie Mulan starring Chinese-American actor Liu Yifei, which was expected to be released in September of the same year. [23]
The news of Chow's arrest has drawn significant attention in Japan. In addition to becoming a breaking news in major Japanese media, some Japanese netizens also launched hashtags such as #FreeAgnes, #周庭氏の逮捕に抗議する on the social media Twitter to express their dissatisfaction with Chow's arrest by the Hong Kong police and demanded for her release. [24] [25]
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga expressed deep concern about the arrest of Chow and others. [26] Foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi said that Japan's over Hong Kong were getting stronger. [27] A Japanese cross-party group affiliated with IPAC, Japan Parliamentary Alliance on China (JPAC), held an emergency press conference in the House of Representatives, stating that it cannot accept that the Hong Kong government violated the freedom of thought and speech with the National Security Law. In addition, the Chairman of the Communist Party of Japan Kazuo Shii stated that the Hong Kong police's aggressive arrest of Chow and others has nothing to do with socialism, but pure human rights oppression. [28] A member of House of Councillors Akira Koike even pointed out that the arrest of Chow was a major human rights violation because it is not just a domestic issue, but an international issue. [29] [ non-primary source needed ] He called for the withdrawal of the National Security Law. Taiga Ishikawa, a member of Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, shared the news of Chow's arrest on Twitter, saying that he would continue to do his utmost to safeguard Hong Kong's free and democratic stance. [30]
A Japanese singer-songwriter Tavito Nanao released a song called "Free" to protest the Hong Kong police's arrest of Chow and other Hong Kong democrats on suspicion of violating the National Security Law. He wrote that "the progress of human rights suppression are faster than I thought, I believe I can no longer perform in China, and I can no longer see Chinese friends." [31]
The youth wing of the Democratic Progressive Party stated through a Facebook post that the 23-year-old Hong Kong young female named Chow was arrested, representing Hong Kong's freedom and democracy has gradually disappeared, and this kind of abuse of power arrests and searches also proves that the Chinese government has promised to remain unchanged for 50 years through "One country, two systems" is just a hoax. [32]
Taiwanese actress Ili Cheng wrote that she expressed her concern through social networking sites. In her thoughts, she wrote "Pray for all peace." [33]
In its issue on 20 August 2020, iconic political news weekly in France, Le Point , published an image of Joshua Wong and Chow on the front cover, with the heading Les derniers jours de Hong Kong (The Last Days of Hong Kong). [34]
The Hong Kong Space Museum is a public astronomy and space science museum located in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. Opened on 8 October 1980, it is managed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Hong Kong Government. The building is notable for its hemispherical shape, which contains a planetarium, the only one in Hong Kong. The main facilities of the museum are located in a building next to the planetarium, showcasing information about the Solar System, cosmology, and spaceflight.
Lester Shum Ngo-fai is a Hong Kong social activist and politician. He was a leader of the 2014 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and served as deputy secretary-general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS) from April 2014 to March 2015. He was a member of the Tsuen Wan District Council for Hoi Bun from 2020 to 2021.
Ivan Lam Long-yin is a Hong Kong political activist who, together with Joshua Wong, established the Hong Kong student activist group, Scholarism, in May 2011. In 2018, he replaced Nathan Law as the chairperson of Demosisto. In December 2020, Lam was sentenced to seven months in prison for his role during the 2019 protests. Along with him, activists Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow were also convicted. On 12 April 2021, he was released from prison.
Au Nok-hin is a pro-democracy politician in Hong Kong. He is the former member of the Legislative Council for Hong Kong Island from 2018 to 2019 and member of the Southern District Council for Lei Tung I from 2012 to 2019.
Agnes Chow Ting is a Hong Kong politician and social activist. She is a former member of the Standing Committee of Demosisto and former spokesperson of Scholarism. Her candidacy for the 2018 Hong Kong Island by-election, supported by the pro-democracy camp, was blocked by authorities, due to her party's advocacy of self-determination and independence for Hong Kong. She was arrested in August 2019, during the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, for her role in a protest at police headquarters two months earlier, and sentenced to 10 months in jail in December 2020. She was again arrested for the National Security charge of 'collusion with foreign forces' in August 2020, albeit released on bail the day after. After her early release in June 2021, she made no public announcements until December 2023, when she wrote on social media that she had already moved to Canada in September that year to study for a master's degree at a university in Toronto, and decided to go into exile.
Cheng Lai-king is a Hong Kong politician who served as District Councillor for the Castle Road constituency, and as former chairwoman of Central and Western District Council. She is a member of the Democratic Party and a registered social worker.
This is a list of protests in January 2020 that were part of the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests. The protests continued to be buoyed up by the success of the pan-democrats at the November 2019 District Council Elections, but also continued to feel the effects of the mass arrests at the November 2019 siege of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. With the notable exceptions of protests on New Year's Day and on 19 January, protests remained smaller-scale but took place almost every day. It appeared that police, under its new chief Chris Tang, had changed its tactics to round up violent protesters early, aiming to avoid the spiralling into evening violence that had occurred in many of the earlier protests.
In late January 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic started to gain more concerns from the public due to its severity. In early February, consequently, the organizers announced to suspend the demonstrations. Alternatively, protests over responses to the outbreak were held in various districts. The largest demonstrations besides the outbreak protests were to commemorate the July 21 Yuen Long attack and August 31 Prince Edward station attack, as well as the death of Chow Tsz-lok and Chan Yin-lam.
This is a list of protests in March 2020 that were part of the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests. Protests activities largely centered around anniversaries of major events of the protests in 2019; there were also gatherings in shopping malls. Due to the growth of cases of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the city – which would not be checked until April –, the protests were generally of considerably smaller size than before the pandemic. Police drew the dissatisfaction of demonstrators and pro-democratic politicians for their heavy-handed tactics, and for their perceived overuse of coronavirus restriction policies to dissolve rallies.
This is a timeline of events in April 2020 surrounding the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests. The COVID-19 pandemic had caused a decline in the number and scale of the protests, although the Hong Kong government, police and protesters expected that with signs of the pandemic beginning to ease in Hong Kong, major protests of the kind the city had seen before the pandemic would again erupt in summer. Most protest-related activities happened online, especially on games like Animal Crossing. This resulted in a ban on the sale of Animal Crossing in China. Hong Kong police arrested 15 Democrats on the morning of 18 April, citing their alleged participation in "unlawful" gatherings that had taken place in August and October 2019 in the context of the protests. This drew international condemnation, with accusations being made that the crackdown had been carried out at the behest of the Chinese central government, and taken advantage of many Western democracies being severely hit by the pandemic, hampering their response.
Cheng Tat-hung, known as Tat Cheng, is a Hong Kong politician, formerly affiliated with the Civic Party. He was a member of Eastern District Council for Tanner from 2016 to 2021.
The month of August 2020 in the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests saw only sparse and relatively small protests, mainly due to the city going through a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and an outdoor gathering ban on groups of more than two people. As the impact of the Hong Kong National Security Law on the city became increasingly evident, and additionally in response to acts by representatives of the local and mainland governments throughout the protests, Western democracies continued to voice sharp criticism and implemented sanctions against China, with the United States imposing sanctions on 11 Hong Kong officials on 7 August. These developments supported the opinion expressed by former British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind in late June that the protests had morphed from a mostly local dispute into an international one.
The offices of Apple Daily, once the largest pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong, and its parent company, Next Digital, were raided and executives arrested by the Hong Kong Police Force on 10 August 2020 and again on 17 June 2021. Some of the arrested and three companies of Next Digital were charged under the Hong Kong national security law. The 26-year-old newspaper was forced to close in June 2021 following the raids and freezing of its capital.
On 6 September, the biggest protests in the course of the 2019-20 Hong Kong protests since 1 July occurred in the city. The fresh protests were in a large part due to the day having been the scheduled election day for the Legislative Council; on 31 July, the Hong Kong government had the elections postponed by a year, citing the COVID-19 pandemic, a justification that was widely doubted. The unauthorized protests resulted in nearly 300 arrests, one of them on suspected violation of the national security law, and brought the total number of arrests during the entire protests since June 2019 to above 10,000.
Nabela Qoser is a Hong Kong journalist and broadcaster. Until end of May 2021, she was Assistant Programme Officer at Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) and co-hosted the RTHK talk show. She is the first Cantonese-language news reporter of non-ethnic Chinese descent in Hong Kong. She attracted media attention in 2019 following her outspoken questioning of government officials.
Hong Kong 12, or 12 Hongkongers, are the twelve Hong Kong protesters, previously arrested by the Hong Kong police, detained by the Chinese authorities in 2020 on sea after a failed attempt to flee to Taiwan.
Hong Kong Connection, formerly The Common Sense, is a long-running news documentary television programme produced by Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK. It mainly covers Hong Kong politics, economics, education, disadvantaged, environmental protection, the current situation in China, international affairs, etc. The programme premiered on 5 March 1978.
A suicide attack took place at approximately 22:10 on 1 July 2021, in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. 50-year-old Leung Kin-fai approached a Police Tactical Unit police officer from behind and stabbed him, injuring the officer's scapula and piercing his lung, before Leung committed suicide by stabbing his own heart. Leung was immediately subdued by surrounding police, arrested and sent to hospital. He died at 23:20.
Few protests took place in June 2021 and there were no large-scale demonstrations in threat of the national security law. The anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre on 4 June saw only small crowds or single individuals engaging in vigils in the vicinity of Victoria Park – the venue of large vigils on the same occasion in past years – before police dispersed them. The pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily once again had its headquarters raided by police using the national security law; its executives were arrested. Security Bureau also froze the assets of three Apple Daily companies, which led the newspaper to print its final edition on 24 June. Many pan-democratic groups disbanded at the end of the month under pressure from the law.
On 29 December 2021, Stand News, one of the few remaining pro-democracy media outlets in Hong Kong following the passage of the Hong Kong national security law in 2020, was raided by the National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force. Media executives and journalists were arrested on the charge of "conspiring to publish seditious publications" on a large scale. As a result of the raid, Stand News ceased operations, the organisation's website and social media became inactive, and all its employees were dismissed. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, along with leaders in Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and United States, condemned the raid.
| Background | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| National security |
| ||||
| Notable cases | |||||
| Agencies | |||||
| Impact | |||||
