From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   Hong Kong Arrests Show No Letup in Beijing-Driven Crackdown on Dissent   
   By Selina Cheng, March 30, 2023, WSJ   
      
   HONG KONG—Elizabeth Tang flew home to visit her husband in Stanley Prison,   
   where he is awaiting trial on national security charges. As the 65-year-old   
   labor activist left the Hong Kong maximum security facility earlier this   
   month, a team of police was    
   waiting—along with journalists from a state-owned newspaper.   
      
   Ms. Tang’s arrest on March 9 for alleged collusion with foreign forces sent   
   a signal to the financial hub’s 7.3 million people and their Communist Party   
   rulers in Beijing: There would likely be no letup in the campaign to root out   
   dissent.   
      
   Three days earlier, Hong Kong leader John Lee returned from Beijing carrying a   
   warning from Xia Baolong, who oversees the city’s affairs for the Chinese   
   government: The government can’t forget the dangers it faces from   
   destructive forces that are    
   lurking beneath the peaceful surface of Hong Kong’s society, Mr. Lee told   
   reporters at the airport.    
      
   A sweeping national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020, along with   
   stringent Covid-19 controls, have snuffed out antigovernment protests that   
   shut down large sections of Hong Kong for months starting in 2019. Almost 250   
   people have been arrested,    
   convicted or jailed for a range of allegations including subversion and   
   publishing children’s books that were deemed seditious.   
      
   Officials in China and Hong Kong have heralded the city’s transition from   
   “chaos to prosperity.” Protesters have largely stayed off the streets, but   
   the arrests have continued. At least 17 people were arrested during the past   
   year for posting    
   online content that was deemed to be a threat to national security.   
      
   After pandemic restrictions on gatherings were lifted in December, police   
   approved a rally that took place on March 26. The march, organized by a   
   residents’ group to protest land reclamation plans, was limited to 100   
   people and the participants were    
   required to wear numbered tags around their necks. Another rally organized for   
   International Women’s Day on March 8 was called off after organizers said   
   they were unable to come to an agreement with police after several meetings.    
      
   The arrests picked up pace after Mr. Lee returned from the capital on March 6.   
   He went there to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and other top officials   
   as the opening session of the National People’s Congress got under way to   
   rubber-stamp Mr. Xi’   
   s unprecedented third term in office. Mr. Lee’s office didn’t return a   
   request for comment.    
      
   Two days later, national security police embarked on a spate of arrests,   
   signaling that authorities have no intention of relenting on former activists   
   who have shrunk from public sight and have ceased to take part in campaigns in   
   Hong Kong.    
      
   Ms. Tang and her husband, former lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan, were both prominent   
   labor leaders in Hong Kong before the national security crackdown. She worked   
   at the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, while Mr. Lee was the face of   
   the group, which    
   disbanded in October 2021. Dozens of labor and civil rights groups, including   
   Amnesty International, have either disbanded or moved out of Hong Kong in the   
   past two years after the national security law’s introduction.   
      
   Ms. Tang was also general secretary for the International Domestic Workers   
   Federation—whose affiliates have more than 600,000 members globally. She had   
   left Hong Kong and was working and living in the U.K. before returning to the   
   city recently, state    
   media reported.   
      
   Six days after Ms. Tang’s arrest, national security police arrested her   
   lawyer, Fred Ho, and her younger sister. Police alleged that the pair removed   
   items from Ms. Tang’s home before a police search of the premises. Mr. Ho   
   declined to comment on the    
   case and her sister couldn’t be reached.    
      
   Mr. Ho’s older brother Albert, who had been out on bail after a year in   
   detention, was rearrested last week on suspicion of interfering with a witness   
   in a national security case, according to state media. Albert Ho, who was one   
   of the most prominent    
   pro-democracy figures before the national security law, was already facing a   
   charge of inciting subversion for his role in the group that organized Hong   
   Kong’s annual vigil commemorating victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square   
   massacre. Mr. Ho, whose bail    
   has been revoked, couldn’t be reached for comment and has made no public   
   statements about his case nor has he been in court to make a plea.   
      
   Authorities also arrested two people for possession of books that were deemed   
   seditious, a woman for calling for secession from China online, and detained   
   another man who was earlier arrested for uttering seditious speech in a   
   courtroom.    
      
   Eight people were arrested in the span of two weeks. Six of them haven’t   
   been charged and were released on police bail. A statement from the police   
   said the force isn’t allowed to disclose operational details to the media,   
   and didn’t address how    
   reporters from the Wen Wei Po newspaper were present at Elizabeth Tang’s   
   arrest, or whether the latest national security crackdown was in response to   
   Mr. Lee’s remarks.   
      
   The vast majority of opposition figures and activists have either been locked   
   up, fled abroad or moved into jobs that don’t involve politics after the   
   advent of the national security law. A handful who were given bail, never   
   charged or completed their    
   sentences try to keep a low profile, including some who were involved in the   
   city’s biggest pro-democracy political parties. Despite their efforts to   
   stay well within the boundaries of the law, these parties are finding it more   
   difficult to continue    
   their activities.   
      
   The Democratic Party, once a dominant force in the opposition bloc of the   
   legislature, has been waiting for government approval to sell raffle tickets   
   since the end of 2021, the major source of funding in the past two decades,   
   said a party member with    
   direct knowledge of the events. The party was also unable to hold its spring   
   gala dinner after at least four restaurants or event locations canceled their   
   booking at the last minute, the person said. The party didn’t respond to a   
   request for comment on    
   its fundraising or future plans.    
      
      
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