Hong Kong police have made their first arrests under a newly passed local national security law over social media posts deemed “seditious” by authorities.

By Chinasaokwu H Okoro

Just days ahead of the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.The city’s national security police on Tuesday arrested six people on suspicion of committing acts with seditious intent, according to a police statement.

Security chief Chris Tang confirmed one of those arrested was Chow Hang-tung, a leading organizer of the huge Tiananmen vigils that used to be held in Hong Kong but are now effectively outlawed. Chow is already in custody on charges related to her democracy activism.

In their statement, police accused an unnamed woman in custody and five others of taking advantage of “an approaching sensitive date” to anonymously publish seditious posts on social media since April.

The goal, police alleged, was to “incite citizens’ hatred of the central authorities, the city government and the judiciary, and to incite netizens toorganize or participate in illegal activities later on.”
The statement did not state the upcoming sensitive date. However next Tuesday marks the anniversary of Beijing’s June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, an event that has been scrubbed from the record by Chinese authorities and can no longer be safely commemorated in Hong Kong.

Chow, a lawyer and one of the city’s most prominent pro-democracy activists, was previously twice jailed for holding unauthorized vigils to commemorate Beijing’s bloody military crackdown. She is currently in custody on a national security charge.

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