HONG KONG — Joshua Wong, one in all Hong Kong’s most seen pro-democracy activists, has been arrested a number of instances for collaborating in antigovernment protests that erupted over the previous yr and roiled town for months earlier than the coronavirus pandemic hit.
And when he walked into the Central Police Station on Thursday as a part of a daily check-in, he was arrested once more — this time, the police mentioned, not just for attending an unauthorized demonstration final October, but in addition for violating a authorities ban on carrying a masks throughout that gathering.
Mr. Wong steered that the authorities had political motives for charging him for carrying a masks at a pre-pandemic protest. The arrest got here at a time when the outbreak has made mask-wearing ubiquitous within the Chinese language territory.
“I imagine an apparent cause is that the regime’s authorities are overlapping one case with one other to attempt to confine all activists inside Hong Kong’s borders,” he mentioned outdoors the police station on Thursday.
Different activists have fled town or have tried to do so, fearing the loss of myriad freedoms and harsher crackdowns underneath a sweeping national security law imposed on Hong Kong in June to quell the continued protests.
“It doesn’t matter what occurs,” Mr. Wong mentioned, “I’ll nonetheless proceed to withstand and hope to let the world to know the way Hong Kongers select to not give up.”
Dixon Sing, a political scientist on the Hong Kong College of Science and Expertise, mentioned that whereas the arrest got here at a time when Hong Kong residents are legally required to put on masks in public to struggle the pandemic, the federal government would argue that the context final yr that led to Mr. Wong’s indictment on Thursday was completely different.
However he added, “The message could be very clear: Beijing is set to train an iron first to attempt to stifle the native political opposition and likewise attempt to frighten individuals away from supporting their causes.”
Along with Mr. Wong, one other veteran activist, Koo Sze-yiu, was arrested on Thursday in reference to the October protest, the League of Social Democrats mentioned.
The police on Thursday confirmed, with out naming them, per protocol, that two males, ages 23 and 74, had been arrested on suspicion of “unknowingly collaborating in an unauthorized meeting” and would face formal expenses in court docket on Sept. 30.
The day earlier than Mr. Wong attended the protest on Oct. 5, the Hong Kong authorities, using emergency powers, implemented the ban on masks. Protesters had begun carrying face coverings to guard their identities once they marched on the road. And Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing chief, deployed a not often used colonial-era regulation in October to ban masks in an try and quell the antigovernment protests. However protesters principally ignored the rule. The ban additional infected tensions within the metropolis and set off extra demonstrations, in addition to violent clashes.
The masks ban got here months earlier than the coronavirus emerged within the Chinese language metropolis of Wuhan and unfold round the remainder of the world.
A court docket later dominated that components of the federal government’s masks ban had been unconstitutional. In April, Hong Kong’s Courtroom of Attraction dominated that face coverings had been permissible at protests permitted by the authorities, however backed the federal government’s proper to ban masks at unauthorized gatherings.
Mr. Wong, 23, has already served two brief jail sentences for his pro-democracy actions and is anticipating to face two different trials associated to a protest outside police headquarters final yr and an annual vigil honoring victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Sq. protests.
He was amongst a dozen candidates barred from an upcoming legislative election, weeks after China imposed the nationwide safety regulation. Then the Hong Kong authorities postponed the election by one year, citing the coronavirus pandemic — a transfer that the pro-democracy opposition thought of an try and thwart its electoral momentum and keep away from the potential defeat of pro-Beijing candidates.
This summer time, town’s well being authorities made masks obligatory in public locations to struggle a wave of coronavirus infections. The federal government, citing the pandemic, then prolonged its ban on public gatherings of greater than 4 individuals to Oct. 1, China’s Nationwide Day. That’s when an annual pro-democracy protest often takes place.
Some have accused the authorities of intentionally extending the restrict to the politically delicate anniversary to quell anticipated demonstrations. They famous that different social distancing guidelines had been lifted.
“For the reason that pandemic broke out, one can firmly say Hong Kong individuals haven’t had the appropriate to march and assemble,” Jimmy Sham, a protest organizer with the Civil Human Rights Entrance, mentioned on Thursday.
Activists count on the police to ban the Oct. 1 march.
Austin Ramzy contributed reporting.
