‘Terrorists’ — state media lays ground for persecution of Hong Kong democrats
The Hong Kong government and its masters in Beijing continue to move against pro-democracy leaders and anyone involved with the long-running protests of 2019. On April 18, police arrested 15 prominent Hongkongers for their roles in allegedly organizing and participating in unlawful mass assemblies last August and October. Today the president of Hong Kong’s legislature moved “to wrest control of a committee from opposition lawmakers who have been holding up its work with filibustering, as it becomes the centerpiece of a fight between their camp and Beijing’s agencies in charge of the city’s affairs,” reports the South China Morning Post.
Expect things to get worse, much worse, for anyone opposed to Beijing’s tightening control of Hong Kong. Chinese state media is now saying that “so-called ‘pan-democrats’ and their acolytes in Hong Kong” are causing a “rising risk of homegrown terrorism.” That’s the word used to give carte blanche to the security forces in Xinjiang.
See also on YouTube: An interview with Hong Kong pro-democracy veteran Martin Lee (李柱铭 Lǐ Zhùmíng) on his recent arrest.
—Jeremy Goldkorn
