Hong Kong national security police unit puts university campus in cross hairs with arrest of three students over rally
- The trio of students were among eight people arrested in a series of raids across the city shortly after daybreak on Monday
- People were heard calling for Hong Kong independence during the protest at Chinese University last month
Three students were among eight people swept up by the police national security department early Monday morning, signalling a fresh push by authorities to impose the discipline of the new law on what had long been outposts of dissent in the city – and the sites of some of the fiercest clashes during last year‘s social unrest – university campuses
Senior Superintendent Steve Li Kwai-wah of the national security department said the three students were arrested on suspicion of inciting secession under the sweeping law decreed by Beijing, an offence carrying a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. All eight were suspected of taking part in an unauthorised assembly.
“Throughout the one-hour procession, some of them were chanting slogans of pro-Hong Kong independence or displaying flags or banners with the slogan of pro-Hong Kong independence,” he said.
Li said an initial investigation showed the three students - two Form Four students both aged 16 and a postsecondary student - had shouted the slogans and displayed the flags during the demonstration. A police source said security cameras captured their identities when they removed their masks.
As of Monday evening, the eight suspects were being held for questioning and none had been charged.
The investigation is continuing and further arrests are possible, according to police. The university said it would not comment on an ongoing case.
About 90 people took part in the demonstration at the university’s Sha Tin campus on November 19, staged to coincide with a graduation ceremony.
Dressed in black gowns and many wearing masks, students chanted slogans and held banners calling for the city’s independence, including “Liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our times”, the rallying cry of the anti-government protests often heard on campus grounds but now considered an offence under the new law.
A team from the national security department descended on the campus the next day to gather evidence, checking security camera footage and taking photos after receiving permission from management, according to a police insider.
The rally drew strong condemnation from Beijing’s liaison office, which warned it might have been in breach of the national security law and said the participants had promoted separatism and Hong Kong independence.
Li said police were not informed of the event beforehand.
The university’s student union expressed “utmost condemnation” over management’s decision to call police over the rally, describing the act as an “outrage”. It said the move had destroyed mutual trust with students and suggested the university had discarded its mission as an institution of higher learning.
Universities were turned into bases of violent resistance during the social unrest that rocked the city beginning in June last year. After months of back and forth battles with riot police on the streets, students retreated to the campuses to make a final stand.
Radicals occupied Chinese University for several days that November, throwing petrol bombs and other weapons from behind heavily fortified barriers before police stormed what they called a weapons factory. Dozens were injured in the violence.
The government has been pushing forward a requirement for schools to teach students about the national security law, which targets acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.
Education minister Kevin Yeung yun-hung recently met university heads to discuss the issue. A government source said the talks touched on the implications of the law and the directions the institutions could take to implement the relevant materials into their curriculums.
But he added universities would have a say on how they rolled out the topic and whether it would take the form of activities or courses.
Police have so far arrested 27 men and eight women under the new law, which members of the opposition camp blame for silencing dissent, while Western governments have suspended extradition treaties with Hong Kong over what they claim is an erosion of civil liberties.
