Unionist wife of jailed Hong Kong opposition politician Lee Cheuk-yan arrested by national security officers after prison visit
- Former union leader Elizabeth Tang was arrested on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces, Post learns
- Tang’s husband, Lee Cheuk-yan, is in jail awaiting trial on a national security charge relating to his role in group behind city’s Tiananmen Square vigil
Former union leader Elizabeth Tang Yin-ngor, 65, was taken away by officers in a seven-seater vehicle outside Stanley Prison at around midday on Thursday.
The police force’s National Security Department said it had arrested a 65-year-old, without disclosing the person’s name, for suspected collusion with a foreign country or external elements to endanger national security, contravening Article 29 of the national security law.
An insider said Tang was picked up after visiting her husband in the maximum security prison.
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He said Tang was the director of an information research centre and suspected of receiving more than HK$100 million (US$12.7 million) in donations from groups in the United States, Germany and Norway since 1994 to support labour movements in Asia.
Her centre announced in 2021 that it was dissolving, around the same time as the Confederation of Trade Unions (CTU), an umbrella group her husband headed as general secretary.
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She left for Britain in September of that year in an apparent move to evade law enforcers’ investigations, the source said.
Following her arrest, Tang was driven to Stanley Police Station and then escorted to a Lai Chi Kok flat for a police search around 5pm. The source said she would be detained overnight at police headquarters in Wan Chai.
It was understood the entity was the Asia Monitor Resource Centre, where Tang was a director and company secretary, according to the Companies Registry.
In September 2021, pro-Beijing newspaper Ta Kung Pao reported the centre had received more than HK$118 million in funding from Western groups since 1994 to support its work in Asia.
Major funding sources reportedly included the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity, a core institute of the US-backed National Endowment for Democracy, which supports civil society groups abroad.
Ta Kung Pao also reported that the centre had received funding from the Washington-based Solidarity Centre, an international workers’ rights group.
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In a statement on its Facebook page that month, the centre dismissed the report as a “false accusation” and maintained “we are a civil society organisation independent of any local or international organisations”.
But it announced that it would close after September 2021, saying “the pressure on our operation has intensified significantly”.
There are some discrepancies about the centre’s background. In its Facebook statement in 2021, the centre said it “started its mission in 1968”. But according to its website, the centre was founded in 1976.
A Companies Registry search also found an Asia Monitor Resource Centre Limited. It was a Hong Kong company, established in 1986, that was dissolved last month.
Tang was registered as a director. The other two were former university sociologist Professor Chan King-chi and human rights activist Abdul Baseer Naweed. Tang was also appointed as the company secretary in 2009 and served in the post until it was dissolved.
The national security law, imposed by Beijing in June 2020, criminalises acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
In an unrelated case, the department said it had arrested a 23-year-old woman in Sau Mau Ping on Wednesday on suspicion of inciting secession by publishing online posts that incited Hong Kong independence. She was suspected of contravening articles 20 and 21 of the law.
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Barrister Ronny Tong Ka-wah, who sits on the Executive Council, the government’s de facto cabinet, declined to comment on Tang’s case but said that merely having a connection with or receiving funding from foreign institutions might not constitute collusion under the security legislation.
“The law is rather clear. It may be regarded as collusion if one receives money or instructions from a foreign institution to do things that aim to endanger national security, like supporting foreign countries to impose sanctions,” he said.
“In case it is a limited company, the directors of the company will be held responsible [for colluding].”
Under Article 29 of the legislation, one could be regarded as colluding with “a foreign country or external elements” if found to have conspired with a foreign institution or individual or received funding from them for various reasons.
They include to wage a war against the country, disrupt the laws or policies of the Hong Kong or central governments, or engage in hostile activities against the Hong Kong government or China, or to provoke by unlawful means hatred among Hongkongers towards the central government.
Offenders are liable to a jail term of no less than three years but not more than 10 years. For an offence of a grave nature, the offender could be subject to life imprisonment or a fixed-term jail sentence of not less than 10 years.
Tang, popularly known as Sister Ngor, had been a veteran unionist in Hong Kong. She and Lee married in 1985 and co-founded the CTU in 1990. The couple had since become the voice of the local working class.
He had been a lawmaker since 1995 until he lost his seat in the 2016 election.
The prison sentence also covers a fourth instance related to a banned June 4 vigil in 2020 to mark the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
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Lee completed the sentence in September but remained behind bars to await trial on a national security charge.
He was charged in 2021 with inciting subversion through his role in the alliance.
Former alliance vice-chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan and vice-chairwoman Chow Hang-tung were also charged with incitement to subversion. Ho was released temporarily in August, but Lee and Chow remain behind bars.
The High Court has denied bail to Lee on the grounds of “strong” and “undisputed” evidence of an alleged breach of the national security law.
In December last year, he applied for temporary release for the first time since being charged in 2021 with inciting subversion.
Mr Justice Andrew Chan Hing-wai, one of a handful of judges approved by the city’s leader to hear national security cases, dismissed Lee’s application on the grounds the former lawmaker would threaten the country’s safety if released on bail.
The judge also highlighted Lee’s insistence on his political views and the “real risk” of him absconding, evidenced by the sale of his property and his wife’s departure for Britain in 2021.
