‘National security’ arrests follow protest on campus

Hong Kong’s newly established national security police on 7 December arrested eight people including newly graduated alumni in connection with a protest at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) last month, with at least three of them facing possible serious charges of ‘inciting secession’ under the national security law which came into force in July.

Offences under the national security law are liable to a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Police were called in by the university’s leadership on 19 November when around 90 people staged a protest within the university campus “without notifying the police”, according to Steve Li of the Hong Kong police national security department, saying the eight arrested were suspected of ‘unlawful assembly’.

At the 19 November campus rally, some protesters were seen holding up banners and chanting slogans promoting “Hong Kong independence”, Li said at a media briefing on 7 December, shortly after the arrests.

“Not all the people were arrested for the national security law, because we use an evidence basis. We only arrested those who were [suspected of] shouting slogans, displaying flags which involved some national security concerns,” Li said, indicating that arrests related to the CUHK protests last month would continue.

“There were some criminal damage cases around, inside the campus – mainly some pro-Hong Kong independence wording painted on some premises inside,” said Li, adding that a police investigation on the campus on the day of the protests found “pro-independence graffiti at 30 locations inside the campus”.

The arrests of protesters, three aged 16 and five others who are fresh graduates or alumni of CUHK, are among the second-largest group of coordinated arrests since the national security law came into force. CUHK said it could not comment on the arrests as the cases were “under investigation”.

‘Attempts to silence opposing views’

Amnesty International’s Hong Kong Programme Manager Lam Cho Ming said in a statement on Monday: “Chanting political slogans, singing songs and waving flags should never be crimes, but there is a grim predictability about these arrests that lays bare the deterioration of human rights in Hong Kong since the national security law was enacted.

“The people involved in this small protest were merely expressing their views peacefully, but this is now treated as a crime as the Hong Kong and central Chinese authorities seek to crush all forms of dissent.”

Lam said the arrests were an “example of the Hong Kong government’s attempts to silence opposing views on campus”.

“The people arrested for protesting at CUHK have been targeted solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression and assembly and they should be released immediately and unconditionally, with all charges against them dropped.”

Amnesty International said: “Since the enactment of the law, universities have increasingly restricted freedom of expression and peaceful assembly on campus, including the peaceful expression of political views in the past four months.”

Critics say the new national security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing, which ostensibly deals with subversion, secession, terrorism and colluding with foreign forces, has created new speech crimes to crush dissent. Beijing said the law was needed to restore stability in Hong Kong after a year of large-scale protests.

The university’s decision to call the police has been strongly condemned, including by CUHK’s own staff union and other faculty, although few have spoken out openly.

“The decision of the management of the Chinese University of Hong Kong to call the police in response to a student protest on the university campus is shocking,” said Denis Edwards, a barrister and former member of CUHK’s faculty of law, in a letter published by the South China Morning Post newspaper.

“A university that fails to support its students is unworthy at the best of times. But when free speech and free thinking are under sustained attack, the university’s reliance on the forces of oppression robs it of all legitimacy,” he added.

“I am glad I am no longer associated with the university, given the hostile position which the university now takes towards its own students. Chinese University students have been courageous in their defence of Hong Kong’s rights and freedoms. A great university would support them.”

CUHK alumni contacted by University World News said they were appalled by the university’s action. “The university is supposed to improve students’ life chances, not ruin them by subjecting them to these drastic security laws because of a campus gathering,” said a recent CUHK graduate, currently studying for a masters degree at the University of Hong Kong.

Another said “students must be able to feel free and safe on campus. This protest within the campus had nothing to do with national security. Campus gatherings, especially for graduation, are a normal part of student life; they should not be criminalised, much less seen as a security threat.”

The CUHK-related arrests were promptly and widely reported in official media on the mainland, referring to reports that students were initially protesting the university’s decision to move graduation ceremonies online due to COVID-19 curbs as a “pretext” for the wider protests.

In November Hong Kong’s Education Bureau said it “strongly condemned anyone suspected of illegal activities” at CUHK and supported the university authorities’ decision to notify police.

University sources said Hong Kong Education Secretary Kevin Yeung recently met the heads of all eight publicly funded universities to discuss the legislation’s implications and how institutions should implement ‘national security education’ into their curriculums.

Last month, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam said law enforcement may step in if universities cannot fulfil the requirements of the national security law.