Nathan Law's family questioned : Even sending food is attack on Hong Kong security

After the arrest warrant and bounties, the pro-Beijing government's escalation against the eight pro-democracy activists who fled abroad continues. The parents and brother of the young leader of the umbrella movement picked up at dawn with the same methods used in China against dissidents. In the crosshairs the 'tea parties in the UK that encourage condemnation and sanction of China'.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews) - Hong Kong police this morning picked up for questioning the parents and brother of Nathan Law, a former Legislative Council member who expatriated to Britain after the National Security Act was passed three years ago.

Law - who is 29 and was among the leaders of the 2014 umbrella movement - is one of eight pro-democracy activists living abroad for whom an arrest warrant and a HK million (almost €118,000) bounty was issued last week.

The website of the Sing Tao - a Hong Kong newspaper - reports that the police went to two of Tung Chung's flats around 6 a.m. this morning. Law's parents and brother were interrogated at a station and later released.

In August 2020, a month after leaving Hong Kong, Law issued a statement saying he had severed ties with his family, adding that he no longer had any ties with them. A precaution to protect them that is proving to be in vain: today's action echoes those taken against the families of dissidents in mainland China.

This morning's intimidation is just the latest step in the escalation in recent days against pro-democracy figures who have left Hong Kong and from abroad continue to keep the spotlight on the ongoing crackdown.

Last week, five people linked to Demosisto - the defunct political party founded in 2016 by Nathan Law together with other young activists Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow and dissolved on the day the National Security Act came into effect - had been arrested on charges of 'colluding with foreign forces'.

The activity of the so-called 'yellow business club' is being targeted, which according to the police was promoting pro-democracy Hong Kong businesses through an app and helping to financially support Nathan Law.

In a television interview on Sunday, Regina Ip - a strictly pro-Beijing MP and former security secretary - said that even sending money or food from Hong Kong to eight wanted democrats abroad was 'supporting their illegal activities'.

'Some of the wanted persons are very active in the UK,' said Ip. 'They organise tea parties in areas where many Hong Kongers live. On the surface these are Hong Kong-style tea parties, but in reality they are designed to brainwash and confuse politicians and encourage them to condemn and sanction China'.

According to figures released in February, as many as 144,500 people have left Hong Kong for the UK in the two years since London launched an emigration programme for British passport holders after the National Security Act came into effect on 1 July 2020.

Just yesterday - when questioned by journalists after the announcement of his appointment and referring to the call for a gesture of clemency launched at Easter for the more than 6,000 people imprisoned in the crackdown on pro-democracy movements in 2019 - the  Cardinal - designate Stephen Chow, Bishop of Hong Kong, had expressed his wish for more space for 'reconciliation and hope for young people, especially those who have been in prison, so that they have a future'.

• Hong Kong
• China
• Nathan Law
• umbrella movement
• National Security Law
• Regina Ip