CCP’s National Security Office in Hong Kong Conducts 1st Joint Investigation With Local Police
Udumbara
For the first time since its establishment, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) National Security Office in Hong Kong has publicly cooperated with the National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force to handle a case involving suspicion of “colluding with foreign or overseas forces to endanger national security.”
It has been five years since the CCP implemented the National Security Law in Hong Kong in June 2020.
As part of the operation, the CCP’s National Security Office in Hong Kong requested the National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force to assist in arranging interviews with the people involved in the case in accordance with the subsidiary legislation of the National Security Ordinance passed last month.
The National Security Police searched the residences of the six people and the office of the organization, seized evidence including bank documents and equipment for further investigation. They also required the persons involved to surrender all travel documents.
The operation was the very first time that the Hong Kong National Security Law, the National Security Ordinance (commonly known as Article 23), and the recently passed Article 23 subsidiary legislation were simultaneously activated. It is also the first time authorities have publicly announced that the National Security Office and the Hong Kong Police National Security Department have jointly been dispatched. According to Article 60 of the National Security Law, the National Security Office and its personnel are not bound by the jurisdiction of Hong Kong when performing their duties.
Labor Rights Organization Disbanded
On the same day as the investigation carried out by the National Security Office and the National Security Department of the Police Force, the Hong Kong non-governmental organization China Labor Bulletin, founded by Chinese labor movement leader Han Dongfang in 1994, announced its dissolution, saying that it could not continue due to lack of funds and debt problems.After the implementation of the National Security Law, many civil society groups in Hong Kong were pressured to disband. As early as one year after the passage of the National Security Law, a wave of “dissolutions” had already swept through Hong Kong society in 2021.
326 People Arrested
Hong Kong Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung told local media, that as of June 1, a total of 326 people had been arrested in all cases involving endangering national security, of which 165 had been convicted, in the five-year period the National Security Law has been enacted.Ping-keung also said that since the national security hotline was opened in November 2020, more than 900,000 reports have been received.
Those arrested under the National Security Law are from all walks of life, including well-known democratic activists such as the 47 candidates in the “primary election case,” members of the independent media such as Jimmy Lai, as well as students and housewives who were arrested for posting on social platforms.
