{"id":85743,"date":"2018-08-27T11:29:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T11:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1:10081\/?p=85743 "},"modified":"2018-08-27T11:29:00","modified_gmt":"2018-08-27T11:29:00","slug":"85743-revision-v1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=85743","title":{"rendered":"Two Members of Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Party Held, Questioned in China"},"content":{"rendered":"
2018-08-27<\/span><\/div>

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Agnes Chow, a Demosisto candidate who was barred from forthcoming elections to Hong Kong’s Legislative Council (LegCo), addresses a crowd on Jan. 28, 2018.<\/span><\/p>

RFA<\/span><\/p>

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Two members of a political party formed by the leaders of the 2014 pro-democracy Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong were detained recently by state security police across the internal immigration border in mainland China, it said in a statement on Monday.<\/span><\/p>

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The two members of Demosisto were detained and questioned by state security police in Guangzhou, provincial capital of the southern province of Guangdong, which borders the former British colony.<\/span><\/p>

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One member was detained on Aug. 17 as they prepared to leave Guangzhou at the end of a trip to mainland China, Demosisto said in a statement.<\/span><\/p>

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“As the member left the Guangzhou train platform at 8:30pm on 17th August 2018 (Friday), a group exited a seven-seat vehicle and approached them while showing their badges issued by the Ministry of State Security,” the statement said.<\/span><\/p>

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The Demosisto member was told that police had received a “complaint” that they were trying to stir up trouble on the mainland Chinese side of the border.<\/span><\/p>

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The member and their companions had their phones confiscated, and were taken to a room in Guangzhou’s Liuhua Hotel in connection with “state security” and “espionage,” Demosisto said.<\/span><\/p>

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“The member was attached to a machine which resembled a polygraph, and was then asked about the process by which the member joined Scholarism and Demosisto, and the member’s role in the organizations and in the Occupy movement,” it said.<\/span><\/p>

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“The [detention] lasted for five hours until 1:30 a.m., and the member left to return to Hong Kong the next day,” the party said.<\/span><\/p>

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The detainee was unwilling to answer questions at first, but was threatened with a prolonged interrogation if they refused.<\/span><\/p>

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Pointed questions<\/span><\/p>

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They were asked whether they had brought any books across the border, and whether they felt guilty about participating in the 2014 pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.<\/span><\/p>

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They were also warned that to support self-determination for Hong Kong would amount to “incitement to subvert state power,” a charge commonly used to jail outspoken Chinese dissidents.<\/span><\/p>

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The Demosisto member was also asked for a list of all Demosisto members, and about their role in organizing protests linked to visits by high-ranking Chinese officials, including President Xi Jinping.<\/span><\/p>

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The member was also asked to sign an apology letter, subject to threats, and was offered possible payments for future intelligence on Demosisto, it said.<\/span><\/p>

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A Demosisto member was also detained and questioned for more than three hours on March 26 by state security police in Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong.<\/span><\/p>

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“When the member was brought to the police station in Shenzhen, the member was asked to sit in a chair which had handcuffs and ankle-cuffs,” the party said in its account of the detentions.<\/span><\/p>

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The member was also asked to write down a list of Demosisto’s members and staff members, and asked if they knew specific people, it said.<\/span><\/p>

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“Before leaving, [state security police] reiterated that the content of the questioning was not to be revealed online or to anyone else,” forcing the detainee to sign a pledge not to reveal the details of their detention, it said.<\/span><\/p>

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Demosisto was founded in April 2016 by three former leaders of the 2014 Occupy Central movement for fully democratic elections: Joshua Wong, Nathan Law, and Agnes Chow.<\/span><\/p>

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Scholarism led public protests in 2012 against proposals from the ruling Chinese Communist Party for patriotic education in Hong Kong’s schools that led to the plans being shelved.<\/span><\/p>

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Threat to personal safety<\/span><\/p>

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Scholarism activists Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow went on to play a key role in the Occupy Central democracy movement two years later.<\/span><\/p>

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Wong told RFA on Monday that the mainland authorities are now actively targeting Hong Kong pro-democracy activists.<\/span><\/p>

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“If people who have been involved in the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement go to the mainland, they are clearly facing an ever-greater threat to their personal safety, even if they haven’t broken any laws,” Wong said.<\/span><\/p>

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“There is a huge chasm between their understanding of the rule of law and ours.”<\/span><\/p>

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Wong said it is the duty of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government under Carrie Lam to ensure its citizens’ protection.<\/span><\/p>

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“Such cross-border incidents are becoming more and more common, and it’s not just high-profile politicians who are being targeted. It’s people who have played a fairly low-key role; rank-and-file members of politicial groups,” he said.<\/span><\/p>

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Law said Demosisto doesn’t know exactly what information the state security police hold on its members, but he assumes that it knows at least the basic details of its membership.<\/span><\/p>

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Neither of the two detainees had been members for very long, so he assumed that their questioning was intended to frighten off other members of Demosisto.<\/span><\/p>

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“I think they wanted to ensure that bad news, with overtones of threat, came of this, to warn the members of Demosisto to be more careful,” Law said.<\/span><\/p>

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Law was elected just five months after Demosisto’s founding as the youngest-ever member of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council (LegCo), but was later stripped of his seat after Beijing intervened with a ruling on the validity of oaths of allegiance made by him and five other pro-democracy lawmakers.<\/span><\/p>

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Chow, meanwhile, was debarred by election officials from standing in the 2018 Hong Kong Island by-election, for advocating self-determination for the city, in a move that was widely condemned as a threat to the city’s political life.<\/span><\/p>

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Under the terms of the 1997 handover agreement, Hong Kong people were promised a continuation of their existing rights and freedoms for at least 50 years, including freedom of speech, association and political participation.<\/span><\/p>

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But China’s rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC) issued a decree on Aug. 31, 2014 that potential election candidates would need to be acceptable to Beijing, sparking the 79-day Occupy Central movement for “genuine universal suffrage.”<\/span><\/p>

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For detail please visit here<\/span><\/a><\/p>

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