After Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily was raided by Hong Kong police on Thursday, the publication has increased its production and printed 500,000 copies of its newspaper in an act of defiance against the government crackdown.
Earlier this week, five newspaper executives and editors at Apple Daily newspaper were taken into custody under Hong Kong’s national security law, as reported by NPR.
NPR reported, “More than 200 police officers were involved in the search of Apple Daily’s offices, and the government said a warrant was obtained to look for evidence of a suspected violation of the national security law.” Reuters reported that “[s]ome 500 police raided the media outlet.”
This is the second time that Hong Kong police have taken issue with Apple Daily, “with police arresting founder Jimmy Lai and other executives last year on suspicion of national security law violations or fraud. Lai is currently serving a 20-month prison sentence for his role in unauthorized assemblies in 2019, during a period when Hong Kong saw massive anti-government protests. Last month, authorities froze Lai’s assets and shares in Next Digital,” per NPR.
According to Amnesty International, the 2020 national security law is especially restrictive and unclear. Among other concerns, “[u]nder this new law ‘secession’, ‘subversion’, ‘terrorism’ and ‘collusion with foreign forces’ incur maximum penalties of life imprisonment,” the group reported.
Supporters of democratic rights went to purchase Apple Daily copies on Friday in order to push back against the police encounter.
Reuters reported, “The popular 26-year-old paper, which combines liberal discourse with celebrity gossip and investigations of those in power, increased its Friday press run to 500,000 copies, up from 80,000 the previous day.”
“You never know when this newspaper will die,” one reader, who only gave his surname, told Reuters. “As Hong Kongers, we need to preserve the history. Hang in there as long as we can. Although the road is rough, we still need to walk it, as there’s no other road.”
“There are lots of injustices in Hong Kong already. I think there are a lot of things we cannot do anymore,” resident Lisa Cheung said, per The Associated Press. “Buying a copy is all what we can do. When the law cannot protect Hong Kong people anymore, we are only left to do what we can.”
The government has defended its actions that pro-democracy opponents around the world say limit personal liberties in Hong Kong. “China’s Foreign Commissioner’s Office said in a statement the national security law protected press freedom, while warning ‘external forces’ to ‘keep their hands off Hong Kong,’” per Reuters.
AP reported, “In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian rejected the foreign criticism and defended the government’s action, repeating China’s insistence that the national security targets only a ‘small group of anti-China elements who disrupted Hong Kong and endangered the national security of the country.’”
“No right or freedom, including freedom of the press, can break through the bottom line of national security,” Zhao told the press at a daily briefing.
“Hong Kong is China’s Hong Kong, Hong Kong affairs are purely China’s internal affairs, and no country, organization or individual has the right to intervene,” he said.
The United States has criticized actions taken against pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong in the past.
After the raid, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said, “We are deeply concerned by Hong Kong authorities’ selective use of the national security law to arbitrarily target independent media organizations.”
“The charges of ‘collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security’ appear to be entirely politically motivated,” he added.
According to Reuters, Apple Daily said in a letter to readers that it was the victim of a “targeted attack by the regime,” but its employees “will continue to stick to their posts loyally and fight to the end.”