This content was originally published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now being reprinted with permission.
Hong Kong authorities vow to continue cracking down on opposition in the name of “national security,” citing the actions of foreign activists and “interference by international forces” as continuing threats.
Deputy Police Commissioner Andrew Kan, who heads the officers National Security Department, said the police may continue to focus on risks to “national protection” and keep up pressure on international pro-democracy protesters by , questioning their home members , and partners in Hong Kong.
Kan responded when asked if Hong Kong’s current threat to national security had “been there all along.”
At a news conference in Hong Kong on Tuesday, Kan stated that” some people who have fled abroad continue to commit acts of endangering regional safety.” We believe this to be significant intervention by foreign makes.
Since Beijing imposed two , national security laws , banning public criticism and protest in the area, blaming “hostile foreign causes” for the protests, hundreds of thousands have  , voted with their feet , amid , plummeting human rights rankings, shrinking , hit freedom , and widespread , state propaganda , in schools.
Some fled to the United Kingdom on the British National Overseas, or BNO, card software. Some have made their homes over in the United States, Canada, Australia and Germany.
Many are continuing their advocacy and lobbying activists, but  , battle with exile , in some way,  , worrying about loved ones , back home while facing , risks to their personal safety , from backers of Beijing elsewhere.
Hong Kong’s leaders have vowed to , pursue activists in exile for life.
Kan said “local terrorism” was also still a threat, while “terrorist and violent speech are being spread both online and offline”.
” Soft confrontation”
Meanwhile, there was a growing threat from” soft confrontation” with the authorities, Kan said. Previously, Hong Kong officials have suggested that works of art could be a form of” soft confrontation“.
According to their annual crime report, police have made more than 300 arrests in accordance with two national security laws that were passed following the protest movement in 2019.
” As of the end of December 2024, the National Security Department of the Police had arrested a total of 316 persons”, the police said in its 2024 crime report. ” Among them, around 60 % had been charged”.
The arrests were made under both the 2020 National Security Law, which was imposed on the city by Beijing in the wake of the 2019 protests, and the 2023 Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, passed in March 2023 at Beijing’s insistence following a two-decade delay due to widespread public opposition.
The report didn’t provide a breakdown of arrests under each law.
More than 10, 000 people have been arrested and at least 2, 800 prosecuted in a citywide crackdown in the wake of the 2019 protest movement, mostly under public order charges or colonial-era sedition laws.
According to the U. S. based Hong Kong Democracy Council, 1, 920 of those defendants are classed as political prisoners –- peaceful critics of the government. Due to the rise in the number of remand prisoners, defendants in national security cases are far less likely to be granted bail.
Critics claimed that despite the disappearance of most forms of political dissention, the police don’t seem to want to put an end to the crackdown and that the authorities in Hong Kong appear to want to maintain a sense of political tension.
Current affairs expert Johnny Lau stated to RFA Cantonese in a recent interview that “foreign countries, which have their own threats to national security, use methods that strike a balance between practical results and public peace of mind.” ” It’s about both governance and prosperity, and the overall atmosphere in society”.
” It’s obvious that the authorities could actually relax their tactics right now.”
Hong Kong saw a total of 94, 747 crimes in 2024, an increase of 5 % compared with 2023, with 10, 485 cases of violent crime, a rise of 3.6 % on the previous year.
Meanwhile, crimes of deception rose by 11.7 % during the year, 61.8 % of which were online crimes.
Applications to join the police force rose by one third from 2023, to 897, following a publicity campaign in Hong Kong’s schools and universities, the report said.
