Hong Kong authorities make first arrests under new law

Hong Kong police detained a man on Wednesday holding a flag urging independence, marking the first arrest under the new national security law introduced on Tuesday night.

According to Reuters, police did not immediately respond to a request for comment and no other details about the man were provided. There were doubts about the messages on the flag that the man was waving and his intentions.

The security law, drafted by lawmakers in Beijing, not Hong Kong, sets out punishment for the crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces which can carry sentences of up to life in prison. Waving an independence flag could be considered a crime of secession.

Under the new regulation, many of the protests that took place in Hong Kong in 2019 would be punishable by law. Still, protesters took to the streets on Wednesday.

Demonstrators were chanting slogans such as “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong.”

Police said on Twitter that more than 70 people had been arrested for participating in “unauthorized assemblies,” including two suspected of violating the national security law.

Critics, including Washington, say the law undermines the democratic freedoms in the semi-autonomous region.

“Some countries are threatening us with sanctions. I would say this is the logic of bandits,” said Zhang Xiaoming, executive deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, China’s top executive body at a press conference on Wednesday.

US President Donald Trump’s administration pressured Beijing and threatened with sanctions when the law was made known to the public. The EU has also criticized China, the bloc’s top source for imports, over the national security law.