Hong Kong - Hong Kong pro-democracy
activist Joshua Wong was arrested on Friday on suspicion of
organising illegal protests as authorities clampdown on a wave
of unrest that has plunged the city into its biggest political
crisis in more than two decades.
Wong, the icon of pro-democracy demonstrations five years
ago that foreshadowed the latest turbulence, is the
highest-profile arrest since protests escalated in mid-June over
fears Beijing was exerting greater control over the city.
Two other prominent activists, Andy Chan and Agnes Chow,
have also been detained.
The bespectacled Wong, who was 17 when he became the face of
the student-led Umbrella Movement, has not been a prominent
figure in current protests which have no identifiable leaders.
He was released from jail in June after serving a five-week
term for contempt of court.
"He was suddenly pushed into a private car on the street,"
Wong's political party Demosisto, which advocates for greater
democracy in Hong Kong, said on its official Twitter account.
"He has now been escorted to the police headquarters in Wan
Chai," it said. Demosisto's lawyers were working on the case, it
said.
Police said Wong and Chow, both 22, were arrested on Friday
on suspicion of "organising unorganised assembly" and "knowingly
participating in unauthorised assembly".
Chan, a founder of the pro-independence Hong Kong National
Party that was banned last September, was arrested at Hong
Kong's international airport on Thursday on suspicion of
"participating in riots" and "attacking police" during a protest
on July 13, police said.
Police have refused permission for a pro-democracy march on
Saturday and an appeal by organisers to allow the demonstration
to proceed was turned down on Friday.
The Civil Human Rights Front, the organiser of previous mass
protests, said it would comply with the order and cancel the
march from Hong Kong's central business district to Beijing's
main representative Liaison Office in the city.
More than three months of unrest in Hong Kong was sparked by
anger over a now-suspended extradition bill that would have
allowed people to be sent to mainland China for trial in
Communist Party-controlled courts.
It has evolved into calls for greater democracy under the
"one country, two systems" formula, which guarantees freedoms
not enjoyed on the mainland that include an independent
judiciary, under which Hong Kong has been ruled since 1997.
China has accused foreign powers, particularly the United
States and Britain, of fomenting the demonstrations in the
former British colony and warned against foreign governments
interfering in the city's protests.
A photograph in a pro-Beijing newspaper earlier this month
of Wong meeting a U.S. consular official triggered a war of
words between Washington and Beijing.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus called
China a "thuggish regime" for disclosing photographs and
personal details of the diplomat.
Nearly 900 people have been arrested since the
demonstrations began with frequent clashes between protesters
and police, who have at times fired tear gas and rubber bullets
to disperse activists.
China brought fresh troops into Hong Kong on Thursday in
what it described as a routine rotation of its garrison there.
Chinese state media stressed the troop movement was routine
and Asian and Western diplomats watching the People's Liberation
Army (PLA) forces in the territory had been expecting it.
The Civil Human Rights Front leader, Jimmy Sham, was
attacked by two men armed with a knife and a baseball bat on
Thursday, it said on its Facebook page. He was not hurt but a
friend who tried to protect him suffered injuries to his arm.
"The repeated harassment of pro-democracy activists,
combined with police bans on demonstrations, has created a
climate of fear for peaceful protesters," Amnesty International
said in a statement.
"It is vital that the authorities send a clear message that
those who target peaceful activists with such violence,
irrespective of their political views, will face justice."
This weekend marks five years since Beijing ruled out
universal suffrage for Hong Kong and comes as the financial hub
faces its first recession in a decade, with all its pillars of
growth under stress.