National security law: activist Agnes Chow arrested in swoop, after police detain Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai on suspicion of foreign collusion and at least eight others, raid Apple Daily offices

By Clifford Lo, Christy Leung and Chris Lau From SCMP

• Founder of the tabloid-style newspaper was detained early on Monday morning at his residence in Ho Man Tin
• In another operation that began late afternoon, police also arrest three other activists, including Agnes Chow, a close associate of Joshua Wong

Key points

• Police arrest Jimmy Lai, his two sons and four senior staff over alleged violations of the national security law and fraud

• Cheung Kim-hung, CEO of Next Digital, Apple Daily’s parent company, and CFO and COO Chow Tat-kuen among those arrested

• Wilson Li, a freelancer for Britain’s ITV and formerly of student activist group Scholarism, also arrested, along with Andy Li, member of an election monitoring group

• Jimmy Lai’s top aide, Mark Simon, who is not in the city, sought by Hong Kong police

• Soon after the arrests, more than 200 police officers raid the newspaper’s headquarters in Tseung Kwan O

• Senior Superintendent Steve Li Kwai-wah, from the new National Security Department, pledges not to search the paper’s editorial department or disrupt its operation

• Head of the Hong Kong Journalists Association calls search of press outlet on such a large scale unprecedented

• As of late afternoon, police remained in the complex, with carts carrying box lunches seen being brought in to serve them

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested under national security law

Hong Kong’s Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and eight others linked to the tabloid-style newspaper were arrested Monday for alleged collusion with foreign forces in the most high profile police operation under the national security law recently imposed by Beijing.

In an early morning swoop, the media mogul was picked at his home, along with two of his sons, before police raided the company’s offices, spending several hours combing through the premises for unspecified documents.

In another operation that began late afternoon, police also arrested three other activists, including Agnes Chow Ting, a close associate of former student leader Joshua Wong Chi-fung, on suspicion of collusion with foreign and external force to endanger the national security, sources told the Post.

In the highest-profile arrests made since the implementation of the Beijing-imposed law in June, the Lai was arrested “for collusion with a foreign country, uttering seditious words and conspiracy to defraud”, a police source earlier said.

Another of Lai’s sons and two Apple Daily senior staffers were arrested for conspiracy to defraud in a sweeping operation that sent a chill through the journalistic community and attracted condemnation from international leaders.

A spokesman for the cabinet-level Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in Beijing said it “resolutely backed” the police’s action to arrest Lai and his colleagues and sons, labelling them a “faction that subverts China and stir chaos in Hong Kong”, which deserved severe punishment in accordance with the law.

Police officers arrive at the Next Digital Limited building in Tseung Kwan O. Photo: Sam Tsang

On Lai, the spokesman said: “He brags about fighting for America arrogantly, taking part to plan, organise, and initiate a raft of unlawful resistant movement, using its media to create and spread rumours, inciting and supporting violence, and providing funds for those advocating [Hong Kong independence],”the spokesman said.

Two months ago, Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law that it said aimed to target acts of secession, subversion, terrorisms and collusion with foreign forces. But a series of arrests had sparked concern about the law’s wide reach.

On Monday, more than 200 police officers turned up and raided the paper’s headquarters in Tseung Kwan O, after members of the new National Security Department unit arrested Lai at his home on Kadoorie Avenue, Ho Man Tin, shortly after daybreak.

The self-made entrepreneur was known for his early success in founding clothing retailer Giordano in the late 80s, before venturing into the media landscape, where he founded Apple Daily, a tabloid critical of Beijing and the Hong Kong government.

A pro-democracy figure, Lai was in the United States to meet US Vice-President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last year, and has been accused of collusion by the pro-Beijing camp in past years.

Around the time of Lai’s arrest, eight others, including the media mogul’s two sons, were also taken into custody.

Lai’s younger son, Ian Lai Yiu-yan, 39, was arrested on suspicion of collusion with foreign and external forces to endanger national security, and the elder son, Timothy Lai Kin-yang, 42, on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud, according to another source.

The six others included Next Digital CEO Cheung Kim-hung, and Royston Chow Tat-kuen, its chief financial officer. Chow was also arrested for collusion with foreign and external forces to endanger national security and conspiracy to defraud, while Cheung was arrested for conspiracy to defraud.

Two other senior staff members – Wong Wai-keung, chief administrative officer of Next Digital, and Next Media Animation Limited director Kith Ng Tat-kong – were detained in connection with the fraud allegation, and police seized a raft of laptops, bank documents, and mobile phones, during the raid.

Lai’s top aide, Mark Simon, who is not in the city, is also wanted by police for unspecified allegations, according to the source.

Later in the day, police arrested Wilson Li Chung-chak, a freelancer for ITV and former member of the now-disbanded student activist group Scholarism, and Andy Li, a member of the Election Observation Mission – set up to monitor last November’s district council elections.

The search of Apple Daily office began at around 10.30 am and lasted for hours, with journalists accusing officers of obstructing their work and going beyond a court warrant to view their editorial documents.

But Senior Superintendent Steve Li Kwai-wah said police had conducted a search on the second-floor editorial department of the building, only because the suspects were on that floor.

They were seen taking away boxes of documents and electronic equipment, while staff entering the premises were required to register with them.

Hong Kong police cordon off an office area of the Apple Daily newspaper after arresting its founder Jimmy Lai on suspicion of foreign collusion. Photo: Handout

Both Lai and Cheung, the CEO, were brought back to the office at one point during the search.

Lai said he was not sure about the newspaper’s future. “You swallow whatever is served on your plate,” he said, using a Cantonese expression that means improvisation.

Cheung was more defiant. “For sure, Apple Daily will hang in there,” he said, as he was escorted from the office by police.

Ryan Law Wai-kwong, Apple Daily’s editor-in-chief, told thePost the operations of the editorial department would function as normal.

Alongside the search at the publication’s headquarters, police also raided Cafe Seasons, a restaurant in Central, which is reportedly run by Lai’s second son. Officers left the place with a plastic box of evidence shortly before 2pm.

A police source said the allegation of fraud was related to an investigation that was launched after some pro-Beijing groups, including Politihk Social Strategic, accused Lai of using the offices of Next Digital, Apple Daily’s parent company, to provide secretarial services, which could be a breach of land-lease terms and amount to providing false information to the Lands Department to evade rent.

Lau Siu-kai, vice-president of Beijing’s semi-official think tank in the city, the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said he believed Beijing was demonstrating its will to prevent Hong Kong from being turned into a hub for collusion with foreign forces.

But he ruled out that it had anything to do with an earlier announcement by the US on the weekend, to sanction 11 Hong Kong and Chinese officials deemed as hurting the city’s autonomy. Instead, investigations took time, he said.

Britain said it was deeply concerned. “Deeply concerned by arrest of @JimmyLaiApple & 6 others in #HongKong,” Nigel Adams, minister for asia of the Foreign Office, said on Twitter.

“Media freedom must be upheld. More evidence the national security law being used as pretext to silence opposition,” he said, adding that Hong Kong authorities “must uphold rights & freedoms of its people”.

Chris Yeung Kin-hing, chairman of Hong Kong Journalists Association, speaking outside the newspaper’s offices, called the police raid “shocking and horrifying”.

“I believe many who have been in the industry for decades have not seen this before,” he said.

“This is what we have seen in some of the third-world countries where the press and freedom of the press are suppressed. But I could not imagine seeing this in Hong Kong.”

For more on this story go to; SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST