The acting president of the Hong Kong Baptist University Student Union, Fong Chung-yin, was arrested on Wednesday morning, December 2, by about 20 police officers at his home on suspicion of obstruction of justice, resisting arrest, and possession of an offensive weapon. He was taken to the Shatin Police Station for questioning.
According to Hong Kong media reports, Fong was taken to the Shatin Police Station and detained for about six hours before being released on HK$10,000 bail that afternoon. Fong was arrested again in connection with his purchase of “stargazing pens,” also known as laser pens, in Sham Shui Po on the night of Aug. 6 last year. Hong Kong police have said the laser pens were assault weapons.
The Apple Daily reports that the Hong Kong Baptist University Student Union strongly condemned the indiscriminate arrest of Fong Chung-yin. The student union issued a statement saying, “Since the legislation of the National Security Law, the Hong Kong communist regime has been engaged in a massive purge and arbitrary arrests of dissidents, and white terror has gripped our city, putting everyone at risk. The totalitarian government’s suppression of social activists is too numerous to mention.
The statement also said, “The totalitarian government’s desire to spread white terror is clearly evident in its targeting of dissidents. We condemn in the strongest terms the indiscriminate arrests by the police. We demand that the police immediately release Fong and stop the indiscriminate arrests of Hong Kong volunteers, who are being oppressed by the Hong Kong communist regime behind them.
According to the report, Fong was arrested in Sham Shui Po on the night of August 6 last year after buying a laser pointer by plainclothes officers, causing an uproar. He was arrested on suspicion of possessing an assault weapon, even after he explained that his laser pointer had been found in a plastic bag he was carrying. After being detained for 46 years, Fong was released unconditionally. Unhappy with his unlawful arrest and wrongful imprisonment, Fong, then president of the Baptist University Association, filed a claim for compensation with the police commissioner.
A month later, on September 2, after attending a strike rally at CUHK, Fong was arrested again for “theft” after being stopped by police officers during dinner in Mongkok, where his wallet was found missing. He was arrested again on charges of “theft,” but his mother and the student union both confirmed and presented evidence that Fong had made an appointment with the owner to return the lost property and was only holding it temporarily. Baptist University President Qian Dacang also provided evidence to police, and Fong was released the next day.
According to the report, Fong met with reporters after leaving the Shatin police station to draw Hong Kong people’s attention to the 12 Hong Kong people detained in mainland China. He said they had been detained for 102 days and feared that the 12 would never return, hoping that the people of Hong Kong would not forget them.
The 12 Hong Kong people were arrested by the Chinese armed police on August 23 this year when they left Hong Kong on a speedboat on their way to Taiwan. On August 26, the Coast Guard of the Armed Police Force posted on Weibo that the Guangdong detachment of the South China Sea (internationally known as the South China Sea) Regional Command intercepted a speedboat attempting to smuggle people across the border to Taiwan in Chinese mainland waters off Hong Kong’s southeastern waters, and arrested 12 people on board suspected of “illegal border crossing.
Legal experts have questioned this claim by Chinese authorities, arguing that this was cross-border law enforcement by mainland Chinese authorities and that it should have been left to the Hong Kong or Taiwan authorities to determine whether these individuals had “illegally crossed the border.
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