Twelve Hong Kong youths involved in last year’s anti-sending campaign were intercepted by Chinese Coast Guard officers in late August on suspicion of sneaking into Taiwan on a speedboat and detained in Shenzhen’s Yantian Detention Center.
A recent Hong Kong media report revealed that the police may have been aware of the 12 Hong Kong people’s plans to leave Hong Kong long before they were intercepted by the Chinese Coast Guard. According to a recent poll, more than half of the respondents believe that the police were aware of the 12 Hong Kong people’s plans to leave Hong Kong beforehand.
Chinese lawyer Lu Siwei, who has been appointed by the families, estimates that a verdict in the case could come around the end of the year and the spring of next year, and again acknowledges that the Shenzhen Yantian District Detention Center should immediately arrange for lawyers commissioned by the families to meet with them.
Twelve Hong Kong youths between the ages of 16 and 30, including 11 men and one woman from the body of “Hong Kong Story” member Lee Yu-heun, who was arrested by Hong Kong police on August 10 on suspicion of violating Hong Kong’s version of the National Security Law and who had been involved in last year’s anti-sentinel campaign, were intercepted by China’s Guangdong Provincial Coast Guard on August 23 in Hong Kong’s southeastern waters on a suspected speedboat on their way to Taiwan, and were detained near Shenzhen’s Yantian Detention Center.
Media and social activists questioned the police’s decision to send 12 people to China.
The incident of 12 Hong Kong people being intercepted by the Chinese Coast Guard came to light on August 27 as a result of Hong Kong media reports, and Hong Kong Police Commissioner Tang Bing-keung responded to media questions that day, saying that he only discovered the incident through media reports. He highlighted that the incident “is not a cross-border cooperation action”, the Hong Kong police did not cooperate in the operation. After the Hong Kong police statement has been used to respond to the “police have no role”.
According to the Hong Kong “Apple Daily” report on September 5 to expose, August 23, 12 Hong Kong people went to sea in the early morning, the Hong Kong police emergency call flight service team assistance, has sent fixed-wing aircraft “B-LVB” and cheetah helicopter “B-LVH”, fixed-wing aircraft The timing and location of the move coincided with the police’s earlier announcement that 12 Hong Kong people had boarded a speedboat and moved out of Hong Kong waters. According to the report, the Hong Kong police knew that the 12 Hong Kong people were planning to sneak across the border, and may have set up a plan to transfer the 12 Hong Kong people to the Chinese Coast Guard.
They said that they received a purported internal document from a source, showing that on August 23, 12 Hong Kong people went to sea on the day of the flight procedures, which recorded that the action of the fixed-wing aircraft was a “P-OPS” or police action.
Huang Zhifeng believes that the police knew about the departure plan of the 12 Hong Kong people at the time they took the speedboat, and questioned that the police, together with the Flying Service, “set a trap” to send the 12 Hong Kong people to China.
Poll: 56% believe police knew about the 12 Hong Kong people’s departure plan.
The Hong Kong Institute of Public Opinion Research (HKIPR), formerly known as the Public Opinion Programme (POP) at the University of Hong Kong, announced in a press conference last Friday (October 16) that it had successfully interviewed over 11,000 Hong Kong citizens aged 12 or above in an online survey conducted between October 12 and 15, and that 56% of them believed that the Hong Kong police knew about the departure plan of 12 Hong Kong people before they were stopped by the Chinese Coast Guard, while 26% said they did not believe it.
In terms of political orientation, of the 10,071 accurate self-proclaimed pro-democracy supporters, 88% said they believed the Hong Kong police knew about their departure plan before the 12 Hong Kong people were intercepted by the Chinese Coast Guard, while only 6% said they did not believe them.
Kadee Chu said that the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities are beginning to turn the public’s attention to the situation.
A former legislator from the pro-democracy camp who was involved in helping the families of the 12 Hong Kong people said in a press conference that 27% of non-democratic supporters do not believe in the so-called “police have no role” in the 12 Hong Kong people’s case, which shows that the media and information sources that citizens are exposed to will affect their judgment and they have no way to stand with the police and the Hong Kong government.
According to Mr. Chu, the police have not responded positively to the issue of the arrest of 12 Hong Kong people by the police and the Chinese Coast Guard, which raises questions about the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities’ efforts to reverse the public’s attention.
The government said that it is not able to continue with Tang’s initial statement, but rather to change its propaganda strategy, which is to say that the focus of the 12 people is not on whether they can see their families in mainland China. Lawyers, the point is not whether the Hong Kong police have already cooperated with the Chinese Coast Guard beforehand, the point is that these 12 people have committed a felony in Hong Kong and are absconding, the point is the nature of their behavior in absconding.”
Leakers may be getting fewer and fewer
He also said that the 12 Hong Kong people left the country, involving a flight service leaker, he believes that now in Hong Kong to reveal the secret, to tell some unfavorable message to the Hong Kong government, in fact, the choice is getting smaller and smaller, there will not be too many media willing to accept, and even if there is to reveal the information to the public, the public reaction to the overall society, will also be diluted by the pro-government media.
The report, which was published in the Apple Daily, was so extensive that it was reported by the pro-government media after the flight service team’s (news) press conference, which was held the day before yesterday (Oct. 14). But in fact, Anthony Tang won’t confirm whether the police had prior knowledge or not, he just says he won’t comment on these details.”
When Hong Kong’s media ecology has reached such extremes, Chu said, he worries that fewer and fewer people will be willing to reveal the truth in the future.
Zhu Kaidi said: “I am a little worried is actually will make to count itself may want to reveal the person, he will have evaluated or assessed in the end this matter I said out, I sacrifice so big, I take such a big risk, but it turns out that a lot of PR (public relations) offensive or strategy, is to cover the event and put out, or diverted attention, then I am not not taking a risk! A big risk out of it? I do think that that development is going to be, when the morality of society is overwhelmed by the pattern of public opinion arguments, there will probably only be fewer and fewer people who are willing to come forward with inside information that is unfavorable to the government.”
Cady Chu: Find More Information for 27% of Non-Democratic Supporters
He will continue to work on behalf of these 27% of non-democratic supporters, hoping to find more powerful information so that the police can no longer resort to diversionary evasive tactics.
The police are aware of some facts that will be revealed more and more, that is, there is no way out, the net of justice is wide open, there are always people who will come forward even though it is a very difficult time, and the number of people who know about it is actually many, and I believe they are therefore adopting an evasive strategy, you ask if they will be generous afterwards. I think they will not be so frank to admit it, but they will use a kind of evasive tactics, and the point of the matter is, as (pro-establishment legislator) John Hsieh said a few days ago, that the point is that the 12 of them are fugitives, the point is that they are absconding, and the point is not that they are fugitives. Now face something, or has there ever been a ‘conspiracy to send China’.”
Chung Ting-Yao: Reflecting citizens’ doubts about the integrity of officials and police officers
The Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Hong Kong Institute for Public Opinion Research, Robert Chung, said at the press conference that when designing the questions for the poll, many questions were asked and many words were used, including the question “Do you think the Hong Kong police actually helped the Chinese Coast Guard to arrest 12 Hong Kong people?
He believes that the current questioning is relatively peaceful, asking whether the public believes the police knew about the 12 Hong Kong residents’ departure beforehand, but the result still reflects the public’s doubt about the integrity of government officials and the police.
He said: “At least according to the media, the police commissioner said he didn’t know beforehand that the 12 Hong Kong residents had left. Isn’t that to say that the Police Commissioner is lying? It would be dangerous to get this symbol, because it means that an officer has lost his integrity, or he can’t be trusted with what he says, and of course I’m not even saying that this is a sample, because I’m sure we’re all sensitive to the fact that maybe 27% of non-democratic supporters believe it (police with prior knowledge) or 44% (non-democratic supporters) don’t believe it (police with prior knowledge), but they’re all for it. The government, how can this be explained? So I say or the Commissioner does not know it, that is, maybe the front (police officers) know, the rear does not know, (the police force) there are problems inside, or there are some higher-level problems, so that we have to lie to maintain the governance, which in fact is to go to some very deep problems.”
Lawyer Lou Siwei: 12 Hong Kong people’s case not optimistic
A Chinese lawyer, Siwei Lu, who was appointed by the family of one of the Hong Kong residents, recently wrote an article analyzing the case, saying that the Shenzhen Yantian District Procuratorate approved the 12 Hong Kong people on September 30, reflecting the Procuratorate’s belief that there is sufficient evidence to show that the 12 Hong Kong people committed a crime and may be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment, as well as the low innocence rate in China.
He believes that the Chinese public security authorities will not extend the review period because the facts of the case are clear and simple, and there is no legal basis to extend the detention period.
The “border crossing crime” involving 12 Hong Kong people is one of the crimes for which minors may not be prosecuted, and he expects that the underage Hong Kong people involved in the case will not be charged in the end in order to comply with Chinese laws and international conventions.
A verdict may be expected around the end of this year and the Lunar New Year next year.
Lu Siwei estimated that the case could have a verdict around the end of this year and next spring, and he again pointed out that the Shenzhen Yantian District Detention Center should immediately arrange to meet with the Chinese lawyers entrusted by the families of the 12 Hong Kong people, and he is suspected of arranging for the Chinese lawyers who intervened in the case but were not authorized by the families to immediately withdraw from the case.
Lu Siwei suggested that the families of the 12 Hong Kong people meet with Hong Kong deputies to the National People’s Congress (NPC) or CPPCC members in Hong Kong and ask them to carry out their duties through the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and the Supreme Procuratorate, and in charge of the Shenzhen Yantian District public security organs and procuratorate’s actions.
Chu Kai Dee said there are difficulties in seeking assistance from Hong Kong deputies to the NPC.
The former legislator of the pro-democracy camp who was involved in assisting the families of the 12 Hong Kong people said in a Voice of America debate that they had considered seeking the assistance of Hong Kong deputies to the National People’s Congress (NPC) or members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) before the article was written by Lu Siwei, but the difficulty was that it was difficult to find them.
The government’s decision to use the money to pay for the project was made in response to a request from the Chinese government, which was made by the Chinese government. There’s that, so I think we’re all going to hear this information and consider whether we’re going to try it all afterwards, but we’ve tried some in the past that weren’t too effective.”
Chinese human rights lawyer Lu Siwei believes that the case of the 12 Hong Kong people is extremely ordinary in nature, but in the context of history, it has become one of the most influential and controversial cases involving China and Hong Kong since the handover of sovereignty over Hong Kong, and he believes that the Chinese defense lawyers will face up to everything and adhere to the rule of law to help the families of the 12 Hong Kong people through the most difficult time in their lives.
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