A man found in possession of a Hong Kong independence flag is the first person to be arrested under the new national security law, police said on Wednesday (July 1st).
Read also: Beijing goes into force in Hong Kong
" A man was arrested in possession of a Hong Kong independence flag in the Causeway Bay neighborhood, in violation of state security law," law enforcement officials wrote on their twitter account.
In their message, which was accompanied by a photo of the man arrested by the police and the flag, they stressed that it was the first arrest since the entry into force of this text.
Promulgated Tuesday by Chinese President Xi Jinping after being adopted by the Standing Committee of Parliament, a body submitted to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the new law makes it possible to punish four types of crimes against state security: activities subversive, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.
27 Human Rights Council countries condemn the law
The law is accused by its critics of being an attempt to stifle the opposition in Hong Kong. It provides that Chinese justice has jurisdiction over " serious " security breaches and life imprisonment for crimes against national security.
China to review Hong Kong security law, 27 countries say at UN
Twenty-seven countries of the UN Human Rights Council, including France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan, have condemned the new law, while the United States has threatened China with retaliation, promising not to “ sit idly by ”.
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