By China correspondent Bill Birtles | ABC Online |
By arresting Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai and launching a largescale raid of his newspaper offices, China’s Government delivered its clearest message yet that it won’t wait to target leading figures in the city’s beleaguered pro-democracy movement.
Just over a month since Beijing imposed a sweeping new national security law for Hong Kong that broadly outlaws many forms of dissent, officials dispatched police to strike their biggest target.
Jimmy Lai has been arrested before for various protest-related offences, but seeing him led away in handcuffs this time is different.
China’s Government now has a legal weapon to put him behind bars for life.
Police blocked other media from taking photos as hundreds of officers raided the newsroom of his newspaper, Apple Daily.
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