Beijing’s top representative in Hong Kong suggested that the weekend’s pro-democracy primary was illegal and announced an investigation into the matter.
China’s liaison office called the informal election “nakedly illegal behavior” in a statement issued late Monday night, asserting that it was in violation of the territory’s new “national security” law.
The vote was held to determine which candidates would be the strongest for September’s Legislative Council election. More than 600,000 Hong Kong residents participated. Under the liaison office’s reasoning, all of those individuals may have been in violation of the law and could face years in prison.
The statement singled out pro-democracy activist Benny Tai.
“The goal of the Benny Tai gang and the opposition is to seize the power of governance in Hong Kong and deliberately stage the Hong Kong version of the ‘color revolution,'” the office said.
It is unclear how the government plans to enforce this threat on such a large portion of Hong Kong’s population.
Hong Kong’s constitutional affairs minister, Erick Tsang, speculated on Thursday that the primary would likely be in violation of the law, citing the desire of pro-democracy candidates to vote against Hong Kong’s budget. Monday’s statement adds teeth to Tsang’s warning.
On Friday, Hong Kong police raided the office of the Public Opinion Research Institute, claiming that private information of citizens had been leaked to the public. A rough translation of the liaison office’s statement shows a similar allegation about the election itself.
“The so-called ‘primary election’ also took the opportunity to grab a large amount of citizens’ personal information and voter information, which was suspected of violating privacy regulations,” the statement reads.
The new “national security” law criminalizes subversion, secession, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces. The law was written vaguely and broadly, leaving room for dissidents to be targeted.
