Hong Kong business tycoon Jimmy Lai has been arrested in Hong Kong.
According to reports emerging from the increasingly oppressive state, the pro-democracy businessman was to be charged with “collusion with foreign forces” sources close to Lai say.
An open supporter of the pro-democracy protests that shook Hong Kong for much of 2019, prior to the passage of the controversial new security law passed by Beijing earlier in the summer, the 71-year-old was charged with illegal assembly and intimidation in February of this year.
Police authorities in Hong Kong have said today that seven people were arrested early this morning – Monday August 10th – in Hong Kong in relation to violating the national security law, although they have not yet confirmed or denied that Mr Lai is one of the seven.
And in the past hour video footage has emerged of large numbers of police officers in the vicinity of the Apple Daily – a media giant in Asia founded by Mr. Lai.
Earlier this year Mr. Lai told British broadcaster, the BBC that the passage of the security law in June “spells the death knell for Hong Kong”, in part because “without the rule of law, people who do business here will have no protection”.
