Wed January, 2021, Age: 3 years
More than 1,000 Hong Kong police officers swept through the city Wednesday and arrested 53 political activists. The activists, who included former lawmakers, academics and one foreign citizen (an American lawyer), were involved in organizing a primary last July to select opposition candidates to run in a legislative election that was later postponed. The activists were arrested under Beijing’s Hong Kong national security law, which is aimed at preventing seditious activities in the former British colony. Some consider the arrest of so many activists as a signal that Beijing is testing the incoming Biden administration. Biden’s nominee for Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, condemned the arrests on Twitter calling the move by China an “assault on those bravely advocating for universal rights”, and pledged U.S. support for Democracy advocates in Hong Kong.
