police in hong kong have arrested
53 pro-democracy activists a government
minister said they were detained for
planning to quote
paralyze and overthrow the city
government it is the chinese territory's
biggest crackdown yet on the opposition
under a new security law imposed by
beijing
the dawn raids mark a sharp escalation
of hong kong's crackdown on the
opposition
dozens of prominent pro-democracy
campaigners were arrested at private
homes law
firms and media outlets
former lawmaker lam chuk ting recorded
the moment police arrived at his house
the arrests have left some residents
stunned
so i think what i'm thinking right now
i'm just
leaving hong kong and moved to the other
country
i feel very unhappy and it seems that
even during the pandemic the government
can still do so many things to terrorize
people
but beijing denied it was clamping down
on dissidents
the normal rights and freedoms enjoyed
by the hong kong people have not been
affected
what may be affected is the freedom of
some external forces and individuals to
collude with each other
to attempt to undermine china's
stability and security
the detainees stand accused of trying to
overthrow the government
after they held unofficial primaries
last july to field candidates
ahead of elections to hong kong's
legislative council
under the one country two systems policy
hong kong was given
greater autonomy when it was handed back
to china from britain in 1997.
the agreement expires in 2047
but one pro-democracy activist told dw
that beijing's security law
has rendered that agreement meaningless
all the arrests and all the crackdowns
following the implementation of the
of the law is actually a violation of
the giant
british uh seiner bernstein declaration
and the basic law itself so i'd say all
the freedoms that are guaranteed under
the basic law and under international
treaties
are gone activists are calling
wednesday's sweeping arrests an attempt
to further weaken the opposition
ahead of the legislative elections
scheduled for september
for more on the story we can speak now
to lee chukyan a hong kong politician
and
social activist he's joining us from
hong kong mr lee
we've seen more than 50 arrests in one
day what
impact does this have on the territory's
pro-democracy movement
this again is the tactics of the chinese
government regime
to rule by fear in hong kong
and it's so absurd imagine
uh political party all over the world
want to have a majority
in the legislative council and primary
election is something very normal
so what they're charging these 53
activists participation uh participant
of the primary election
was that you know uh we
together we try to have a primary
election and the prime election is to
get the majority and to getting the
majority
is undermining the government so it's
so absurd because all gov
all parties want to do that and and
everything is allowed
under the basic law and local law and
600 000 people have participated in the
as a voter turnout so it's a widely
supported uh
primary election exercise and now the uh
you call it
you know subversion it is
not really uh it's very clear that they
uh they they are trying to cast
a very wide net of uh arrest
uh so that to um terrorize people
and also to cleanse out the opposition
as they're casting a wide net i should
say mr lee
yourself or a politician and an activist
you were arrested
last year have you considered leaving
hong kong
no i would never leave hong kong because
we we
want to fight in hong kong for the right
to people
for democracy and uh we believe
that the people of hong kong will not be
silenced
by this all these reticular acts of
arrest and we will continue the fight
and uh what what actually we are
fighting for
is uh democracy and freedom and and
and this is actually good also for china
and why
they are trying to suppress us because
they are the dictatorship regime
that would not would want everything
under control would and would not allow
any uh balance in power in any society
so is
uh they are now selling out the people
hong kong
uh when they of their promises of high
autonomy
uh the promises of one country to system
uh the
sino-british joint declaration all these
are being betrayed
and what we want actually stick to what
was promised to us
okay you know we spoke to an activist a
little bit earlier as you call china
a dictatorship regime this activist told
us that there are essentially no
freedoms left
under the basic law in hong kong do you
agree what is left
of those freedoms
actually no one knows what it was left
of the freedom because
uh you know like teachers trying to
teach the
students they are disqualified as the
teachers uh
when we go out to march for democracy
and free
uh freedom uh we are now uh being
arrested
uh for some uh inciting uh
illegal assembly uh when uh
the pro-democracy camp uh you know
organize a primary election
they call it subversion and when jimmy
ly the owner of
apple daily uh you know treats out
uh their his comments on hong kong
situation he was
charged with collusion with foreign
power so we
we actually do not know what is uh less
of our freedom and because
all when we try to exercise them
you know we have consequences but right
no matter what
we will stay on and no matter what we
will try to
continue to exercise our freedom are
promised under the basic law
even though there may be consequences we
will have to leave it there
lee chokian hong kong pro-democracy
activist thank you very much for joining
us
on dw thank you for hanging out
you