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HONG KONG: Hong Kong police arrested eight more activists on Tuesday (December 8) for anti-government protests last year, the latest in a relentless crackdown on opposition forces.
Police did not identify the people, saying only that they were between 24 and 64 years old. Local media said former pro-democracy lawmaker and veteran activist Leung Kwok-hung, known as Long Hair, was among those arrested.
The move comes a day after eight people between the ages of 16 and 34 were arrested, including three on suspicion of violating a widespread national security law, during a brief demonstration on a college campus last month.
Beijing imposed the legislation on its freer city in June, saying it was vital to plug holes in national security defenses exposed by months of sometimes violent anti-government and anti-China protests that rocked the city over the past year.
The law punishes what Beijing broadly defines as secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.
Opposition politicians and Western governments fear that the law is being used to stifle dissent and erode the broad freedoms guaranteed to the former British colony when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
On Monday, the United States announced new sanctions to punish Beijing for imposing the law in Hong Kong, increasing tensions between the two sides.
