The magnate of the press and activist pro-democracy has been stopped in the name of the controversial law on the national security. The sales of his newspaper, explode.
A success are very political. Copies of the Apple Daily were sold that Tuesday morning like hotcakes in hong Kong, illustration of the support of the population in the tabloid pro-democracy, whose owner Jimmy Lai was arrested Monday on behalf of the controversial law on the national security. The signs of a recovery in hand muscular of the semi-autonomous region have escalated since Beijing has imposed this text very repressive, as a response to months of protest unprecedented in 2019.
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Jimmy Lai, a billionaire media baron, was one of the ten people who were arrested Monday in a wide sweep against the movement pro-democracy, before that about 200 police officers carry out a search in the room writing his journal, notoriously critical of Beijing.
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Draw to 550 000 copies
But, in a new sign of the popularity of the opposition in the ex-british colony, its inhabitants rushed Tuesday into the booths to purchase the Apple Daily, who had anticipated this request by pulling exceptionally to 550 000 copies, compared to 70 000 in normal times.
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“We will fight,” proclaims the Tuesday edition, and a promise written in bright red on a full-page photo of Jimmy Lai led by the police officers in the newsroom of the newspaper. Another mark of solidarity with Jimmy Lai, the action of his press group, Next Digital was up almost 800% since his arrest Monday morning, many individuals dashing on the title to support it.
The arrests and the search of the house have been condemned as violations of “unprecedented” freedom of the press, in which hong Kong was once a strong place, abuses that were unimaginable a few months ago.
Beijing welcomes the arrest of Jimmy Lai
Considered to be a response from Beijing in the months of demonstrations in favour of democracy which had undermined hong Kong in 2019, the national security act imposed on the 30th of June, gives local authorities new powers to suppress four types of crimes against the security of the State : the subversion, separatism, terrorism, and collusion with outside forces.
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Number of pro-democracy activists are denouncing a text liberticidal that comes in to finish, according to them, with the principle of “One country, two systems” established when the handover in 1997 and that guaranteed until 2047 for hong Kong’s freedoms unknown in the rest of China. They are worried about the fact that Beijing uses similar laws to muzzle dissent, elsewhere on its territory.
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Many foreign leaders have expressed their concern about this new crackdown, among which the head of the american diplomacy Mike Pompeo, who saw in his arrest an “additional proof that the chinese communist Party has eviscerated the freedoms of hong Kong, and the rights of his people”. Jimmy Lai has been arrested for collusion with foreign forces and fraud. Beijing, for its part, welcomed the arrest of the tycoon of 71 years, presented as a “troublemaker antichinois” who conspired with foreigners in order to “cause chaos”.
