National Post (National Edition)
Hong Kong police target pollster
Computers searched, no arrests made
HONG KONG • Hong Kong police searched the office of an independent political pollster on Friday, 10 days after Beijing imposed sweeping national security legislation that has sent a chill across the former British colony.
Robert Chung told Reuters authorities arrived at his office and he “negotiated” with police to try to understand the basis for the search warrant. He said police copied some information from computers but had not taken anything.
Police confirmed they had searched his office.
“The police received a report from the public that the computer system of a polling organization was suspected of being hacked,” they said. “The investigation is still ongoing and no one has been arrested.”
Last year, Chung, who has been criticized by pro-Beijing forces who question the poll’s accuracy, broke away from a polling operation he oversaw at the University of Hong Kong to set up his independent Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (HKPORI).
HKPORI conducted three public opinion polls for Reuters on how residents of the city, with a population of about 7.5 million, saw the sometimes violent pro-democracy protest movement that began in 2019. The surveys were conducted in December, March and June.
In the most recent poll, almost half of Hong Kong residents polled said they were “very much opposed” to Beijing’s move to implement national security legislation in the city that returned to Chinese rule in 1997 with a guarantee of wide-ranging autonomy for 50 years.
The poll also showed support for the protest movement fading even as most people continued to voice support for its key demands, including universal suffrage and the resignation of Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam.
One question in the survey asked residents if they supported independence for Hong Kong, a political call that is a red line for Communist Party rulers in Beijing and has become a target under the new security law.
Of those surveyed, 21 per cent said they supported an independent Hong Kong, about unchanged from March. Opposition to the idea was at 60 per cent.
Hong Kong democracy lawmaker Au Lok-hin said he believed the raid was related to primary elections slated for this weekend.
The primary elections seek to pin down pro-democracy candidates who will stand the best chance of achieving a 35-plus majority in the Legislative Council election in September, giving them power to block government proposals and potentially paralyze the administration.
Pro-Beijing lawmakers have said that the democrats’ aim to disrupt the administration could lead to a constitutional crisis.