Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai arrested under Beijing’s new national security law

Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai, one of the most vocal Beijing critics in the city, was among seven people arrested yesterday under a new national security law, deepening a crackdown on democracy supporters.

The arrests are the latest detentions of dissidents since Beijing imposed the law on Hong Kong at the end of June, sending a political chill through the semi-autonomous region.

“They arrested him at his house at about 7am. Our lawyers are on the way to the police station,” said Mark Simon, a close aide of Mr Lai’s. Other members of the tycoon’s media group were also held.

Police said the arrests were for colluding with foreign forces – one of the new national security offences – and fraud.

A police source confirmed that Mr Lai, 72, was among them.

The security law was introduced to quell last year’s huge and often violent pro-democracy protests, and authorities have since wielded their new powers to pursue the city’s democracy camp, sparking criticism from western nations and sanctions from the US.

Mr Lai owns the Apple Daily newspaper and Next Magazine, two publications that are unapologetically pro-democracy and critical of Beijing.

On Twitter, Mr Simon said officers were searching Mr Lai’s mansion and his son’s house.

Few Hong Kongers generate the level of personal vitriol from Beijing that Mr Lai does.

For many residents of the restless semi-autonomous region, he is an unlikely hero – a pugnacious, self-made tabloid owner and the only tycoon willing to criticise Beijing.

But in China’s state media he is a traitor, the biggest Black Hand behind last year’s protests and the head of a new Gang of Four conspiring with foreign nations to undermine the motherland.

Allegations of Mr Lai colluding with foreigners went into overdrive in Chinese state media last year when he met US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence.

Two weeks before the new security law was imposed, Mr Lai said he was prepared for prison.

“If it comes, I will have the opportunity to read books I haven’t read. The only thing I can do is to be positive.”