Hotline flooded with reports of possible violations

More than 100,000 messages have been lodged with the platform since its launch in November

Hong Kong’s national security police unit has been receiving an average of 550 messages a day over possible violations of the Beijing-imposed legislation since its reporting hotline launched in November.

Over the past six months, more than 100,000 messages had been lodged with the intelligencegathering platform, police said yesterday. “Thank you for making the reports to the hotline and contributing to safeguarding national security,” a message on the force’s official Facebook page read.

The hotline, which went into operation on November 5, allows the public to send information, photos, and audio and video clips via SMS or WeChat or to a designated email address.

According to police, the hotline is not answered nor are replies made, and personal details are not collected or disclosed to third parties.

On June 30 last year, Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong banning acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. The offences carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

So far, the city’s national security police have arrested more than 100 people and prosecuted 57 of them.

In the national security department’s latest operation, five members of a local student group known as “Returning Valiant” were rounded up last Wednesday and Thursday in connection with social media comments that allegedly constituted acts of subversion.

Four of the suspects – three males and one female – were secondary school students, while the fifth was an unemployed adult man. The suspects, aged 15 to 24, were released on bail, pending further investigation.

In a separate operation on Thursday, officers from the unit also searched a newly opened outlet of the children’s clothing chain Chickeeduck in Tsuen Wan, where a graffiti-style display over the entrance appeared to evoke a banned protest slogan. The shop also displayed a statue honouring anti-government protesters.

Thank you for making the reports ... and contributing to safeguarding national security THE POLICE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

A police source told the Post last week that officers had carried out the raid on the shop because the slogan “Liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our times” could be made out in the jumbled, graffitilike writing over the front door.

The slogan, a common refrain during 2019’s anti-government protests, has since been declared a violation of the national security law. Officers left two hours later without making any seizures or arrests.

The brand’s founder, Herbert Chow Siu-lung, characterised the operation as an effort to spread “white terror”, adding that he was “not scared”. Even though no arrests were made, the source said the raid served as a “warning”.