Cardinal Zen, 90, is one of four people detained for being associated with a now-defunct fund that helped protesters in financial need.

The fund was set up to offer legal advice, psychological counselling and emergency financial aid to those injured, arrested or jailed for their involvement in the mass pro-democracy demonstrations that swept Hong Kong in 2019.

Zen became the bishop of Hong Kong in 2002, a post he held until his retirement in 2009.

As bishop emeritus, Zen has been an outspoken voice as both a strong supporter of democracy and civil liberties in Hong Kong. He has also been a fierce critic of the Vatican's provisional agreement with Chinese authorities signed in 2018.

"It's a way to keep people in fear," Peter (not his real name), a Chinese Catholic, said of Zen's arrest.

Peter said that he saw the election of John Lee as the new Hong Kong chief executive on May 8 as a key reason behind the arrest of the 90-year-old Catholic cardinal and others.

He suggested it was a gesture from Lee "that shows that he's loyal to the party and he's going to be tough on forces that are against the party."

"So [Lee] wants to demonstrate that he is loyal" to Beijing and, at the same time, that "he is a man of action," he said. He added there is a Chinese proverb that goes something like "a new governor has to show his muscle and strength."

"This probably foretells that in the future, Hong Kong will become less free, more controlled," Peter said. "And the Catholic Church in Hong Kong as an organised institution will be carefully, closely watched."

Lee is a baptised Catholic who formerly served as Hong Kong's security chief and "played a leading role in the crackdown on the pro-democracy protests," according to the Eurasia Group.

Lee will officially begin his five-year term on July 1, succeeding Carrie Lam, another Catholic, who held the post since 2017.

Other Chinese Catholics have expressed both fear and sadness at Zen's arrest.

"Cardinal Zen is known as a voice of truth," another anonymous Chinese Catholic told CNA.

The source said that the cardinal was seen as someone unafraid to share what is happening to the Catholic community rather than "repeating what someone else has told him to say."

Sources

Catholic News Agency

Catholic News Service

The Australian

BBC

Within six hours of a new security law being passed at just after 9am on June 30, Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam, a practising Catholic, had signed the law into operation. Yet it would not be until 11pm that night that the details of the law were finally released in stark black and white.

It was worse than even the most pessimistic observers had expected and triggered immediate action by Hong Kong's pro-democracy politicians and millions of residents.

Joshua Wong, 23, who in 2016 was a teenage activist who led the Umbrella Movement that brought central Hong Kong to a standstill, announced he was stepping away from his political party Demosisto.

"I hereby declare withdrawing from Demosisto ... If my voice will not be heard soon, I hope that the international community will continue to speak up for Hong Kong and step up concrete efforts to defend our last bit of freedom," Wong announced on Twitter.

Hours later Demosisto announced that it would disband. "After much internal deliberation, we have decided to disband and cease all operation as a group given the circumstances," Demosisto said on Twitter.

Wong has increasingly been a target of Hong Kong authorities and gave his being a "prime target" as his reason for quitting.

The practising Protestant and posted this on his Twitter feed: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." (Psalm 23:4)

There have been multiple reports of regular Hong Kongers moving to erase digital footprints showing their criticism of the Hong Kong and Beijing governments, wary of any blowback from security forces.

Anyone advocating independence, liberation or revolution in public can be immediately arrested, and just carrying an item could be enough to break the law, police have been told.

As evidenced by the stunning attendance at a Sunday protest march in June 2019 of up to two million people against a proposed extradition law that triggered a year of demonstrations, opposition to Beijing's encroachment on the city runs deep.

Although in the end the protests were not enough, they convinced Beijing that it was too risky to allow them to continue and potentially leak over the border.

What happens next?

Many of Hong Kong's wealthy and educated elites already have dual passports and are preparing to quit the city for the United Kingdom, the US, Australia and Canada, the most popular bolt holes. Many will not want their children educated under the shadow of the Chinese flag in an education system that is about to get an overhaul for the worse.

The UK has been especially welcoming, holding out the prospect of anyone born before the 1997 handover of the territory from Great Britain to China — about three million people — having the option of residency in the UK.

Hong Kong's still relatively freewheeling media, specially mentioned as a target of the new laws, is now waiting for a crackdown from its new overlords in Beijing. At present journalists in Hong Kong require no special permits or permission and foreigners representing offshore organizations simply obtain work visas rather than the specialized and tightly controlled permits required on the mainland.

Observers are already musing whether there will be a steady but eventual relocation to perhaps Taiwan or Singapore.

Expats have suddenly found themselves living in a vastly different environment, with the easy ability to criticize Beijing suddenly an offense that could see them locked up for life either in Hong Kong or in the mainland's brutal and opaque justice system.

Indeed, shorn of the rule of law and trust of Hong Kong's legal system, the city's future as an international finance hub is now being questioned.

Things certainly have a long way to run but what we know for sure is that a dark cloud came over Hong Kong on June 30 that is set to be there for a very long time.

• Michael Sainsbury - first published by UCANews.com, republished with permission.

In 2003, after the SARS epidemic, attempts were made to introduce a national security law.

Similarly, it is happening now as the coronavirus recedes. But this time we fear there will be no happy ending.

It is difficult to find words that we have not already written to tell about the danger Hong Kong is facing.

For some, we are alarmists: the tanks have not been seen in Hong Kong, and therefore we can think that things have not got out of hand.

The world has its head elsewhere, and we seem repetitive.

On May 18, 15 well-known leaders of the democratic opposition appeared in court. Their case will be resumed on June 15. For five of them, including our friend Lee Cheuk-yan, the charges have been extended, and they foresee very severe penalties, up to five years of imprisonment.

But the worst news comes from Beijing, where the National People's Congress has been formally endorsing what has already been decided by the Central Committee of the Communist Party, the real body that governs China.

But even the Central Committee (politburo) counts less since President Xi Jinping concentrated all powers on himself, as only Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping had done in the past.

It is therefore a decision by Xi that we are talking about.

A bill has been introduced that sends a chill down the backs of those who love Hong Kong, its young students and its people, freedom and democracy.

The new law introduces national security regulations in Hong Kong. It will be included as a new "third annex" to the Basic Law, the mini-constitution that governs the "high degree of autonomy" of the city.

The law, which consists of seven articles, provides provisions punishing offenses such as treason, secession, sedition, subversion and foreign interference.

It is not difficult to imagine how the provisions will be conveniently used to suppress the popular protests that began in June 2019 and any other form of opposition.

With such laws in China, every form of dissent is condemned, with punishments up to the death penalty.

Particularly disturbing is the fourth article: "If necessary, the central government will establish bodies in Hong Kong with the task of implementing the safeguarding of national security."

This provision would lead to the emptying of the power of parliament and of the local government in favour of an entirely political office, which has never been seen in Hong Kong.

The drastic downsizing of the parliament is particularly concerning because in the elections due in September the opposition parties will have, according to all forecasts, a larger representation, as happened for the district elections of last November.

It will be the end of the "one country, two systems" framework and the "high degree of autonomy," the two principles that govern Hong Kong today.

We will have important tests in the coming weeks: the vigil for the massacre in Tiananmen Square on June 4; the first anniversary of the start of the protests on June 9; and the traditional protest march of July 1.

Can they be done? And how?

In the summer of 2003, as many certainly remember, attempts were made to introduce a national security law.

It happened in the aftermath of the SARS epidemic. But the then chief executive, the Beijing-appointed Tung Chee-hwa, withdrew the proposal after a single mass demonstration on July 1 of that fateful year. Various ministers resigned, and Tung himself paid the political price with his early departure from the political scene — a choice that restored some dignity to the man. And Hong Kong, for many more years, was saved.

Today's government, led by Carrie Lam, has faced hundreds of demonstrations, most of them more immense than that of July 1, 2003.

Carrie Lam, 'I am writing it with pain', will go down in Hong Kong history as the single political figure that has done the most damage ever.

There has been a new pandemic, and plans are back to introduce a liberticidal law that will not only prevent Hong Kong from having what it was promised — a progressive and full democratisation — but would also remove what it already has now.

Lam rushed to say that the Hong Kong government will "fully cooperate" in the implementation of this law.

The education minister says students will have to study it well.

There is a shiver!

Allan Lee, a long-time politician from the business world, founder of the Liberal Party and part of the pro-Chinese camp (he had been a communist as a boy), recently died.

He was perhaps little known internationally but in Hong Kong he was a familiar face.

I remember him well. He had the good of Hong Kong at heart: after the demonstration on July 1, 2003, he pledged to persuade Beijing to desist from the implementation of the national security law.

He had courage.

He was heard.

And Allan Lee, who in the meantime had become a moderate right-wing man, spent the last years of his life asking for full democracy and freedom for Hong Kong.

Today the pro-government camp lacks men with Allan Lee's wisdom.

In power today we have figures without political dignity and without courage, opportunists enslaved to the power of the strongest.

It is not true that democracy in Hong Kong is only wanted by "reckless young people" and "opponents without a sense of responsibility."

Hong Kong's democracy and freedom are a serious matter, desired by the best people of our beloved city.

After all, it is not difficult too difficult to understand what's going on.

Things are what they seem.

The threats of a regime opposed to freedom, democracy and human rights are not intended to strike emptily.

As long as possible, we will say it: the end of Hong Kong is being prepared.

• Father Gianni Criveller of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions is dean of studies and a teacher at PIME International Missionary School of Theology in Milan, Italy. He taught in Greater China for 27 years and is a lecturer in mission theology and the history of Christianity in China at the Holy Spirit Seminary College of Philosophy and Theology in Hong Kong.
• First published in UCANews.com. Republished with permission.

The bill has resulted in massive protests.

Church leaders are supporting the protests which are calling for the withdrawal of a controversial extradition bill and the resignation of the Chinese territory's leader.

Although Hong Kong's chief executive Carrie Lam said last week that she had suspended the proposed extradition law in the formerly British, now Chinese territory, an estimated two million people turned out to protest last weekend.

After the rally, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Ha Chi-shing of Hong Kong participated in an ecumenical prayer meeting outside the Legislative Council building with thousands of young Christians.

Ha reminded the faithful that the protesters were Christians first.

"Even though the government did many things that we don't like and were very wrong, we cannot demonize them, because this is not our faith request," he said.

"No matter how long they stay, I will continue to stay with them," he said. "All we want is to have the freedom to which everyone is entitled and no longer live in fear".

A particular feature throughout the protests has been the hymn "Sing Hallelujah to the Lord". It was sung during impromptu prayer meetings along the route, at roadblocks and during a gathering of protesters outside the legislature building and during tense stand-offs with the police.

Many Christians said they felt empowered by a pervasive sense of God while non-Christian demonstrators said they were also touched by a feeling of love and peace through the singing of the hymn.

About 11 percent of Hong Kong's residents are Christian, including 390,000 Catholics, representing about 5 percent of the population.

A Catholic activist said he believed there would have been more bloodshed during the mass protests if Catholic and Protestant clergy had not at times "acted as a barrier" between the riot police and angry young protesters, who joined in singing "Sing Hallelujah."

Source

• The Tablet
• Vatican News
• Sydney Morning Herald
• America Magazine
• NCR Online
• Image: UCA News