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China arrests two for alleged espionage on Hong Kong internal affairs

Hong Kong police arrest a protester inside the City Plaza mall in the Tai Koo Shing area in Hong Kong on November 3, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

China has arrested two people for alleged espionage for “hostile forces” in the United States and other foreign forces, who interfere in Hong Kong affairs, authorities say.

The Chinese official Guangdong Communist Party newspaper cited local authorities on Saturday, saying they had arrested a citizen from Belize for allegedly colluding with elements in the United States.

The man, identified as Lee Henley Hu Xiang, was arrested in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou back in November.

The Southern Daily said he had funded key members of "hostile forces" in the US to undermine China's national security, and supported anti-government protests, which have rocked the Chinese territory for six months.

Separately, the daily said that a Taiwanese man was also arrested in nearby Shenzhen city in October for allegedly stealing state secrets for foreign forces.

The report identified the man as Lee Meng-Chu, who travelled to Hong Kong in August to support "anti-China" protesters.

He was being investigated for "engaging in criminal acts that endanger state security,” a spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of China's State Council had said in September.

Hong Kong has been rocked by turbulent protests since June, when the government proposed a bill that would allow extraditions to mainland China. The bill was later suspended indefinitely, but the protests took a violent turn which continue to this day.  

The Chinese government says the United States and Britain have been fanning the flames of unrest in Hong Kong by supporting rioters.

The official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, denounced “those anti-China, Hong Kong chaos-mongering people,” in a commentary on Saturday.

"The attempt by that anti-China, Hong Kong chaos-mongering people to pressure China through exploiting foreign anti-China forces will eventually be a clown act, like a mantis trying to stop a chariot," it said.

“Hong Kong will not sink in this way. The heartless scumbags will inevitably be swept into the ash heap of history," it added.

Hong Kong has been governed under a “one-country, two-system” model since the city was returned to China in 1997.

Last week, US President Donald Trump signed a bill into law, a controversial piece of legislation, the so-called “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act,” that had attracted bipartisan support from Congress.

The new law requires the US State Department to certify, at least once every year, that Hong Kong has sufficient autonomy to justify favorable US trading terms, which have helped maintain its status as an international financial hub.

The law also threatens officials deemed responsible for alleged violations of human rights in Hong Kong with sanctions, including visa bans and asset freezes.

Beijing has called the move an example of Washington’s "sinister intentions.” 


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