\n<\/p>\n
Hong Kong — <\/span>A Hong Kong bookstore owner and his employees were reportedly arrested on suspicion of selling seditious publications, including a biography of a jailed pro-democracy activist. jimmy brought<\/a>Which is giving rise to fresh concerns about the city’s eroding freedoms.<\/p>\n Separately, authorities on Tuesday ordered three companies linked to Lai’s now-defunct newspaper, apple daily<\/a>Removed from the city’s companies registry. A government statement said the companies had been dissolved and had become “proscribed organisations”, warning that anyone associating with them would be in breach of regulations. national security law<\/a> Introduced in 2024. <\/p>\n Lai and three new unregistered companies \u2013 Apple Daily Limited, Apple Daily Printing Limited and AD Internet Limited \u2013 convicted<\/a> In December, a conspiracy was hatched in collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security. He was also found guilty of conspiring with others to publish seditious material under a separate sedition law.<\/p>\n had brought Sentenced to 20 years imprisonment last month<\/a> Jailed and fined more than 3 million Hong Kong dollars (about $384,000) each of the three companies.<\/p>\n Critics said the latest moves by Lai-linked officials have further unsettled the former British colony, which was promised a measure of civil liberties when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997. <\/p>\n Local media, including broadcaster TVB and the South China Morning Post, reported on Tuesday that independent bookstore owner Pong Yat-ming and three employees of his shop Book Punch were arrested on suspicion of selling seditious publications. Citing unnamed sources, the report said the bookstore was searched by national security police and Lai’s biography “The Troublemaker” was among the books in question.<\/p>\n Police did not confirm the arrests, only saying they would take action “according to the actual circumstances and in accordance with the law.” The bookstore did not immediately comment.<\/p>\n When The Associated Press visited on Wednesday, the bookstore remained closed, with a notice posted outside the door that read: “Taking a day off due to unexpected circumstances. Sorry for any inconvenience.” <\/p>\n Independent bookstores, which are widely seen as places offering books deemed relatively politically sensitive and not easily found in public libraries and mainstream stores, have faced a number of challenges in their operations.<\/p>\n Pong has been accused for his activities at other bookstores. In January, he pleaded not guilty to charges of running an unregistered school by allowing Spanish classes in his store.<\/p>\n Another independent bookseller, Hunter Bookstore, previously said it was visited repeatedly<\/a> by authorities on complaints of issues such as hosting unlicensed events. <\/p>\n Hunter questioned Wednesday how booksellers would be able to distinguish which books are considered seditious under national security laws. It said in a social media post that it hoped the government would have an online list, and pledged it would not sell seditious titles if they were named there. <\/p>\n It reads, “Books and publishing are not independent enterprises. They are the cultural foundation of an entire society.”<\/p>\n Officials said Tuesday that it was necessary to break up three companies linked to Apple Daily to protect national security. <\/p>\n The now-defunct newspaper, which was founded by Lai and was known for its critical coverage of both the Hong Kong and Beijing governments, shut down<\/a> Nearly five years ago, Beijing arrested some of its top management staff under a national security law imposed in 2020 to suppress massive anti-government protests in 2019. <\/p>\n These three companies were the registered publisher of the newspaper, the printer and the owner of the domain name of its website.<\/p>\n Some local media outlets reported Wednesday that police entered the inactive office space of Next Digital, the parent company of Apple Daily. <\/p>\n In addition to Lai, six former Apple Daily employees who entered guilty pleas in the case received prison sentences ranging from six years and nine months to 10 years. <\/p>\n Lai has been sentenced criticized internationally<\/a>Many critics say the national security case reflects a decline in press freedom in Hong Kong. City officials maintained This matter has nothing to do with a free press<\/a> And two security laws are essential for the stability of the city. <\/p>\n On Monday, city officials amended the implementation rules of the 2020 security law, signaling efforts to step up its national security crackdown. <\/p>\n Customs officers are given the power to seize any article which they reasonably suspect to be of seditious intent. <\/p>\n The rules also allow police officers to request certain people to provide passwords or other decryption methods in investigations of national security crimes. Those found guilty of refusing could face up to one year in jail and a fine of 100,000 Hong Kong dollars (about $12,800).<\/p>\n Security Secretary Chris Tang told lawmakers on Tuesday that the new rules do not mean police can randomly ask for mobile phone passwords. He said authorities must secure a court warrant on national security grounds before searching electronic devices. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hong Kong — A Hong Kong bookstore owner and his employees were reportedly arrested on suspicion of selling seditious publications, including a biography of a jailed pro-democracy activist. jimmy broughtWhich is giving rise to fresh concerns about the city’s eroding freedoms. Separately, authorities on Tuesday ordered three companies linked to Lai’s now-defunct newspaper, apple dailyRemoved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[1124,159,8982,10071,1172,4052,4770,4053,10072,5825],"class_list":{"0":"post-21560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bible-news","8":"tag-allegedly","9":"tag-arrested","10":"tag-biography","11":"tag-bookstore","12":"tag-employees","13":"tag-hong","14":"tag-jimmy","15":"tag-kong","16":"tag-lai","17":"tag-selling"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21562,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21560\/revisions\/21562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}