Wong Yuen-cheung, leader of the Hong Kong branch of the Federation for a Democratic China, is being investigated by national security police over alleged activities that endanger national security.
Wong was asked by police to provide information about the group's cash flow and assets as well as activities it organized.
The federation was founded in September 1989 in Paris by people including former student leaders of the June 4, 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square who fled China as well as Chinese students studying abroad.
The federation has branches around the world, with Wong a council member of its headquarters and director of its Hong Kong branch.
It is alleged the federation works within a "foreign anti-China base" serving external forces on June 4 every year.
And among anti-China organizations with which the federation is allegedly linked in hosting memorial events around the world is the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China. The aim, it is claimed, is to create "pressure from the international community on the central government."
Pro-Beijing publication Ta Kung Pao reported on the police investigation into Wong and claimed subverting Beijing is one of the federation's goals and that it has been colluding with foreign forces to organize anti-China protests and inciting hatred toward the Chinese Communist Party.
It also said the federation cooperated with organizations including the now-disbanded protest organizer Civil Human Rights Front in Hong Kong. And the federation remained active on the "international battlefront" after the national security law was imposed.
Examples include its US branch continuing to carry online content that advocates Hong Kong independence and portrays the CCP in a negative light, such as calling on people to refer to Covid-19 as the "CCP virus" and publishing radical articles on democracy.
In the group's manifesto, it was said, is "End one-party rule, build a democratic China" - the same slogan chanted by members of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China during the June 4 vigil every year.
The move against the Federation for a Democratic China came after police on Wednesday sent letters to alliance standing committee members and directors to seek similar information after it was projected as a "foreign agent."
Police sent letters to 10 executives of the alliance, including imprisoned former legislators and chairman Lee Cheuk-yan and vice chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan as well as vice chairwoman Chow Hang-tung, demanding they submit within two weeks information based on Article 43 of the security law.
According to implementation rules for enforcing the article, the police commissioner can serve written notices to supposed agents of foreign or Taiwan political organizations, demanding they provide information.
jane.cheung@singtaonewscorp.com
