(RNS) On the morning of July 31, Samuel Chu, a Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and community organizer, woke to discover the Hong Kong police had issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of “inciting secession” and “colluding with foreign powers.”
Instead of a loud knock on the door, however, news of the warrant arrived in a hail of texts, emails and social media messages that Chu, 42, a naturalized American citizen, fielded from his apartment in Los Angeles’ Echo Park.
With Beijing’s clampdown even on foreign supporters of Hong Kong’s freedoms, Chu said the warrant was just the latest step in China’s increasingly tighter control over the former British colony, which had enjoyed special freedoms after being returned to China two decades ago.