At least one member of the group was being investigated under the city’s new national security law.
Chinese authorities have detained a dozen activists from Hong Kong who were attempting to leave the territory via speedboat, according to people familiar with the attempt and the individuals captured, as Beijing intensifies a campaign to seek out protest leaders and others resisting the Communist Party’s tightening grip. At least one of the people on board the boat, seized on Sunday by the Chinese Coast Guard, was an activist who was being investigated under the city’s new national security law, said one of the people familiar with the capture. The group was apparently trying to flee to Taiwan, said a second person familiar with the episode. More than 200 Hong Kong protesters and activists have sought refuge in Taiwan over the past year. The detentions on Sunday were the first confirmed case of such activists being caught by the Chinese authorities at sea. The attempts to flee Hong Kong point to the anxiety that has set in among activists as China’s ruling Communist Party tightens its grip over the semiautonomous city to quell dissent. Beijing imposed a sweeping security law on the city on June 30 that punishes political crimes such as subversion with potentially heavy prison sentences. China’s Coast Guard said that on Sunday it had stopped a speedboat about 45 miles southeast of Hong Kong Island. Officers detained more than 10 people suspected of illegally crossing the border, the Coast Guard said on an official social media page on Wednesday, without providing further details. Among the people captured was Andy Li, a Hong Kong activist who helped organize a group of independent poll monitors from overseas for local elections last year, one of the people said.
