His arrest before the National Security Act, along with other activists who ran a fund to help those accused of protests demanding democracy, will damage the Vatican-Beijing rapprochement
The curtailment of freedoms in Hong Kong at the hands of the Chinese regime represents a qualitative leap with unforeseen diplomatic consequences. Along with other activists calling for democracy, Cardinal Joseph Zen, bishop emeritus of the city and one of the most critical voices against the Communist Party, was arrested this Wednesday. Neither his advanced age, 90, nor his senior position in the Catholic Church saved him from persecution by the local authorities under the Beijing-imposed national security law, which criminalizes virtually all political opposition.
According to the South China Morning Post newspaper, Zen has been arrested along with famed singer Denise Ho and former opposition MP Margaret Ng. They were all administrators of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, a fund that provided financial support to those detained in the protests that called for democracy on June 12, 2019, which sparked a violent uprising that lasted six months until the outbreak of the pandemic. later. Another of its trustees, Hui Po Keung, was arrested Tuesday at the Hong Kong airport en route to a flight to Germany, while the fund’s fifth and final trustee, Cyd Ho Sau-lan, is in jail for illegal meeting .
According to the SCMP, the last four detainees are being investigated for alleged clashes with foreign troops. In September, the police in charge of enforcing the National Security Act warned that they were on the trail of Fund 612 and had asked those responsible for information about the donations they had received and the money they gave for legal aid to those accused by the protests. Like virtually all critical organizations in Hong Kong targeted by the draconian national security law, the fund stopped accepting donations and closed in October 2021 due to the “current political climate”. Police are also investigating another association, the Alliance for True Democracy, that helps raise donations.
Since the bill was promulgated on June 30, 2020 through March 31, 175 people have been detained under the National Security Act and 110 have been prosecuted, including activists, Democratic representatives and press mogul Jimmy Lai, who was forced to leave his office. Close. newspaper “Apple”.
They are now joined by Cardinal Joseph Zen, who throughout his life stood out for his fierce criticism of the Communist Party dictatorship in China. Interviewed twice on ABC, he warned in 2007 about the ongoing curtailment of freedoms that Hong Kong was suffering from ten years after returning from the United Kingdom. A decade he described as “frustrating” as he assured that even then there was “less freedom than before, as many businessmen and journalists censored themselves so as not to upset the central government and see their interests harmed”.
Due to his age and position, his arrest could damage the rapprochement of recent years between the Vatican and China, which must renew their agreement for the consensual appointment of bishops before October. Despite this kind of concordat, the details of which are secret, the religious persecution of Christians in China continues and only six of the thirty vacant dioceses have been filled in four years. All a sign of the difficulties to end the mistrust between the two sides, who do not maintain diplomatic relations because the Vatican recognizes Taiwan, the “de facto” independent island claimed by Beijing. Strangely enough, just two weeks ago, the Holy See hosted a conference organized by the International Trinitarian Solidarity on persecuted Christians in the world, where this correspondent was invited to explain the harassment they are undergoing in China. The regime extended that crackdown to Hong Kong, where July 1 marks the 25th anniversary of his return to Beijing by the UK, and the regime has now arrested Cardinal Zen.
Source: La Verdad
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