An Ecuadorian fishing crew describe their ordeal as victims of Trump’s purported war on ‘narcoterrorists’

By 4pm, the light was softening over the Pacific, and the crew of the Don Maca were finishing a long day hauling in lines of swordfish and albacore. Down in the hold, the mood had settled into the familiar rhythm of a fishing day drawing to a close.

“We were just working, waiting for the last trawler to return,” said Jhonny Sebastián Palacios, one of the fishers. “Everything was perfectly fine.”

The Hong Kong government is seeking to confiscate HK$127 million in assets belonging to pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai, following his conviction and jail term under the national security law.

Lai has been summoned to the High Court on July 8 to hear the government’s application. The case will be presided over by Esther Toh, one of the three judges who heard his national security trial.

In a writ submitted to the High Court earlier this month, the secretary for justice listed assets to be “forfeited” to the authorities.

The list includes credit balances in bank accounts belonging to or linked to the Apple Daily founder.

Fifteen bank accounts under Lai’s name – 10 with HSBC, two with Hang Seng Bank and three with Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank – have over HK$32 million.

The government is also seeking to seize bank accounts belonging to 17 companies linked to Lai. It is also demanding that Lai give up shares in 17 companies, some of which overlap with the 17 firms whose assets the government is seeking to seize.

Among the companies whose assets and shares the government wants to seize are Dico Consultants Ltd, which has over HK$404,302 in its HSBC account, and Lai’s Hotel Properties Ltd, which has over HK$3.1 billion in its four HSBC accounts.

Dico Consultants was at the centre of Lai’s fraud case relating to an alleged lease violation. Lai was accused of allowing the company to occupy parts of Apple Daily’s headquarters in Tseung Kwan O, despite the newspaper premises being rented for printing and publishing.

Lai was jailed for five years and nine months in December 2022 after being found guilty of fraud, but the conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal in February this year.

The government also applied to seize HK$10 million in bail money that Lai had given to the court in December 2020, before he was later denied bail and remanded.

The media mogul was jailed for 20 years in February after being found guilty of conspiring to collude with foreign forces and of sedition, both offences under the Beijing-imposed national security law.

The jail term is the longest handed down so far for a national security offence. His lawyers have said that Lai will not appeal.

After Guardian reports about danger to V2X employees, sources say state department raised concerns with defense contractor

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The US government has called on the defense contractor V2X to evacuate its employees from Kuwait and Iraq, warning the company that they could be targeted by Iran-backed militias, four sources said.

The intervention follows reporting by the Guardian that V2X employees were stationed at US military bases in Kuwait, and at Martyr Brigadier General Ali Flaih airbase and Erbil in Iraq. Employees claimed having inadequate protections, receiving limited communications from the company about evacuation plans and being pressured to remain in the Middle East. In Iraq, workers say they are targets of Iran-allied attacks, and one employee was killed in a night-time drone attack in March.

China’s top official in charge of Hong Kong affairs has warned of some people who “politicised” the deadly Tai Po fire and tried to use the disaster to “stir up chaos” in Hong Kong.

Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, delivered his remarks on Wednesday via a recorded video shown at a National Security Education Day ceremony.

In his speech, Xia mentioned the massive fire that broke out at Wang Fuk Court, a government-subsidised housing estate, on November 26, killing 168 people.

“After the Tai Po fire, some malicious people politicised the tragedy, attempting to use the disaster as a means to disrupt Hong Kong,” Xia said in Mandarin, without giving further details.

“Once again, it reminds us that along Hong Kong’s path toward prosperity under good governance, there will be various risks and challenges.”

He went on to emphasise that there are still national security risks in Hong Kong, six years after the China-imposed national security law came into effect in the city.

“Anti-China and anti–Hong Kong troublemakers are still plotting and biding their time to launch a comeback… Everyone should be alert to the risks of external forces meddling and interfering,” Xia said.

Speaking at the same event on Wednesday, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee also said that some people were “using the disaster to stir up chaos” and “to incite hatred” in Hong Kong.

“Only through the government’s swift action and decisive law enforcement has the situation been able to return to normal,” Lee said in Mandarin.

He vowed that the government “will hold people accountable” and implement “systematic reforms” once the independent committee completes its investigation into the blaze.

The independent committee, chaired by Judge David Lok, is currently hearing testimony from various parties – including residents, employees of fire contractors, a property management firm, and firefighters.

Hong Kong authorities and China’s national security authorities have repeatedly issued warnings related to the blaze – the city’s deadliest in eight decades.

On November 29, days after the blaze, Beijing’s Office for Safeguarding National Security (OSNS) warned that “anti-China disruptors” sought to co-opt the deadly Tai Po fire to “incite resentment” against the government.

In early December, the Hong Kong government issued a statement, blasting “foreign forces, including anti-China media organisations, and anti-China and destabilising forces” for “making unfounded and slanderous remarks,” and trying to use the fire to “stir up chaos in society.”

More recently, in February, Hong Kong security chief Chris Tang warned of people engaging in “soft resistance” by making false claims about the tragedy.

National security police said in mid-February that three people had been charged under Article 23, Hong Kong’s local national security law, over comments relating to the blaze.

A Hong Kong man has been jailed for a year under the city’s homegrown national security law after pleading guilty to making seditious remarks on Facebook, including comments supporting Hong Kong and Taiwan independence.

Raymond Chong pleaded guilty before national security judge Victor So at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Tuesday to one count of knowingly publishing publications with a seditious intention – an offence under the city’s local security law, also known as Article 23.

The magistrate handed Chong, a retiree in his early 60s, an 18-month sentence but discounted it by six months after considering his guilty plea.

Chong was accused of making 53 seditious social media posts between March 2024 and November 2025, local news outlet The Witness reported.

The posts involved wording such as “dissolving the Chinese Communist Party is the most important thing” and “Hong Kong independence is within sight.”

He posted on a public Facebook page called “Holy Raymond,” which features the Chinese phrase “Heaven will destroy the Chinese Communist Party, God bless Hong Kong” as its profile picture.

During mitigation ahead of sentencing, his lawyer argued that Chong was a Falun Gong believer who had come to hate the Chinese Communist Party because of false information that the CCP engaged in live organ harvesting.

Chong was merely venting his emotions and sharing his political views, and did not intend to incite anybody or make any real impact, the lawyer added.

The defence also said that, although he had 4,677 followers, “barely anyone responded” to the posts.

So, however, said that the posts related to the case had received a total of over 650 likes and 90 comments, showing that the level of attention paid to his account was not as little as the lawyer claimed.

Article 23, known officially as the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, was passed in March 2024. It targets treason, insurrection, sabotage, external interference, sedition, and theft of state secrets and espionage.

It is separate from the Beijing-imposed national security law. Both pieces of legislation have been criticised by rights groups and activists, but authorities maintain they are necessary for targeting threats to national security.

All Hong Kong restaurant licences will include national security clauses from September, Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan has said.

Tse made the remarks on Tuesday, nearly a year after the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) introduced the provisions for restaurant licence renewals in May.

“With restaurants renewing their licences gradually, we expect that by September this year, all restaurant licences will contain the clauses,” Tse told reporters, according to RTHK.

According to an FEHD letter sent to restaurants, entertainment premises, and other businesses last year, business licence holders and “related persons” who engage in “offending conduct” against national security or the public interest could see their licences revoked. “Related persons” include directors, management, employees, agents, and subcontractors, the letter read.

An updated version of the FEHD’s food business licence application form, dated May 2025, invited applicants to sign beneath a paragraph that read: “I shall ensure that no act or activity engaged or involved in by me or any of my related persons… may constitute or cause the occurrence of an offence endangering national security under the National Security Law or other laws of the HKSAR, or conduct [that] is otherwise contrary to the interests of national security or the interest of the public (including public morals, public order and/or public safety) of Hong Kong.”

However, the paragraph was not present when HKFP checked the current form, dated November 2025.

Tse said on Tuesday that no violations of the national security clauses had been detected so far.

Offending conduct ‘clearly stated’ – CE

Some eatery owners told Ming Pao last year that they feared the new conditions were too vague and that they could lose their licences over false allegations.

However, Chief Executive John Lee said the FEHD was bound by law to safeguard national security, and the “offending conduct” against national security is “clearly stated” in the conditions.

“Offending conduct means any offence that endangers national security, or acts and events that are contrary to national security and public interest in Hong Kong. It is very clear,” he said in June.

Government adviser Ronny Tong told HK01 in an interview published last year that it was “hard to say” if the new conditions were targeted at “yellow shops,” a term that refers to businesses that have expressed a pro-democracy stance.

Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution in June 2020 following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts – broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure. 

The move gave police sweeping new powers and led to hundreds of arrests amid new legal precedents, while dozens of civil society groups disappeared. The authorities say it restored stability and peace to the city, rejecting criticism from trade partners, the UN and NGOs.

Hong Kong introduced new national security rules in March that empower police to demand that national security suspects surrender passwords to their devices. Meanwhile, an independent bookshop owner and his employees were arrested for allegedly selling seditious books.

The national security trial of two Tiananmen vigil activists continued, and the city’s largest teachers’ union officially dissolved.

New national security amendments

The government introduced amendments to the “implementation rules” of the national security law that Beijing imposed in 2020.

Under the new rules, gazetted on March 23, police can require people under national security investigation to provide passwords or help decrypt their electronic devices.

Failure to do so can be punished by up to one year behind bars and a HK$100,000 fine. Providing a false or misleading statement is punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of HK$500,000.

The new rules also empowered customs officers to freeze or confiscate assets relating to national security crimes or to forfeit “articles that have seditious intention.”

Such powers were previously restricted to the secretary for justice, the secretary for security, and the police force.

In an attempt to quell public concerns, security chief Chris Tang described claims that police could stop people on the street and demand their phone passwords as “false and misleading.”

Tang said in the Legislative Council (LegCo) on March 26 that with the new requirements in place, there was public concern that police would randomly demand that citizens on the street hand over mobile phone passwords.

The minister said that police must apply for a court warrant providing “national security reasons” before requesting people suspected of endangering national security to hand over mobile phone passwords.

China summons top US diplomat

Beijing summoned the top US diplomat in Hong Kong after the US Consulate General issued an alert over a new rule in the financial hub empowering police to demand that national security suspects surrender their passwords.

In a statement on February 28, Beijing’s foreign ministry office in Hong Kong said it had summoned Julie Eadeh, the US consul general in Hong Kong, for “solemn representations.”

The statement said the move was in response to the “so-called ‘security alert’” issued by the US Consulate General on February 26, days after the Hong Kong government introduced the new national security rule.

Bookshop owner, staff arrested

In late March, Hong Kong independent bookseller Pong Yat-ming and three of his staff members were reportedly arrested on suspicion of selling seditious titles, including a biography of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai.

Local media reported on March 24 that national security police arrested one man and three women for allegedly “knowingly selling a publication that has a seditious intention,” an offence under Hong Kong’s homegrown security law, the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, known locally as Article 23.

Citing anonymous sources, the reports said police also raided Book Punch – Pong’s Sham Shui Po bookstore – and seized allegedly seditious publications, including Lai’s 2024 biography – The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong Kong’s Greatest Dissident, and China’s Most Feared Critic.

The bookstore owner and the employees were released on bail on March 25, Book Punch said on Facebook. Pong confirmed with HKFP that he and his staff had been released on bail, but he could not say anything about the case.

Trial of Tiananmen vigil activists

The high-profile national security trial of Tiananmen vigil activists – barrister Chow Hang-tung and unionist Lee Cheuk-yan – continued in March.

The former leaders of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China are standing trial for “inciting subversion,” which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail. The third defendant, solicitor Albert Ho, pleaded guilty when the trial opened in January.

The case revolves around the Alliance’s key slogan calling for “an end to one-party rule” in China, which prosecutors allege amounts to a breach of China’s constitution and incitement to subversion.

On March 5, a panel of three national security judges ruled to bar a Taiwanese academic from testifying as the evidence he planned to give was deemed “irrelevant” to the case. Chow had initially applied to have Ho Ming-sho, a sociology professor at National Taiwan University, testify in the trial.

Both defendants had sought early acquittals from their charges, arguing that the prosecution failed to present sufficient evidence.

Lee’s barrister, Erik Shum, argued that prosecutors had misinterpreted the Chinese constitution and erred in saying that there are no “lawful means” to call for an end to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) rule. The lawyer also told the court that calling for an end to the CCP’s rule does not mean “overthrowing” its government and state organs.

Chow, who represents herself, said the prosecution had adopted a broad reading of the Chinese constitution and had erred in alleging that she had directly breached it. The Alliance’s slogans fell within a Chinese citizen’s legitimate demand for choosing the country’s leadership, she also told the court.

However, the court ruled on March 13 that the prosecution established a prima facie case against Chow, Lee, and the Alliance, and the trial would go on.

Taking the stand on March 17, Lee denied that his demand for an end to one-party rule in China amounted to a call to overthrow the CCP. “I have no enmity in my heart, only love. Based on my love for the people, I hoped the Communist Party would reform, to let people have the rights and happiness they deserve,” he said the following day. 

Later, on March 20, Chow told the court that the Tiananmen vigils had “always promoted love and responsibility” rather than “hatred and despair.”

She also said writings published by the Alliance were not meant to be subversive, but to expose Hongkongers to democratic movements in mainland China. Her articles were intended to “tell stories” about Chinese activists facing oppression, including the late dissident Liu Xiaobo and his widow Liu Xia, she added.

On March 25, she played a video of the 2018 vigil in the courtroom, as well as a clip of Di Mengqi, a member of the Tiananmen Mothers, recounting the death of her son during the 1989 crackdown. “The most important session of the vigils was the speeches by the Tiananmen Mothers. They are the most directly affected parties and victims of the crackdown,” she said.

The following day, Chow told the court that the Alliance held internal discussions to address “concerns that the national security law would be used as a tool for political suppression,” weeks before its implementation in late June 2020.

Chow called three defence witnesses to testify in court. Former Alliance volunteer Choi Shuk-fong, 66, said she witnessed the Tiananmen crackdown when she was working as a journalist for Sing Tao Daily.

However, the judges barred a photo of injured, bloodied protesters at Tiananmen Square, which was taken by Choi, from being shown in court. “At the moment, I don’t see how this can help the court,” Judge Alex Lee said. Instead, Judge Johnny Chan verbally described the image.

A second defence witness, former vigil attendee Shum Lai-fong, 69, told the court she believed the Alliance’s call for an end to one-party rule was not directed at any specific party.

Kwan Chun-pong, 54, a former standing committee member and volunteer of the Alliance, also testified as a defence witness for Chow. Judge Lee instructed Chow to ask Kwan only questions about matters from 2018 onwards.

At one point, the judge reprimanded Chow when she referred to the crackdown as the “June 4 massacre.” “If you use phrases like this, I will need to consider whether to allow you to continue asking questions,” he said, correcting the term to “June 4 incident.”

Judge Lee adjourned the case to May 18 for the prosecution and the defence to present their closing submissions.

Appeals in Apple Daily case

Pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai decided not to appeal against his national security conviction and jail term, his lawyer said on March 6, nearly one month after the sentencing of the Apple Daily founder. The lawyer did not elaborate on the reason for not appealing.

Lai, 78, was sentenced to 20 years behind bars on February 9 – the longest jail term handed down so far under the Beijing-imposed national security law.

Two of his eight co-defendants filed an appeal against their 10-year sentences.

Fung Wai-kong, former editorial writer and editor-in-chief of Apple Daily’s English news section, and Lam Man-chung, former executive editor-in-chief at the tabloid, filed their appeals on March 2 and March 10, respectively, according to local media and High Court documents.

Eight co-defendants – including Fung, Lam and four other former Apple Daily executives – pleaded guilty and were sentenced to up to 10 years in prison alongside Lai.

Dissolution of the city’s largest teachers’ union

The pro-democracy Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union (HKPTU) officially dissolved last month – nearly five years after it announced steps to disband.

The Registry of Trade Unions gazetted on March 27 that the HKPTU – the city’s largest teachers’ union – was dissolved, marking the end of the group’s half-century of history.

Once a prominent force in Hong Kong’s civil society and democratic movement, the 53-year-old union had over 95,000 members before its dissolution, representing 90 per cent of the profession.

The HKPTU announced it would disband in August 2021, days after attacks by Chinese state media and the Education Bureau’s decision to cut ties with the union.

Film competition with nat. security terms

The Hong Kong Arts Centre (HKAC) revived an Asian film competition in early March after a 17-month hiatus, adding new terms requiring participants to ensure their work complies with the city’s national security legislation.

The HKAC’s Incubator for Film and Visual Media in Asia (ifva) Awards opened for applications on March 1.

According to the awards’ rules and regulations, “entrants must acknowledge and agree [that] the submitted entry… does not violate any provisions of the National Security Law, including these pertaining to secession, subversion, terrorist activities, and collusion with foreign entities.”

Prosecution and arrests figures

As of April 1, a total of 394 people have been arrested for “cases involving suspected acts or activities that endanger national security” since Beijing’s national security law came into effect, according to the Security Bureau. That figure includes those arrested under Article 23 and for other offences.

Of the 208 people and five companies that have so far been charged, 180 people and four companies have been convicted or are awaiting sentencing.

In total, 100 people and four companies have been charged under Beijing’s national security law, with 79 persons and three companies convicted. Thirteen people have been charged under Article 23, 10 of whom have been convicted.

The Hong Kong government has filed an application to seize “offence-related” properties owned by jailed pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai on national security grounds.

The application to the High Court was filed on Thursday “in order to achieve the important objectives of preventing and suppressing acts and activities endangering national security,” the government said in a statement.

It is unclear what the properties are.

The statement mentioned Lai’s earlier convictions under the Beijing-imposed national security law, saying the High Court had found that he was the “mastermind and driving force behind the case, consciously using Apple Daily and his personal influence” to undermine local and Beijing authorities.

The announcement comes a week after the government designated three companies linked to Lai’s now-defunct Apple Daily tabloid “prohibited organisations” and removed them from the corporate registry.

Police cordoned off the Apple Daily building in Tseung Kwan O a day later.

The three firms were tried and convicted alongside the Apple Daily founder in his high-profile national security case. Lai was sentenced to 20 years behind bars while the firms were each fined HK$3,004,500.

Thursday’s statement cited a national security law provision that proceeds obtained from security offences, “including financial aid, gains and rewards, and funds and tools used or intended to be used in the commission of the offence shall be seized and confiscated.”

The High Court will order the forfeiture order “only if it is satisfied, after an application is made by the Secretary for Justice, that the property to be forfeited meets relevant conditions.”

The forfeiture order would cut “funding chains” and prevent further acts that could endanger national security, the statement read.

Six former Apple Daily executives were jailed alongside Lai for up to 10 years. Two of them, Fung Wai-kong and Lam Man-chung, have lodged an appeal.

The jailing of the media tycoon and his staff has drawn international rebuke. United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk deplored the 20-year jail sentence handed to Lai, demanding that the verdict be “promptly quashed”.

In contrast, Hong Kong officials and lawmakers have lauded the jail term. Chief Executive John Lee said Lai “deserves his punishment,” adding that the tycoon had “committed numerous heinous crimes and his evil deeds were beyond measure.”