Au Kam San’s residence was removed from his residence on Wednesday, according to a statement released on Thursday by Macau’s police.
In 1999, the former Portuguese colony reverted to Chinese rule through a “One Country, Two Systems” framework that promised a high degree of autonomy and rights protections.
Au, 68, is one of the most prominent democratic campaigners in Macau and has spent nearly 20 years as a member of the former Portuguese colony. Before quitting the Macau legislature in 2021, he spent 20 years there.
Local media outlets reported that the man arrested was the campaigner, and Au’s wife showed up at the prosecution’s office on Thursday and was listed as a “witness,” according to online outlet All About Macau.
The resident has allegedly communicated with an anti-China organization abroad since 2022, giving the organization numerous fabricated and obscene information for public exhibitions both abroad and online, according to the police statement.
The police did not identify the foreign organization Au was speaking with, but claimed Au had also sought to “provoke hostile actions by foreign countries against Macau” and to “incite hatred against Beijing, disrupt a 2024 election for the leader of Macau.”
Au’s and his wife’s availability for comment was unknown.
In the tiny gambling hub that reverted from Portuguese rule to Chinese rule in 1999, two years after the nearby former British colony of Hong Kong was renamed after it was handed back to China, Au had long championed democratic reforms and contributed to civil society initiatives.
The democratic opposition in the once-dominant former Portuguese colony has always existed in isolation from the strict Chinese Communist Party’s rule, unlike Hong Kong, where big social movements have challenged its rule in 2014 and 2019.
Au had spearheaded protests and railed against opaque government and growing social disparities throughout the city, where about 700,000 people live.
As a teacher, Au was one of the founding members of a number of pro-democracy organizations, including the New Macau Association.
Authorities in the neighboring Hong Kong are continuing to impose strong national security laws to deter dissent, including those that have been used to detain activists, shut down media outlets, and suppress civil society organizations.
Although Beijing’s attempts to retake control of Hong Kong were actively contested by the country’s democratic party, Macau’s government has faced far less public scrutiny as a result, with authorities able to enact a comprehensive set of national security laws as early as 2009 despite this fact.
In order to improve the prevention of foreign interference, this law was amended in 2023 to align Macau with comparable laws in Hong Kong and China.
Source: Aljazeera
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