HK Cops Nab Feisty 90-Year-Old Cardinal For Criticizing Beijing

Cardinal Joseph Zen, the 90-year-old Catholic cleric arrested by Hong Kong police on national security charges, has long been a fiery critic of Beijing’s control of religion and political monopoly, along with efforts by the Vatican to reach a working arrangement with the ruling Communist Party, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Photo Insert: 90-year-old Catholic cleric and former Archbishop of Cardinal Joseph Zen left a police station on bail Wednesday night following his arrest alongside other former trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Support Fund.

Zen left a police station on bail Wednesday night following his arrest alongside other former trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Support Fund, which provides assistance to people arrested during the 2019 anti-government protests.

The former Hong Kong archbishop has not yet commented on his arrest.

A police statement said the former trustees were suspected of endangering national security by making requests of foreign countries or overseas agencies and calling for sanctions against the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Widely condemned abroad, the arrests further a campaign to quash all forms of dissent in the city under the sweeping national security law passed in 2020, a year after authorities subdued pro-democracy protests that challenged China’s rule over Hong Kong.

The crackdown is increasingly penetrating into the city’s long-respected economic, religious and educational institutions, along with non-governmental organizations, many of which have closed down their Hong Kong operations.

The city was promised to keep freedom of speech, assembly, and judicial independence when it was handed over from Britain to China in 1997, but critics say Beijing has reneged on its guarantees.

China’s Foreign Ministry fired back at the criticism, with spokesperson Zhao Lijian saying, “We are firmly opposed to any act that denigrates the rule of law in Hong Kong and interferes in Hong Kong affairs.”

He added: “Hong Kong is a law-based society, where no organization or individual is above the law, and all illegal acts will be punished by law.” Separately, the ministry’s office in Hong Kong issued a statement saying that “safeguarding national security is justified, foreign interference is purely in vain.”

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