Macau democrat arrested for colluding with foreign forces, police say

Reuters

5 days ago

HONG KONG, July 31 (Reuters) - A leading Macau democrat, Au Kam San, has been arrested for collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security, according to a police statement on Thursday in the China-ruled gambling hub.
Au, 68, is one of Macau's most prominent democratic campaigners who served for nearly two decades as a lawmaker.
Macau's police said in a statement that a suspect surnamed Au had been taken from his residence for investigation on Wednesday.
"The resident has allegedly been in contact with an anti-China organisation abroad since 2022, providing the group with large amounts of false and seditious information, for public exhibitions overseas and online," the statement said.
The statement added Au had also sought to incite hatred against Beijing, disrupt a 2024 election for Macau's leader and to "provoke hostile actions by foreign countries against Macau".
Au and his wife couldn't be immediately reached for comment.
Through the years, Au had championed democratic reforms and helped foster civil society initiatives in the tiny enclave that returned from Portuguese to Chinese rule in 1999 -- two years after the neighbouring former British colony of Hong Kong was handed back to China.
Unlike Hong Kong which has seen big social movements challenge Chinese Communist Party rule in 2014 and 2019, the democratic opposition in the China-ruled former Portuguese colony has always existed on the fringes amid tight Chinese control.
Macau's boom into one of the world's biggest gambling hubs, with gaming receipts exceeding Las Vegas, has also been tainted by public corruption cases involving senior officials such as Ao Man Long and Ho Chio Meng.
Through the years, Au had led protests and railed against opaque governance and rising social inequalities even as gambling revenues exploded in the city of around 680,000.
Au was one of the founders of several pro-democracy groups including the New Macau Association, and had worked as a schoolteacher.
This move in Macau comes as authorities in neighbouring Hong Kong continue to crackdown on dissent under two sets of powerful national security laws that have been used to jail activists, shutter media outlets and civil society groups.
While Hong Kong's democrats had actively challenged Beijing's attempts to ratchet up control of the city since its return to Chinese rule, Macau's government has faced far less public scrutiny, with authorities able to enact a sweeping set of national security laws as early as 2009.
This law was amended in 2023, to bring it in line with similar laws in Hong Kong and China and to bolster the prevention of foreign interference.