{"id":572769,"date":"2021-06-24T12:36:45","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T16:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=572769"},"modified":"2021-06-24T12:36:48","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T16:36:48","slug":"china-kills-hong-kong-pro-democracy-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/china-kills-hong-kong-pro-democracy-newspaper\/","title":{"rendered":"China Kills Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fchina-kills-hong-kong-pro-democracy-newspaper%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=572769&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div readability=\"27.77358490566\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><a class href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/national-security\/\">National Security<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">Chinese authorities arrest writer critical of regime<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail-container relative lg:mr-24 w-full my-4 mb-8\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"736\" height=\"514\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1220789209_736x514-736x514-1.jpg\" class=\"w-full lazyload blur-up wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 736px) 100vw, 736px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-2361.jpeg 736w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/GettyImages-1220789209_736x514-300x210.jpg 300w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/GettyImages-1220789209_736x514-703x491.jpg 703w\" data-sizes=\"auto\"  style=\"display:none\"><figcaption class=\"absolute text-white p-4 w-full text-right text-xs bottom-0 bg-black opacity-75\">\n\t\t\t\tPro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai \/ Getty Images\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/jack-beyrer\/\" title=\"Posts by Jack Beyrer\" class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" rel=\"author\">Jack Beyrer<\/a> \u2022 June 24, 2021 12:30 pm<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div readability=\"68.788691902252\">\n<p>Chinese authorities on Wednesday forced the closure of a popular Hong Kong pro-democracy newspaper and arrested its lead editorial writer.<\/p>\n<p><em>Apple Daily<\/em>, a publication backed by imprisoned millionaire and Hong Kong democracy activist Jimmy Lai, folded following an extended financial and legal pressure campaign from the Chinese Communist Party. The newspaper was known for its anti-Beijing coverage. Police also arrested journalist Yeung Ching-kee, who under the pen name Li Ping wrote op-eds eviscerating the Chinese government for constricting press freedoms after taking over Hong Kong in 2020. Yeung was charged with conspiracy to collude with foreign governments.<\/p>\n<p>The closure comes less than a week after hundreds of police officers stormed the paper&#8217;s newsroom, froze its funds, and arrested five of its senior editors, using a controversial national security law once <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/national-security\/china-arrests-hong-kong-journalists-for-violating-law-that-was-praised-in-new-york-times-op-ed\/\">defended<\/a> in the pages of the <em>New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Abramowitz, president of the human rights nonprofit Freedom House, said the forced closure was an &#8220;unacceptable attack on press freedom&#8221; within Hong Kong.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Treating independent, fact-based journalism as a threat to national security is an unacceptable attack on press freedom and comes amid a wider crackdown on freedom of expression and freedom of assembly in Hong Kong,&#8221; Abramowitz <a href=\"https:\/\/freedomhouse.org\/article\/hong-kong-freedom-house-condemns-arrests-raid-apple-daily-newspaper\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a>. &#8220;Democratic nations should not only publicly condemn the Hong Kong authorities\u2019 relentless pace of arrests on dubious national security charges, but back up their statements with coordinated, tangible support for civil and human rights in Hong Kong.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>Apple Daily<\/em> was one of Hong Kong\u2019s last bastions of anti-regime activism. Since the June 2020 release of a national security law backed by the mainland, the Chinese Communist Party has swiftly marched through the city&#8217;s pro-democracy political and social institutions. Local authorities backed by China <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/national-security\/hong-kong-sentences-pro-democracy-activists-to-prison\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sentenced<\/a> several pro-democracy activists to prison in April. The month before, party officials <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/national-security\/beijing-tightens-grip-on-hong-kong-legislature\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">effectively banned<\/a> pro-democracy candidates from running for office.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>National Security Chinese authorities arrest writer critical of regime  Pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai \/ Getty Images  Jack Beyrer \u2022 June 24, 2021 12:30 &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2281217,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1220789209_736x514-736x514-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"China Kills Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Newspaper","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-572769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1220789209_736x514-736x514-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"China Kills Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Newspaper","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2281217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}