Four leaders of the group that organised annual Tiananmen Square commemorations in Hong Kong were arrested after refusing to co-operate in a national security investigation.
The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China had openly challenged the enforcement of the 14-month-old national security law, saying the police are arbitrarily labelling pro-democracy organisations as foreign agents.
The alliance organised candlelight vigils in Hong Kong on the anniversary of China's bloody crackdown on protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989.
The event was attended annually by massive crowds, but authorities have banned the vigils for the past two years, saying they violate coronavirus restrictions.
Leaders delivered a letter to police on Tuesday rejecting a request for details of the group's operations and finances.
Police earlier warned that failure to comply could result in a fine of 100,000 Hong Kong dollars (£9,300) and up to six months in jail.
There was no immediate announcement from police on the arrests, and police did not respond to a request for comment.
Hong Kong authorities have cracked down on dissent following mass anti-government protests in 2019.
Chow Hang-tung, one of the four arrested, began a series of posts on Facebook shortly before 7am on Wednesday, beginning with two Facebook livestreams during which she says that some people have been ringing the doorbell.
Ms Chow, a lawyer, appears to be in her office, and muffled shouting could be heard in the background.
"The worst thing about being arrested is that I've not changed into a new set of clothes or brushed my teeth, will my breath overwhelm the national security police?" she wrote in one post.
The group said on Tuesday the police do not have a right to request information from the group because it is not a foreign agent and that authorities did not provide sufficient justification in their request.
"This association believes that the issuance of the letter has no legal basis, so we will not provide any information requested in the letter," the committee said.
Police are investigating the alliance for allegedly working for foreign interests.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday that law enforcement agents may request information from suspected foreign agents or foreign political organisations in accordance with the law.
"If someone openly says that they will flout the law, they can't call themselves a civic society group," Mrs Lam said.
Dozens of pro-democracy activists have been arrested in the crackdown, and the city has amended electoral laws to increase the number of seats for pro-Beijing legislators while reducing those that are directly elected.
Critics say the national security law, which has been used to arrest over 100 people, rolls back freedoms promised to the former British colony when it was handed over to mainland China in 1997.
Hong Kong was promised freedoms not found on the mainland for 50 years, such as freedom of speech and assembly.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here