Hong Kong : Hong Kong authorities arrested a Roman Catholic cardinal, a singer and two others on Wednesday on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces to endanger China’s national security, reports said. Cardinal Joseph Zen, singer Denise Ho, lawyer Margaret Ng and scholar Hui Po-keung were detained by Hong Kong’s National Security Police, the UK-based human rights group Hong Kong Watch said.The arrests were apparently related to their roles as trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, which provided legal aid to people who took part in 2019 pro-democracy protests that were quashed by security forces, the group said. The fund closed in 2021, it said. Scores of pro-democracy activists have been arrested under a sweeping National Security Law imposed on the city by Beijing in 2020.
Zen, the retired archbishop of Hong Kong, is a fierce critic of China and has been blistering in his condemnation of the Vatican’s 2018 agreement with Beijing over bishop nominations, which he has said was a sellout of underground Christians in China. The Vatican didn’t immediately respond when asked for comment on the reported arrests.