Macau democrat arrested for colluding with foreign forces, police say
By James Pomfret and Jessie Pang
Hong Kong (Reuters) -Bin Kamar Hub, according to a police statement, a leading Macau Democrat, Au Kam San, was arrested for a collision to endanger national security with foreign powers.
AU 68, Au, is one of Macau’s leading democratic campaignists who have been working as a deputy for about twenty years.
Macau police said that a suspect who robbed AU was taken from his residence for an investigation on Wednesday.
“The Resident has been allegedly in contact with an anti-China organization abroad since 2022 and provides a large amount of false and seductive information to the group abroad and for online public exhibitions.” He said.
AU also provokes hatred against Beijing, to disrupt the election of the 2024 election for the leader of Macau, and “to provoke hostile actions of foreign countries against Macau” he added.
Au and his wife could not be reached immediately for comment.
Over the years, AU has defended democratic reforms and helped to encourage civil society initiatives in small settlers who returned from the Portuguese to China in 1999 – two years after the neighboring old Hong Kong colonies were returned to China.
Unlike Hong Kong, who saw that the major social movements in 2014 and 2019 challenge the Chinese Communist Party administration, the democratic opposition in the old Portuguese colony ruled by China has always existed on the eaves under the control of strict Chinese control.
Macau’s explosion to one of the largest gambling centers in the world with the game receipts exceeding Las Vegas was stained by public corruption cases including senior officials such as Ao Man Long and Ho Chio Meng.
Over the years, AU has pioneered protests and was afraid of opaque governance and increasing social inequalities, even if gambling income exploded in about 680,000 cities.
AU was one of the founders of many pro -democracy groups, including the New Macau Association, and worked as a teacher.
This movement in Macau comes as it continues to suppress in opposition under two powerful national security laws used to imprison officials, activists, shutter media organizations and civil society groups in neighboring Hong Kong.
Hong Kong’s democrats have actively challenged the attempts to balance the control of the city since Beijing’s return to the Chinese administration, while the Makao government officials faced much less public examination that could adopt a comprehensive national security law such as 2009.
This law was amended in 2023 to comply with similar laws in Hong Kong and China and to support the prevention of foreign intervention.
(Additional reports by Farah Master; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Michael Perry)
