Hong Kong activist said national security law is used for political repression

Hong Kong activist Agnes Chow said on Tuesday that the state's new national security law has been used for political repression after she was released on bail following her arrest.

The 23-year-old activist spoke in Japanese to the media outside a police station and showed her bail document. She was accompanied by fellow activist Joshua Wong. Chow was arrested on Monday along with 9 other people, including the owner of Hong Kong's Apple Daily tabloid, Jimmy Lai. Chow also said her fourth arrest was the scariest but that nonetheless she would continue to fight from Hong Kong's democracy. "In the last 24 hours, I haven't heard the reason and how I violated the national security law or participated in an event against the law," she added.

The activist was one of the former leaders of young activist Joshua Wong's Demosisto pro-democracy group, which disbanded before the new law came into force. The sweeping security law imposed on June 30 punishes anything China considers secession, subversion, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.

The city's Beijing-backed government and Chinese authorities say the law is necessary to restore order after months of at times violent anti-government protests last year, sparked by fears China was slowly eroding those freedoms.

Hong Kong has since become another source of contention between the United States and China, whose relations were already at their most strained in years over issues including trade, the coronavirus, China's treatment of its Uighur Muslim minority and its claims in the South China Sea.