The Apple Daily, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy newspaper, increased its production on Friday—a day after hundreds of police raided its office and arrested top executives for breaking Beijing’s controversial national security law.
Reuters reported that the paper increased its number of copies to 500,000 from 80,000 a day earlier. The paper ran a cover story about the raid and how police seized dozens of hard disk drives for evidence.The paper said five of its executives were arrested for breaking Article 29 of Beijing’s national security law, which prohibits “collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security.”
The law has been used to arrest over a hundred pro-democracy figures since it was first implemented in June last year. Thursday’s raid will do little to temper the concerns of many in the city about their freedoms and future.
One Hong Konger who purchased a few copies of the paper told Reuters that he did so to “preserve the history.”
“Hang in there as long as we can,” he said. “Although the road is rough, we still need to walk it, as there’s no other road.”
