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Police had issued arrest warrants days earlier for eight
prominent overseas-based activists, including Britain-based
former Demosisto member Nathan Law, and offered bounties of HK$1
million ($128,000) for information leading to any arrest.
Citing unnamed sources, media in Hong Kong connected the four
men arrested on Wednesday to an online platform known as "Punish
Mee" that was allegedly used to provide financial aid to the
eight wanted activists overseas.
"Police do not rule out the possibility that more arrests will
be made," the police said in a statement on Thursday that
withheld the name of the latest man arrested, but gave his age
as 24 years.
One source with direct knowledge of the matter identified him as
Calvin Chu Yan-ho, a former member of Demosisto.
The pro-democracy group was disbanded in 2020, hours after China
imposed a national security law in Hong Kong. Its former leader,
Joshua Wong, was arrested January, 2021, and charged with
conspiracy to commit subversion for participating in an
unofficial primary election organised by democracy supporters.
Ivan Lam, a former Demosisto chairman, was reportedly among the
four men arrested on Wednesday.
China's enactment of a sweeping national security law in 2020
has been criticised as a tool of repression by governments
including the United States. Chinese authorities, however, say
it has restored stability in the city after protracted
pro-democracy protests in 2019.
(Reporting by James Pomfret and Jessie Pang; Editing by Simon
Cameron-Moore)
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