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| - A Hong Kong man and his mother have been arrested on suspicion of "inciting secession" from China on social media, police said Friday, under a new security law that punishes the offence with up to life imprisonment. Police initially raided the home of the pair following a tip-off they were selling gun parts, and found military knives, a pepper ball launcher and an extendable baton, said senior superintendent Li Kwai-wah. Following preliminary investigations, the case was taken up by a special police unit set up under a sweeping new national security law imposed by Beijing on semi-autonomous Hong Kong after pro-democracy protests rocked the city last year, said Li, who heads the unit. Police found the pair had shared "anti-communist" and pro-Hong Kong independence posts, illegal under the new law that criminalises secession, subversion, terrorism and colluding with foreign forces. "They have a lot of materials calling for independence and disseminating hatred," Li said. The posts were shared after the national security law came into effect, he added. Twenty-nine people, including pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai and prominent activist Agnes Chow, have been arrested under the law since it was imposed on Hong Kong on 30 June. Hong Kong's administration insists the law has not impinged on the rights to freedom of speech and assembly guaranteed to the territory when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Yet certain opinions and expressions in previously free-wheeling Hong Kong have become illegal, and activists have spoken of a chilling effect that has seen books yanked from libraries and publishers rush to amend their titles. yz/rma
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