Ballot is first since Beijing cut number of directly elected seats and moved to control who can run

Hong Kong’s first “patriots only” legislative election on Sunday was marked by what could be a record low turnout – reflecting what critics said was widespread disapproval of recent changes to the electoral system and the wider national security crackdown in the city.

The polls, in which 153 candidates competed for 90 seats, were the first to be held since Beijing overhauled the city’s electoral processes earlier this year, reducing the ratio of directly elected seats and introducing a two-tiered candidate-vetting process by national security police and officials to ensure only “patriots” could administer the city.

Prosecutors successfully claim criticism of Hong Kong crackdown by US and UK shows Cheung Kim-hung has links to foreign political groups

A Hong Kong newspaper executive on trial for national security offences had his bail denied in part because of comments made by Dominic Raab after his arrest, which prosecutors cited as evidence of a “close association” with foreign political groups.

The ruling handed down on 5 November against Cheung Kim-hung, the former chief executive of Apple Daily’s parent company Next Digital Media, also cited the US awarding of a congressional medal to Cheung and his colleagues, and a statement by the US state department.

Lawyers say ruling is ‘highly significant’ and likely to impact future prosecutions amid intensifying national security crackdown

Hong Kong’s top court has quashed attempts by the city’s government to prosecute people for rioting or illegal assembly even without being present at the scene – a ruling lawyers described as a landmark.

The five-judge panel in Hong Kong’s court of final appeal, headed by chief justice Andrew Cheung, unanimously rejected an earlier ruling by a lower appeal court that people, such as supporters, could be criminally liable without being actually present under the common law doctrine of “joint enterprise”.

Tony Chung, the founder of a pro-independence group, was taken into custody in 2020 at a coffee shop close to the US consulate

A Hong Kong court has found the former leader of pro-independence group Studentlocalism guilty of secession and money laundering under the city’s sweeping national security law, after a plea bargain.

Tony Chung, 20, was charged with the offences in October last year and denied bail. Chung and two others were detained by unidentified men at a coffee shop near the US consulate early on 27 October. Chung’s supporters said at the time he had been intending to seek political asylum. They said Chung had submitted his paperwork weeks earlier, but fear of an imminent arrest prompted him to seek shelter at the consulate.