Committee members from the HK Alliance in a press conference on September 6. Image via Stand News. Used with permission. The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China (HK Alliance), the host of annual vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, is being investigated under Hong Kong's national security law after the police labelled the group a ‘political organization’ and a ‘foreign agent’ on August 25, 2021. The Alliance rejected the labels and refused to provide information that police officials requested. Citing article 43 of the national security law, the police accused the HK Alliance of being a ‘foreign agent’ and demanded the HK Alliance hand over information about its executive committee members, their identities, the group's income sources, activities and meetings since 2014. The police specifically demanded details of activities and communications that involved the Canada-based Federation for a Democratic China, Taipei- and Hong Kong-based New School for Democracy, Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, Seoul-based Asia Democracy Network, Apple Daily via Mark Herman Simon, US-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and four other organizations funded by the NED. The Hong Kong-based New School for Democracy and China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group also received similar requests from the police. Both organizations asked the police a deferment in response to the requests. On September 8, the police arrested at least four HK Alliance committee members for refusing to turn over the information and failing to comply with the national security investigation request. The news outlet 852 Spirit reported on Twitter: 0800: after refusing to provide data to NSD [National Security Department] yesterday, #HKAlliance multiple committee members have been arrested this morning, including Leung Kam-wai, Chan Tor-wai and Vice President Chow Hang-Tung. #908HK #Hongkong #NationalSecurityLaw @nytimes @BBCBreaking https://t.co/2Q49Oe4Xyc pic.twitter.com/rBqbY1FRDc — The 852 Spirit (@the852spirit) September 8, 2021 On September 7, the HK Alliance presented a letter to the national security authority, stressing that the group is not a foreign agent and that the police authority’s demand violates the principle of ‘reasonable doubt‘, a legal standard of proof. On the same day, the HK Alliance also filed a judicial review over the police action. APF Hong Kong co-respondent Xinqi Su reported on Twitter: It wasn’t long before the HK Alliance reps finished handing in their letter and leaving the police HQs. Chow Hang-tung @zouxingtong said police warned they should follow the law and she told them to do the same. “It only applies to foreign agents, not any random target,” she said pic.twitter.com/0Z255AXYJL — Xinqi Su 蘇昕琪 (@XinqiSu) September 7, 2021 Barrister Chow Hang Tung, the vice-chairperson of the Alliance, explained the rationale behind the group's decision more thoroughly in an article published by Stand News on September 3. She called the police’s request for the group’s internal documents a ‘fishing expedition‘ to construct stories and conspiracies against civic groups and to invoke fear by labelling the group as ‘foreign agents’, which has a vague and arbitrary definition. According to National Security Law Article 43 implementation guidelines, the definition of ‘foreign agent’ refers to any person in Hong Kong who is directly or indirectly supervised, controlled, employed, subsidized or funded by a foreign government or foreign political organization. A political organization refers to any political party or organization that ‘pursues political ends’. Chow expressed her concern that nearly any organization can be categorised as a ‘political organization’ if they are pursuing policy changes: 以維護工人權益為目標的工會算不算有政治目的？追求社會公義的教會呢？推動扶貧呢？教育呢？性別平權呢？法治呢？…會花費大量資源去推動政策改變的科技巨頭呢？商會呢？ What about labour unions that defend workers’ rights, will they be considered pursuing political ends? What about churches that pursue social justice and poverty alleviation? What about groups that work on education, gender equity and rule of law? … And those internet giants and business associations that spend a huge amount of resources to promote policy change? Chow also pointed out that when a civic group is labelled as political, then it can easily fall into the category of ‘foreign agent’, while international organizations which are based in Hong Kong could easily fall into this legal trap: 那麼最受影響的大概就是各種國際組織的職員 — 只要機構被定性為「政治性組織」，受資者、受薪者的「代理人」身份就跑不掉。難怪國際組織似乎都準備要撤出香港了，它們一日在港運作，一日就有被迫交出整個組織隱私的風險。 Employees of international organizations would be affected the most.