Asia Bureau Chiefhong: Last News

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefHong Kong police on Wednesday arrested and detained another senior editor from the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily.The police confirmed in a statement that the man was arrested by its National Security department and said that he was suspected of collusion with a foreign country to endanger national security.He was not named by the police, but local media have identified him as Lee Man-chung, executive editor-in-chief of Apple Daily. He is the eighth Apple Daily staff member to be arrested after an initial round-up of five executives and the subsequent arrest of two editorial writers.The paper, part of Next Digital, had its assets seized in June and was forced to close its print and online editions.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefHong Kong director Fruit Chan, who somehow manages to be an industry veteran and an enfant terrible at the same time, is currently in post-production on “Coffin Homes.” The film is a satirical horror anthology, that probes the city’s eternal housing problem, especially its micro dwellings known as cubicle apartments or coffin homes.Chan, who has long played in a social realist riff through titles including “Dumplings,” “The Midnight After” and Hollywood-Hong Kong,” takes the term literally and focuses his film on folks who are ready to live under the same roof as the dead.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefHong Kong police arrested prominent pro-democracy campaigner and newspaper mogul Jimmy Lai on Monday morning on charges of colluding with foreign forces, an offence under the new National Security Law.Later in the morning, more than 100 police officers raided the offices of Lai’s Next Media, publisher of the Apple Daily newspaper. The police said they were exercising a warrant issued by a magistrate.The National Security Law was drafted in Beijing and injected into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, taking immediate effect from July 1, the 23rd anniversary of the territory’s return from British colonial rule to Chinese sovereignty.