Four different cases of harassment were reported in Hong Kong less than a day before the start of the planned July 1 march to mark the handover of Hong Kong back to China under Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule. Two individuals, one political party and a radio station are known to have been targeted so far.
The two individuals were Joshua Wong, the iconic figure from the 2014 Umbrella Movement and the secretary general of the pro-democracy party Demosistō, and Tony Chung, convener of the pro-independence group Student Localism, according to local media The Stand News.
Wong said that he had been receiving calls to his cellphone every three seconds beginning from around 7:50 a.m. local time on July 1. The repeated calls prevented him from using his cellphone.
According to Wong, all the numbers used to call his cellphone have been different.
Chung reported that he had faced the same phone harassment from around 8:02 a.m. local time. He has since uploaded screenshots of the phone numbers that called his phone to his Facebook page.
Both Wong and Chung added that they had to switch their phones to “airplane mode” to avoid the incessant calls.
On Chung’s Facebook page, a Facebook user named “Acr Varok Footman” commented that those who were calling could have been wanting to know his location, and suggest he either get a new SIM card or set up a white list that would only allow specified callers to reach him.
Other Facebook users reacted to news of the phone harassment by blaming the Chinese regime’s infamous “50-cent” army, who Facebook user Sandra Lee explained were the kinds of people that get paid for making phone calls.
Another user continued to mock China for “deploying its ‘national stability’ apparatus.”
The 50 Cent Army—a massive group of freelance online agitators hired by the CCP—scour the web, harass dissenters, and “guide public opinion” in favor of the Chinese regime. As the name implies, 50 centers are paid 0.5 yuan ($0.08) for each post they make online that defends the regime or attacks its critics.
The Kowloon Bay office of the Democratic political coalition People Power reported an overnight break the morning of July 1 after finding that many of the props they had made for displaying in the march had been damaged, according to The Stand News. An unknown pungent liquid was also reported to have been spilled across the office’s floor.
People Power said the break in was a move to intended to oppress the ongoing protest in Hong Kong and their freedom of speech.
Citizens’ Radio, a non-profit radio broadcaster founded by the pan-democratic coalition, stated that four unidentified men, each wearing a facial mask, broke into its office at around 2:30 a.m. on July 1, according to The Stand News.
One of its staff was at the office at the time and was threatened by the four men. One of the men wielding a hammer, one holding a softball bat, and another holding pipe, smashed the office’s glass doors and tables.
From The Epoch Times
