In April 2018, the Security Bureau established the Inter-departmental Counter Terrorism Unit. In retrospect, this move was both prescient and wise, and reflects well on the bureau’s then-head, John Lee Ka-chiu. At that time, nobody could have imagined that an insurrection would be launched by anti-China forces in just over a year’s time, but the best planners must always try to anticipate the unexpected. Once the insurrection got underway, on June 9, 2019, its controllers deployed terror-style tactics on an almost daily basis, and they inflicted massive harm on the city, including its economy.
But although the fanatics failed to destroy the “one country, two systems” policy, it was certainly not for want of trying. While their levels of violence were staggering, their methodology was brutality incarnate, leaving both bloodshed and destruction in its wake. Once they realized, however, quite early on, that conventional violence alone could not succeed, they turned to international terrorism for inspiration and found what they wanted. Indeed, the Police Force handled 187 explosives cases in 2019 alone, a 60 percent increase on 2018.
From the outset, however, those seeking to destroy Hong Kong faced significant, and ultimately insuperable obstacles. These included not only the heroism of the Police Force on the streets, but also the efforts of the ICTU in the backrooms. The ICTU comprises experts from the six law enforcement authorities, namely, the Police Force, the Immigration Department, Customs and Excise, Correctional Services, Fire Services and the Government Flying Service. Its mandate includes improving counterterrorism strategies, developing specialized counterterrorism training, intelligence gathering, emergency response, education and publicity, and these all played their part in saving the city.
In 2019, the protest movement’s separatist elements acquired vast quantities of explosives and weaponry from various sources, and they stood ready, once instructed, to use them on the community. In July 2019, for example, the police seized 1 kilogram of triacetone triperoxide at a Tsuen Wan storage unit used by the pro-independence Hong Kong National Front, along with 10 petrol bombs and associated paraphernalia. When one culprit, Louis Lo Yat-sun, pleaded guilty in 2021 to keeping explosives intended to endanger life or property, the judge said he had planned to subvert the government and create panic in society, and sentenced him to 12 years’ imprisonment. In November 2019, moreover, further quantities of TATP, this time in powder form, were seized at the Caritas Ma On Shan Secondary School, with students claiming its source was a black-clad individual in Mong Kok.
In 2019-21, a period of hatred, violence and horror gave way to one of decency, stability and hope. This came about not only because of the bravery of the Police Force and a law to protect national security, but also through the resolve of people of goodwill throughout the country, united in their determination to preserve the “one country, two systems” policy
What made those seizures so concerning was that TATP is the explosive of choice of the global terrorist movement. It was used to devastating effect in, for example, the London bombings of 2005, the Paris bombings of 2015, and the Sri Lanka bombings of 2019, and this was precisely why the fanatics in Hong Kong wanted it so badly. Whether manufactured locally or imported, the fact that the secessionists had got their hands on TATP served as a warning to everybody involved in public safety. It demonstrated the lengths to which the protest movement, aided and abetted by its foreign backers, was prepared to go, and the seizures also highlighted a wider threat.
In the months immediately following the launch of the insurrection in June 2019, the police investigated 15 significant bomb cases. In March 2020, approximately 2.6 metric tons of explosive-related chemicals were seized, although, by that time, hostile operations were supposedly being scaled back. Explosives apart, there were also significant seizures of assault rifles, handguns and bomb-making equipment, but much went undetected. Although some suspects were arrested, many were not, and the police lacked the legal tools they needed to fully combat the multifaceted threats the city faced.
This changed, however, with the enactment of the National Security Law for Hong Kong, on June 30, 2020. In consequence, the Police Force acquired tailor-made laws to counter a variety of crimes, including terrorism, and the impact was immediate and profound. Not only was stability returned to the city, but many of those involved in the terrorist outrages and planning of 2019-20 either fled, recanted or went to ground. It would, however, be a huge mistake for the city to let its guard down now, or to imagine that the threats have gone away, as recent events have shown.
On June 29, the police arrested two people suspected of possessing weapons and explosive substances, and believed to have been planning attacks on prominent figures and police stations. And on July 1, presumably as a precaution, but maybe due to intelligence, the Counter Terrorism Response Unit was deployed while the city marked the 24th anniversary of its reunification with China. This was just as well, as events that day demonstrated.
In the early hours of July 1, bottles of combustible material were thrown near the Government House, causing a fire, and the bomb squad was called in. In the evening, a black-clad assailant, who subsequently took his own life, stabbed a police officer on crowd control duty in the back in Causeway Bay, an atrocity described by the secretary for security, Chris Tang Ping-keung, as “a lone-wolf style act of domestic terrorism”.
After the attack, some University of Hong Kong students declared their appreciation of the attacker’s “sacrifice”, which, while despicable, was also instructive. It showed not only how terrorism still has its sympathizers in the city, but also the extent to which the minds of young people have been poisoned by anti-China forces, whether directly or through social media. It also highlighted the failings of an education system that, by neglecting to teach its students right from wrong, let alone social responsibility, has created big problems for the community.
In July, moreover, the police, on successive days, arrested 14 suspects, some school students, in connection with their investigation into the pro-independence group Returning Valiant. The group was allegedly hatching a terrorist plot to bomb courts, tunnels and streets, with one of those arrested believed to have been responsible for arranging the purchase of bomb-making equipment. Indeed, in one of their raids, the police discovered that a room in a Tsim Sha Tsui guesthouse had been turned into a makeshift explosives factory, and significant seizures were made. They included traces of explosives, two bottles of liquid chemicals, and, perhaps most alarming of all, equipment needed to make TATP, the explosive chemical beloved of the protest movement in 2019.
On July 14, however, at the Legislative Council, Tang said there was no need to raise the threat of terrorist attack above the “moderate” level. This grading, he explained, meant that “there is a possibility of an attack, but there is no specific intelligence suggesting that Hong Kong is likely to be a target”. This, of course, was reassuring, but he added the caveat that “a handful of extremists have not given up”, and that some of them have “planned actual acts of violence”.
The ICTU, moreover, as Tang disclosed, has also been “highly vigilant”, for which everybody should be grateful, not least because this will have contributed to the “moderate” threat assessment. It has, he said, enhanced Hong Kong’s counterterrorism and response capability in various ways, including counterterrorism exercises and enhanced patrols, and the police themselves subsequently elaborated on this.
On July 18, the commissioner of police, Raymond Siu Chak-yee, announced that the Police Force will be working with the MTR Corp, shopping malls and hotels in conducting anti-terror drills. High-profile patrols will also be stepped up, complemented by officers in plain clothes. He said the police “have raised their guard”, but emphasized that the fight against those endangering national security was not to be undertaken by the disciplined services alone. It was, he explained, also necessary for “the whole of Hong Kong to take part”, and nobody in their right mind could disagree with the need for multisector, communitywide efforts to protect the city and the nation.
In 2019-21, a period of hatred, violence and horror gave way to one of decency, stability and hope. This came about not only because of the bravery of the Police Force and a law to protect national security, but also through the resolve of people of goodwill throughout the country, united in their determination to preserve the “one country, two systems” policy. Anti-China forces, however, are still a danger, and every citizen who cares for Hong Kong must be as vigilant in its defense as are the law enforcement agencies themselves.
The author is a senior counsel, law professor and criminal justice analyst, and was previously the director of public prosecutions of the Hong Kong SAR.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.