Joshua Wong Is Smearing Us, Protests Police Chief

Police Commissioner Chris Tang used a media briefing on Wednesday to complain that pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong has been "smearing" the force, insisting that his officers had not conspired with the mainland to capture 12 young Hongkongers as they allegedly tried to flee to Taiwan.

Tang failed to confirm or deny reports that police were involved in a Government Flying Service operation in the area where the 12 were believed to have been travelling in a speedboat before they were picked up by the Guangdong coast guard on August 23.

"We have many police operations every day, and in order to ensure the integrity of our police operations, we cannot disclose our police operations in detail," the police chief said in response to a reporter's question.

But Tang insisted that officers were not involved in the arrest of the 12.

"This is solely a mainland authorities' operation. It has nothing to do with Hong Kong police," Tang said

Last week, pro-democracy activists including Wong said they had obtained documents which appeared to show the police were involved in a mission by the Government Flying Service to track the speedboat before it was intercepted.

Wong also said there had been a "conspiracy by authorities to kidnap 12 Hong Kong activists to China for secret trial and detention".

But Tang described this as a "malicious accusation by Joshua Wong", insisting the police had not "conspired to kidnap" the 12, who he referred to as criminals even though they are yet to be convicted of an offence.

"It is very obvious that no one kidnapped them. They did their own abscondment away from criminal proceedings in Hong Kong," he said.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday evening, Wong accused the authorities of evading questions about the police’s involvement. He said internal documents he obtained clearly showed the police’s role in the Government Flying Service operation that day.

Ten of the Hongkongers detained in Shenzhen are accused of entering mainland waters illegally, while the other two face a more serious charge of organising an illegal border crossing.

Before their detention, 11 had been facing prosecution in Hong Kong over alleged protest-related offences, and one had been arrested under the national security law.

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