On Wednesday, Hong Kong police arrested 53 former lawmakers and democracy advocates for allegedly breaching the new national security law by participating in last year's unofficial election primaries for the territory's legislature.

Including former lawmakers, the mass arrests have been the biggest step against Hong Kong's democratic movement since Beijing introduced the law last June to quell dissent in the semi-autonomous territory.

John Lee, Hong Kong’s security minister, said, "The operation today targets the active elements who are suspected to be involved in the crime of overthrowing, or interfering (and) seriously destroy the Hong Kong government’s legal execution of duties,” 

Those who were arrested were suspected of paralyzing the government via their plans to secure a majority of the seats in the legislature to establish a condition in which the chief executive had to resign and the government would stop working.

In a video posted on his Facebook page by former lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting, police arrived at his house and informed him that he was "suspected of breaching the national security law, subverting state power." Police ordered the recordings to stop or risk arrest.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, who cited public health threats after the coronavirus pandemic, delayed the parliamentary election for a year. Pro-democracy lawmakers' mass resignations and disqualifications have made the legislature essentially a pro-Beijing assembly.

Lee said the police would not target those who voted in the unofficial primaries that took place last July and attracted more than 600,000 voters, even though pro-Beijing lawmakers and politicians had warned that the event might infringe the security law.

 According to tallies of the South China Morning Post's arrests being reported, online platform Now News, and political groups, All of the pro-democracy candidates in the unofficial primaries were arrested.

At least seven members, including former party chairman Wu Chi-wai, were arrested of Hong Kong's largest Democratic party. According to a post on the party's Facebook page, former lawmakers Lam, Helena Wong, and James To were also arrested.

The main organizer of the primaries, Benny Tai,  was also arrested, reports said. 

Joshua Wong, a pro-democratic activist who is serving 13.5 months in prison for organizing an unauthorized protest last year, had his house raided.

Human Rights Lawyer from America was also arrested on Wednesday. “We need to work for democracy and human rights in Hong Kong,” Clancey said as he was being led away by police, in a video posted by local online news outlet Citizen News.

According to a live streaming video by Stand News, police also went to the offices of Stand News, a popular pro-democracy online news website in Hong Kong, with a court order to hand over records to help with an investigation linked to national security law. There were no arrests made.

Among those detained, Lee also pointed to a "10 steps to mutual destruction" initiative that involved seizing control of the legislature, mobilizing demonstrations to paralyze society, and pushing for foreign sanctions.

Among some protestors and pro-democracy activists, the notion of mutual destruction in which both Hong Kong and China will suffer harm is common.

“The plot is to create such mutual destruction that if successful ... will result in serious damage to society as a whole,” Lee said. “That is why police action today is necessary.”

45 men and eight women, aged between 23 and 79, were arrested in an operation that involved 1,000 officers, Senior Supt. Steve Li from the national security unit said.

Out of the six were arrested for subverting state power by organizing the unofficial primaries while the remaining were arrested for participating in the event.

Leong said the arrests were an “affront to the constitutionally protected rights to vote” in Hong Kong.

“We don’t see how by promising to exercise such rights could end them up as being subversive,” he added.

Beijing is in support of the Hong Kong police for carrying out their duties per the law.

“The rights and freedom Hong Kong people enjoyed have not been affected in any way,” Hua said... “What was affected was that some external forces and individual people in Hong Kong colluded with each other in an attempt to undermine the stability and security of China.”

Several pro-democracy activists have been jailed in recent months. The state criminalizes acts of subversion, secession, terrorism, and collusion with the help of foreign powers to intervene in the city’s affairs. Serious offenders might end up being in jail for a lifetime.