Apple Daily, Hong Kong's leading editorial writer, was arrested on Wednesday after five officers were rounded up in a new muscular national security statute, arrested and frozen.
The police reported that a 55-year-old man "was arrested for alleged collusion with foreign forces to threaten national security."
The arrested man writes Apple Daily essays under the pen name Li Ping from a police source.
Apple Daily told the editorial Board that Li Peng, who is surnamed Yeung, is one of the leading columnists and writers of their editorials.
Display records Over the last five years, Li Ping has written almost 800 comments. On Tuesday the latest issue touched on the freedoms of academia in mainland China.
The arrest broadened Apple Daily's police operation, which is under fear of imminent closure.
Beijing's outspoken tabloid has been a thorn for many years, and the city's pro-democracy movement does not apologize and Chinese authoritarian officials have been critical of it.
Jimmy Lai, its owner, is in jail and was one of the first to be indicted under security law following Beijing last year, following massive protests against democracy in 2019.
More than 500 police officers searched daily last Thursday, saying that the authorities are asking for sanctions against China in articles and columns.
Five officers were taken into custody under the charge of cooperating with foreign forces, including Chief Editor Ryan Law and CEO Cheung Kim-hung.
Law and Cheung were charged and placed in prison on Saturday.
Authorities also froze the security law of HK$1.8 million (US$2.3m), which paralyzes the paper's capacity to remain operational.
The security law, created in Peking and enforced on Hong Kong in June of last year, empowers authorities to freeze any person or company's assets in an international commercial center that is considered a threat to security.
No judicial order is necessary.
The Next Digital parent group board members petitioned the Security Bureau of Hong Kong to unfreeze certain of their assets so they can pay personnel.
If this isn't the case, the paper stated that it would stop publishing on Friday with the last print date.
The paper's union said in a Facebook update that it said Saturday would be the last year if management decided to fold.
Since then they have announced a stop to the publishing of the paper, its financial news department, it is English edition, and the weekly journal of the media company.
Apple Daily's articles or columns that were regarded to be a national safety offense have not been published by the authorities.
On Friday, Li Ping wrote in an Editorial that authorities in Hong Kong were painting a 'red line' around journalism and warned it was now 'precarious' for the future of press freedom in Hong Kong.
