These graphics are based on research by Lydia Wong, Eric Yan-ho Lai, Charlotte Yeung, and Thomas Kellogg. The graphics are regularly updated, and earlier versions of them, along with analysis of the data, appear in “New Data Show Hong Kong’s National Security Arrests Follow a Pattern,” “Arrest Data Show National Security Law Has Dealt a Hard Blow to Free Expression in Hong Kong,” and “Three Years in, Hong Kong’s National Security Law Has Entrenched a New Status Quo.”
Individuals included in this data meet one or more of the following conditions:
- arrested by the NSD (the Hong Kong Police National Security Department);
- arrested or charged for an offense under the NSL (The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, which went into effect June 30, 2020);
- arrested or charged for a range of sedition-related offenses under section 10 of the Crimes Ordinance, including but not limited to “utterance of seditious words” and “conspiracy to publish seditious materials”; provisions for sedition in the SNSO replaced this law;
- arrested or charged under the SNSO (Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, enacted under Article 23 of the Basic Law on March 23, 2024).
In some cases, information about an individual’s arrest, charge, or conviction may be unclear or unavailable; this means that the number of individuals represented in certain graphics may not add up to the total number of individuals included in the data. When the month of an individual’s arrest, charge, or conviction is known but the exact date is not known, the date is listed as the first of the month.
Data cut-off date: July 1, 2024
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Note: Three companies, Apple Daily Limited, Apple Daily Printing Limited, and AD Internet Limited, were charged and their properties were frozen under the collusion provision of the NSL on June 18, 2021. The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China was charged with inciting subversion and its assets were frozen under the NSL on September 9, 2021. Stand News was charged with publishing seditious materials and the NSD froze its assets on December 29, 2021. This database does not include corporate entities.
Note: A previous version of this database included two individuals named Chu Kai-pong. The researchers have confirmed that this is the same person and he is now listed in the database in one entry and counted as one individual.
Correction: Previous versions of the graphic “Number of Individuals Arrested and/or Charged, by Type of NSL Provision” did not include four individuals arrested and/or charged with “advocating terrorism” in the total count of individuals arrested and/or charged with terrorism-related offenses. The current version of this graph reflects the corrected numbers.
Correction: A previous version of the graphic “Number of Individuals Denied Bail, out of All Individuals Arrested” was incorrectly titled as “Number of Individuals Denied Bail, out of All Individuals Charged” from February 3-5, 2023. It is now corrected.
Correction: A previous version of this database included Cheung Pui-sin and Choi Kai-min. Upon review, these individuals were not charged with sedition, charged under the NSL, or arrested by the NSD. They have been removed from the data.