Editor's note: Tom Fowdy is a British political and international relations analyst and a graduate of Durham and Oxford universities. He writes on topics pertaining to China, the DPRK, Britain, and the U.S. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.
编者按：汤姆·福迪（Tom Fowdy）是英国政治和国际关系分析家。他毕业于达勒姆大学和牛津大学，研究中国、朝鲜、英国以及美国问题并撰写文章。本文仅为作者本人观点，不一定代表CGTN立场。
News emerged Friday that Hong Kong billionaire Jimmy Lai was arrested by the city's police force for participating in illegal assembly and on allegations of blackmailing a journalist from the Oriental Daily newspaper. The charges stem from his involvement in a banned march on August 31. Shortly after his arrest on Friday morning, he was released on bail at noon and will appear before court on May 5.
周五有消息传出，香港富豪黎智英(Jimmy Lai)因涉嫌参与非法集会和恐吓《东方日报》的一名记者被警方逮捕。两项指控均源于其在8月31日参加了未经批准的集会。被捕不久之后，黎智英于周五中午获准保释，并将于2020年5月5日在法院应讯。
Lai's publication, Apple Daily, is known for its anti-government position and strong support of violent protests which took place in the city last year. Lai himself is also a close friend of many American politicians in the Republican Party who has advocated pressure on Hong Kong.
世人皆知，黎智英旗下的《苹果日报》持反政府立场，并大力支持去年香港爆发的暴力抗议活动。黎智英本人也与多位主张向香港有关方面施压的美国共和党人士过从甚密。
Given these circumstances, critics have moved quickly to claim that Lai's arrest is inherently political and is aimed at suppressing freedom of speech in the special administrative region.
鉴于这些情况，批评者迅速作出反应，称拘捕黎智英其实是出于政治目的，意在压制香港特别行政区内的言论自由。
However, what Hong Kong activists fail to understand is that given political freedoms they profess to advocate do not translate into a free and unrestrained reign to violate and undermine the rule of law in the city, of which Lai has been an advocate of on multiple fronts. With the Apple Daily still running, their argument is subsequently unfounded. In this case, it is in the interest of the city as a whole to pursue this move.
黎智英一直在不同场合倡导政治自由。但是，香港激进分子不明白的是，他们所主张的政治自由并不等同于不会受到任何约束和放任自流，进而可以去违反和破坏香港的法治。目前《苹果日报》仍在发行，这也证明他们所说的打压言论自由毫无根据。警方的行动完全符合香港的利益。
What is illegal assembly? It is a legal terminology we hear of a lot in relation to events in Hong Kong, and owing to the bias of the mainstream media in favor of the protests it is not one that is explored in much depth. It refers to a given gathering, stipulated as a minimum of three people, in an area that has not been given the approval of authorities to go ahead.
什么是非法集会？我们在有关香港事件的报道中经常听到这个法律术语。但由于持有偏见的西方主流媒体对抗议活动持支持态度，人们并未对这一术语进行深入研究。非法集会是指在未经相关部门批准的区域进行的至少有三人参加的集会。
While this may sound authoritarian, this is the law in multiple Western countries. And in Hong Kong, it is derived from the United Kingdom as a colonial legacy. When a protest takes place in the United Kingdom, the Public Order Act 1986 stipulates its authorization on the approval of police chiefs who may impose conditions on the given location and participants, and if a given threat to property or public safety is tangible, they may deny it accordingly.
虽然这个定义听起来独裁专制，但这是很多西方国家都有的法律。在香港，对非法集会的规定源自英国殖民统治时期。例如，假设抗议示威活动发生在英国， 英国的《1986年公共秩序法》就规定，该活动必须经由警察局长批准。警察局长可以对抗议活动的指定地点和参与者做出规定。如若抗议活动对公共财产或安全构成实质威胁，警察局长可拒绝批准该活动。
Violent protesters go after a police vehicle in North Point, south China's Hong Kong, August 5, 2019. /Xinhua
2019年8月5日暴力抗议者在中国香港北角追袭一辆警车。/新华社
A breach of this law is subsequently a "public order offense" or otherwise "illegal assembly." In Hong Kong, there have been peaceful police-approved protests where nobody was arrested, and also illegal ones where participants refused to accept this and resorted to violence.
违反此法即为“公共秩序犯罪”或称“非法集会”。香港有经警方批准的和平抗议活动，参与和平抗议并不会被捕，但香港也有非法抗议活动，在非法抗议活动中，参与者拒绝接受此法并诉诸暴力。
Of course, Lai's supporters will note that he is a 71-year-old businessman and not rioting on the streets, pointing out to the fact his participation in one such demonstration was last August. However, why does this make him immune from the law? While it is true that the police can make tactical but legitimate arrests pertaining to other, wider problems, Lai is undoubtedly culpable to a degree for encouraging and supporting others to go ahead and violate this given law in Hong Kong.
当然，黎智英的支持者会说，黎智英只是一位商人，已经71岁了，说他并没有引发街头骚乱，参加了此类未经批准的示威活动是在去年8月。但是，难道有了这个理由，他就不该接受法律制裁了吗？虽然警方确实可以就其他更大的问题采取战术性的合法逮捕，但黎智英本人某种程度上鼓励和支持他人违反香港既定法律的行为，毫无疑问已经是违法的。
This does not even take into account the second allegation, of which we do not know the full details.
这还没算上逮捕他的第二项指控，现阶段我们对这项指控还未掌握所有细节。
Yet of course, people will still cry out this is a political arrest and an attack on freedom of speech. How exactly? Have the Hong Kong police shut down the Apple Daily as a whole? Has it ceased operations? Lai may have founded the newspaper, but it is an entire organization and it itself continues to function as normally and likely will so irrespective of the merits of this case. In this light, it is an overstretch to claim that his arrest is somehow an impediment on freedom of speech within the city.
当然，有人依然会高呼此次逮捕出于政治目的，是打击言论自由。是否真是如此？难道香港警方关停了《苹果日报》？《苹果日报》已经停止运营了吗？不论此案的性质如何，黎智英创办的这家报社和报纸目前仍正常运营，未来可能也会继续运营下去。有鉴于此，称黎智英被捕在某种程度上阻碍了香港的言论自由未免过于牵强。
Instead, Hong Kong's police are focusing on restoring the rule of law in the city and its authority. For too long now, activists have held control of a one-sided narrative deceiving people that any effort to uphold the law in the city and sustain basic public order is somehow synonymous with political oppression and an erosion of the "One Country, Two Systems" policy. This is unfounded. Therefore, it should be summarized that nobody is above the rule of law in Hong Kong, which includes billionaires such as Jimmy Lai himself, who has played a pivotal role in spurring unrest which has severely damaged the city's reputation over the past year and plunged it into recession.
相反，目前香港警方的重点是恢复香港法治及警方的威信。长期以来，激进分子都在主导着片面的报道，让人们错以为只要维护香港法律和维持基本公共秩序，在某种程度上就等同于进行政治压迫和破坏“一国两制”。这完全是无稽之谈。总之， 在香港，没人能凌驾于法律之上，包括黎智英等亿万富翁。在过去一年里的暴力示威活动严重破坏了香港声誉，使香港经济陷入衰退，而这些人在煽动暴力活动中都起到了举足轻重的作用。
