Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong said the car that followed him to The Peak yesterday, where a group of people appeared to wait for him and swore at him for being a “traitor to China,” was registered to a police address.
According to records accessed by Wong, the owner of the vehicle’s address is the Shun Lee Disciplined Services Quarters in Kwun Tong. The eight-block estate houses family members of civil servants who work in the police force, fire services and the customs department.
Update: the car tailing me was registered by a person living in Shun Lee DSQ (Disciplined Services Quarters), which are the staff quarters for #hkpolice. Clearly, the harassers are not ordinary citizens nor reporters that they previously claimed. https://t.co/MoWLrMlgt0 pic.twitter.com/OUQe73KlzP
— Joshua Wong 黃之鋒 😷 (@joshuawongcf) August 23, 2020
In a Facebook post, Wong accused Hong Kong police of not just condoning the behavior of those who harass political figures, but offering them a “through-train service” in the form of providing them a car too.
“Even on a rare weekend outside, [I] get harassed. It’s annoying and it implicates [my] friends. [I] don’t know if what they film [of them] will be passed to the national security unit. I feel very sorry and irritated,” he wrote.
The incident happened Sunday around 4:30pm, when Wong and his friends drove to the The Peak to walk a dog and enjoy some fresh air. They were tailed by a seven-seater car on the way, Wong said. Once they arrived, they noticed a middle-aged woman filming him as if she had been waiting for Wong to show up.
When he alighted his car, the woman and five others started following him and yelled at him, attacking his political activism in a profanity-ridden spiel.
“There are so many f***ing teens who were incited by you and now they need to go to jail, do you know that?” The woman is seen shouting in a live video on Wong’s Facebook page.
The woman, who held a phone in front of her, was also filming the confrontation.
“Do you really have to go to the US to look for your father, your godfather?”
Wong did not entertain the attacks, but asked whether they were journalists or national security agents—to which they said no.
“You said you didn’t recognize who I am, but everyone’s waiting for me at The Peak. Once I got off the car, you guys start filming. If this is not harassment, then what is this?” He yelled back.
The middle-aged woman also pointed to one of Wong’s female friends and said “she’s a prostitute.”
Wong recounted the incident in a Facebook live video that night. He said one of the men in the group was provoking a fight, asking Wong repeatedly if he wanted to hit him.
The activist said that being followed is nothing new—just last month, he was tailed by at least four vehicles in a day while running errands.
“But back then, they were just taking pictures and collecting intelligence. When they followed me, they filmed me [going] to press conferences, street booths, protests and meetings. I’m used to it,” Wong said.
“But going dog-walking at a park, honestly I was walking the dog… and then there was this chaotic harassment. This has never happened before.”
Wong said he has alerted the police and is waiting for their response.
Beijing’s outlet Global Times tweeted a video that appeared to be filmed by the middle-aged woman who was swearing at Wong.
The Communist mouthpiece called Wong a “HK secessionist” and said he was “scolded by a HK resident.”
Since the national security law was enacted, political activists and legislators have reported being followed by unknown individuals and cars.
Most recently, lawmaker Ted Hui was tailed by a vehicle last when while en route home from the Legislative Council. In Kennedy Town, Hui asked the men to step out of the car but they refused.
He called the police, but instead of searching the car or taking down the details of the men, an officer pushed Hui—who was standing in front of the car to stop it from leaving—out of the way so that the vehicle could go free.
Hui said the car had been following him for days. The men were later identified as journalists from state-run media outlet, Ta Kung Pao.
