On Feb 24, Hong Kong police announced the arrest of two male and three female suspects involved in the Jan 17 bomb threats in Tsim Sha Tsui.
The police indicated that the suspects were paid to commit the threat, and the purpose was to derail a Falun Gong conference, forcing guests to be evacuated from the BP International hotel, Kowloon where the conference was being held.
Though the bomb threat was later found to be a hoax, the Falun Gong conference had to be cancelled partway through as a result.
Currently, the police are tracing the mastermind and the motivation behind the incident. The Hong Kong police’s high-profile briefing of the case has drawn wide public attention.
On Feb 24 around 11pm, the police took a 34-year-old male to the crime scene to reconstruct the occurrence of the case. A large number of media arrived to pursue the details.
The 34-year old man is reported to be a transport worker and is suspected to be the one who left the suspicious objects on the scene. He confessed to the police that he received HK$5,000 (US$650) as a reward at the scene on that day. The remaining suspects were reported as unemployed or as salespersons.
The police revealed that the five suspects have triad backgrounds and were paid to commit the bomb hoax. The person who called and informed the police of the bomb threat is also an accomplice.
The case is still under investigation, and the police are not ruling out further arrests at this stage.
Police ordered to solve case
A source close to the senior police told Epoch Times that there have been complaints inside the police force about the handling of the bomb scare on the day of the incident, which has been described as “overreaction and disturbing the public.”
He said the police received a 999 emergency call warning them of a bomb on that day. They deployed a bomb squad wearing protective clothes and armor, along with a 300-kg bomb disposal robot.
This is very rare in the history of Hong Kong, but it turned out to be a hoax. The practice and procedure were against police guidelines.
“Unless it is a real bomb, they cannot disturb the top level. Now the police have made a big fuss over a fake bomb call. What are they going to do in the future?” the source stated.
According to the source, it is quite easy for the police to investigate the case, as the hotel is equipped with CCTV. At what time they solve the case depends on the attitude of the top level, the source said.
Now the police have made a high-profile disclosure of the suspects with triad backgrounds being paid to disrupt Falun Gong activities.
“The tone is relatively high, and they should be under pressure to solve the case. If there was too much noise about this, it would be hard to explain,” the source stated.
Joseph Yu-shek Cheng, former professor of political science at the City University of Hong Kong, said the police specifically mentioned that the arrested suspects were hired to derail Falun Gong activities, and this can be thought of as a small breakthrough.
Cheng hopes this breakthrough can bring the mastermind to justice. He said that in similar incidents that happened before, such as the attack on former Ming Pao chief editor Kevin Lau, the police could not find the mastermind until now.
“Usually the police can arrest those directly involved, but have difficulty bringing the mastermind of the crime to justice,” Cheng said.
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Beijing’s battles
James Hon Lin-shan, spokesman of “League in Defense of Hong Kong’s Freedoms,” stated that the CCP is the black-hand behind the incident.
“Falun Gong has always been suppressed by the CCP and the Hong Kong SAR government,” he said. “The authorities are unfairly in favor of the [CCP-supported] Hong Kong Youth Care Association, and they discourage Falun Gong’s activities. We have been very clear about this. Recently it has become even worse. The police must find the real criminals and not let them escape.”
China issue expert Shi Cangshan believes that the current situation in Hong Kong is closely related to what is happening in Beijing.
The day after the hoax bomb scare, the mainland Chinese media Caixin.com, which reports in favor of current Party leader Xi Jinping, stated in an article that Zhou Yongkang’s Political and Legal Affairs system, Li Dongsheng served as the deputy leader of the 610 office, which has a certain degree of independence.
Shi noted that this was the first time mainland media had mentioned this issue in such a different way. He said the article purposely stressed that the Political and Legal Affairs system was run by Zhou Yongkang, and that there was “a certain degree of independence.”
He believes this indicates that Xi’s faction of the Party is cutting connections with the persecution of Falun Gong, which has been carried out by the faction of former Party leader Jiang Zemin.
Shi added that the governing body of the city of Guangzhou in Guangdong Province continues to face the shake-up, and several major cases are inextricably linked to HK.
