Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong and several other pro-democracy politicians claimed that they have recently been followed by suspicious figures believed to be China’s security agents, ahead of the enactment of new national security law imposed by Beijing.

The claims came after pro-democratic Civic Party lawmaker Jeremy Tam who said he was tailed by two men who spoke with a mainland Chinese accent outside of the Legislative Council complex on Friday evening.

Wong posted a video on his Facebook page alleging that he and Southern District councillor Tiffany Yuen were being followed by a team of four on Saturday night. The alleged followers jumped into a taxi after they called them out.

Wong told Apple Daily that he has noticed he has been followed by a suspicious middle-aged man in a private car across the city over the past week. “Basically they are following [me] everywhere,” he said.

He said he saw the man taking photos of him with his mobile phone on when he reached the office building of Demosisto, the political group to which he belongs.

China’s mouthpiece People’s Daily on Sunday has openly criticized Wong and Demosisto for “opening a backdoor for foreign interference” by calling upon foreign governments to sanction Hong Kong amid the looming national security law. The paper also accused Wong and the group of setting up camps to train “militant” protesters and sending young people to die on the frontline while milking profits from fund-raising activities, though the paper did not cite any evidence to prove its accusations.

He said he did not pay much attention at the moment. But when he and the rest of the group left the building at around 11pm after the meeting, he noticed that the man was still there.

Wong said he and the group confronted the man but he appeared to be frightened and confused, but the man did not respond to their questions. He said he wouldn’t be too worried if the man was a reporter from a pro-Beijing media, but the man did not give him an answer.

He said the incident showed that the age of “white terror” had already dawned on Hong Kong even before the enactment of the new national security law. “If you were being followed like this, will you be taken away one day?”

Wong said that he believed his name was already “on the list” of China’s security agents, but he will not surrender to the white terror and it will not scare him and others to withdraw their opposition to the national security law.

The police said that a report of a dispute between a man and a group in the industrial area of San Po Kong was received around 11pm Saturday night, but there was no sight of anyone upon their arrival.

Lawmaker Raymond Chan of People Power said he has also received reports from other pro-democracy district councillors who have been followed recently. It was understood that they were followed by taxis all day. Chan said some shop owners in Wan Chai already alerted him that he had been followed and photographed in the area. He expected that China would implement a more elaborate and organized effort to monitor pro-democracy politicians after following the enactment of the new national security law.

Tha National People’s Congress had earlier voted for the plan to enact the law customized for Hong Kong to that would ban secession, subversion, terrorism, and foreign interference in the city, bypassing the city’s legislature.

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