Taiwan has described Hong Kong authorities’ decision to freeze assets belonging to jailed Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai as a warning to the international community that doing business in the city was becoming “increasingly risky.”

The comment, made by Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council in a Reuters report on Saturday, came after Hong Kong’s Security Bureau froze the 73-year-old Lai’s assets, including the shares in his company, Next Digital.

The move was believed to be the first use of seizure powers granted under the Beijing-imposed national security law, which effectively criminalizes Hong Kong’s once-tolerated dissenting voices.

The incarcerated pro-democracy media magnate has currently been charged with three counts of violating the national security law and could face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment if convicted.

Hours before the Security Bureau’s announcement, the Taiwan arm of Apple Daily said it would cease publishing its print version, citing declining advertising revenue and harsher business conditions related to political changes.

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council told Reuters that the asset seizure highlighted the threat Hong Kong’s national security law posed to the property of the city’s people.

“It is equivalent to announcing to the international community that Hong Kong’s business risks are increasing,” the council added. “We also once again call on relevant parties to stop suppressing Hong Kong democrats, otherwise they will drift away from popular sentiment.”

Meanwhile, the Security Bureau’s move was praised by state mouthpieces, with CCTV urging Hong Kong authorities on Sunday to further freeze Apple Daily’s assets.

Next Digital and Apple Daily, the newspaper it publishes, was “the incitement platform and mobilization machine of the anti-China chaos in Hong Kong,” the editorial accused. “Its demise is getting closer and closer.”

Apple Daily was “the biggest brainwashing” machine in the city, it said, adding that the paper should have been “completely eradicated” so that Hong Kong youth could “return to normal life and pursue their dreams.”

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