China’s liaison office in Hong Kong has endorsed the police’s latest raid on Apple Daily and arrest of five senior management figures under national security laws.

A statement of support appeared on the office’s website soon after the Thursday raid, calling the operation an “act of justice.” The office said it strongly backed all efforts to defend national security and Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability.

The office said the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s de facto constitution, protected residents’ freedoms of speech, the press and publication, but the freedoms were not limitless and could not cross the bottom line of national security, a limit that it argued was stipulated by international treaties and the local laws of countries.

Hong Kong was a society with rule of law and everyone was equal before the law, including news outlets, it said. Press freedom was not an excuse to commit illegal acts, and offenders of the national security law or other relevant legislation would be punished by law regardless of their backgrounds and the support they had from whatever forces, the office added.

A spokesperson for the Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong also said organizations and individuals must abide by the national security law and other related legislation, and should not commit any acts endangering state security, the Hong Kong China News Agency reported.

On Thursday morning, police officers in their hundreds swarmed the headquarters of Apple Daily in Tseung Kwan O. The government also froze HK$18 million (US$2.32 million) in assets belonging to Apple Daily Limited, Apple Daily Printing Limited and the AD Internet Company.

Police arrested Chief Executive Cheung Kim-hung, Chief Operating Officer Royston Chow, Editor-in-Chief Ryan Law, Associate Publisher Chan Pui-man and Platform Director of Apple Daily Digital Cheung Chi-wai for alleged “collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security.”

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