China’s official Xinhua News Agency weighed in for the first time on the case of the Hong Kong 12, accusing the city’s pro-democracy camp of using the plight of the dozen local activists who were captured at sea trying to flee to Taiwan to incite hatred against the government and China.

It was the state mouthpiece’s first mention of the 12, who have been detained in Shenzhen for more than a month. The article published on Friday said they were accused of breaching Chinese border controls and that, as there was no extradition treaty between Hong Kong and the mainland, the mainland has the power to detain, handle and punish them.

It was “laughable” that the same people demanding that the 12 be sent back to Hong Kong were those who blocked a proposed extradition treaty last year, Xinhua said.

The state news agency accused the democrats of interfering with mainland law enforcement and judicial procedures by putting pressure on the Hong Kong government and mainland police for the 12 to be released.

It also slammed pro-democracy lawmakers for seeking to draw foreign help over the incident by framing the matter as a human rights issue. The democrats were “blatantly exploiting” the 12 Hong Kong people and their families for their own benefit, in order to incite hate against the city’s government and China, Xinhua said.

The incident has revealed the extent of the fear inside the pro-democracy camp over the implementation of the national security law, but the democrats should see the big picture and stop being enemies of the people, Xinhua said.

Xinhua was twisting facts about Hong Kong people’s distrust of Beijing, lawmaker Eddie Chu, one of those helping the families, told Apple Daily. The article failed to answer key questions such as why lawyers have been barred from visiting the 12, and the lack of evidence to prove that they were really captured in mainland waters.

Activist Owen Chow, responding on behalf of the families, said it was the families themselves who sought help from lawmakers and not the other way round. The families demanded that the Hong Kong government respond to their requests directly, Chow said.

Chow said the families were applying for bail for the 12, and it would be interesting to see whether China would handle the case in accordance with the law.

Democratic Party lawmaker James To also denied he was using the families, saying that the public can see for themselves what they have been doing.

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