The Hong Kong Police’s National Security Department (NSD) indicted three individuals on July 11 for one count of “conspiracy to secession.” One of them, a 15-year-old boy, applied for bail but was rejected.

The three were among four people arrested on July 9 on suspicion of “conspiracy to subvert state power.” The NSD alleged during a press conference on July 10 that they all had connections to the “Hong Kong Democratic Independence Alliance” founded by some Hong Kong people in Taiwan. The organization’s social media page has about 100 followers.

NSD chief superintendent Steve Kwai-wah Li said that the group announced its formation on social media in November 2024, with the publicly stated goals of “destroying the Communist Party” and “liberating Hong Kong,” while releasing a provisional national flag and a national anthem.

The organization called for foreign support, and some members planned to provide military training for the new recruits. In the seized electronic devices, the NSD allegedly found a proposal asking the United States to rescue Hong Kong’s political prisoners, together with banners calling for “Hong Kong independence, Xinjiang independence, Guangdong independence, and Tibetan independence.”

Li described the case as “extremely serious,” with the maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

The three people charged included a 15-year-old boy, courier Chan Tai-shum, 26, and waiter Ng Chi-tung, 25. A 47-year-old man was not charged and was released on bail pending further investigation. He has to report to the police in early August.

The 15-year-old was denied bail by the designated National Security Law judge, acting Chief Magistrate Cheng Lim-chi. The boy was remanded in custody at the Tuen Mun Children and Juvenile Home. The other two did not apply for bail.

The case has been adjourned to Aug. 28 for further investigation by police, including inspection of the defendants’ mobile phones and computers.

On July 1 this year, the 28th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong’s sovereignty to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), members of the Hong Kong Democratic Independence Alliance organized an event in Taipei, raising the Black Bauhinia flag of the Hong Kong protest movement and playing the banned song “Glory to Hong Kong” while trampling on the flags of the CCP and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Since the CCP implemented its National Security Law in Hong Kong on June 30, 2020, 326 people have been arrested for “endangering national security” as of June this year, of which 165 have been convicted.

Most of the 326 people arrested by the NSD were not granted bail. According to Amnesty International, Hong Kong’s courts have rejected bail applications in 89 percent of national security cases.