Macao authorities should unconditionally release the former lawmaker and veteran pro-democracy activist Au Kam San (區錦新), who was arrested on national security charges, Human Rights Watch said today. This is the first time the draconian Law on Safeguarding National Security has been invoked in China's Macao Special Administrative Region.
On July 30, 2025, Macao police arrested Au for violating article 13 of the national security law, which carries a maximum 10-year sentence. Au is being held without bail pending investigation.
"The arrest of Au Kam San reflects the broadening repression radiating from China to Hong Kong and Macao under Chinese leader Xi Jinping," said Maya Wang, associate China director at Human Rights Watch. "Macao's authorities should stop suppressing peaceful criticism and immediately and unconditionally free this activist and former legislator."
The Macao Judicial Police accused Au of "having long-term contacts" with "overseas anti-China entities," providing them with "false and inflammatory information," "arousing hatred," "disrupting Macao's 2024 chief executive election, and causing foreign countries to take hostile actions against Macao."
Au, a 68-year-old Portuguese citizen and former primary school teacher, became an activist after the Chinese government's Tiananmen Massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in 1989. Since then, he and others have played a major role in the city's small civil society. For 30 years, Au's group, the Macao Union of Democratic Development (澳門民主發展聯委會), organized annual vigils to commemorate the crackdown, even as Au and fellow organizers endured abuse including physical assaults and loss of jobs.
The group finally disbanded under government pressure in 2023. Between 2001 and 2021, Au was elected to local office five times and became Macao's longest serving pro-democracy lawmaker.
Macao was a Portuguese colony until 1999, when its sovereignty was transferred to the People's Republic of China. Macao's government has long suppressed critical voices. It has arrested opposition figures and journalists, severely restricted protests, and barred Hong Kong pro-democracy activists and journalists from entering the territory.
Macao authorities' repressive efforts appear to have accelerated in recent years, especially after 2019, when mass protests broke out in Hong Kong, and after 2020, when the Chinese government imposed the draconian National Security Law on Hong Kong.
In 2021, Macao's Court of Final Appeal upheld the government's ban on the Tiananmen Massacre annual vigil, ruling that the political slogans used by the organizers violated the Chinese Constitution and Macao's functional constitution, the Basic Law, by urging the public to "overthrow the existing political system." The authorities disqualified 21 people in 2021 and 12 in 2025 from running for legislative seats, citing vague reasons such as "disloyalty" to Macao.
Macao's Law on Safeguarding National Security, enacted in 2009 and amended in 2023, undermines rule of law and human rights guarantees enshrined in Macao's de facto constitution, the Basic Law, and contravenes the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which applies to Macao via the Basic Law. The revised national security law empowers the authorities to prosecute peaceful activities, which they had previously limited powers to restrict.
While the 2009 law provided punishments for seven crimes, including treason, secession, subversion, and theft of state secrets, the 2023 amendments significantly broadened the scope of national security offenses and the powers of authorities. The amendments introduced an additional 30 articles. They expanded the definitions of "secession" and "subversion" to cover nonviolent acts, introduced a new offense of "instigating or supporting rebellion," and expanded the law's extraterritorial jurisdiction from applying only to overseas activities by Macao residents to both residents and nonresidents.
Article 13, which Au is accused of violating, makes it a criminal offense to establish "links with organizations or groups" outside Macao to "conduct activities endangering national security."
Article 25 stipulates that suspects shall be subject to "preventive detention measures" or pretrial detention, without the option of bail.
In Hong Kong, where the pro-democracy movement attracted mass participation, the authorities have arrested at least 326 people for violating the city's National Security Law since 2020.
The European Union condemned Au's arrest in an August 2 statement but did not call for his release. Portuguese media, citing "a diplomatic source," said the Portuguese government is "following up on the case."
"The Chinese government, having dismantled Hong Kong's freedoms, has now turned to Macao, arresting Au Kam San, the backbone of the city's pro-democracy movement," Wang said. "Portugal, the European Union, and other concerned governments should forcefully press for his immediate release."
