Chinese officials today indicted 12 people who were accused of attempting to escape from Hong Kong to Taiwan by speedboat in August.

The Shenzhen City Procuratorate of Yancheng District announced on social media on December 16 that Tang Kai-Yin and Quinn Moon were suspected of organizing illegal fugitives.

On August 23, this group of 12 people escaped from the special zone by high-speed boat to escape to Taiwan.

Some people on board face the risk of prosecution in Hong Kong for involvement in protests that sometimes broke out into violence in the city last year, such as Andy Li, who was arrested by Hong Kong police.

China enacted the Hong Kong security law on June 30, which criminalizes four types of national security crimes, including separatism, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign or outside parties to endanger themselves.

The Hong Kong government asserted that the new security law did not affect the right to freedom of speech and assembly, which was guaranteed when Britain handed the territory to China in 1997. Beijing repeatedly asserted the security law.

However, many countries and international organizations have expressed deep concern about Hong Kong's security law, warning of the risk of undermining the "one country, two regime" principle.