A leading democrat from Macau has been arrested for collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security, police said, as the semi-autonomous region further tightens its national security laws to align with those of China.

Macau’s police said in a statement on Thursday that Au Kam San had been taken from his residence for investigation on Wednesday.

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The former Portuguese colony reverted to Chinese rule in 1999 via a “One Country, Two Systems” framework that promised a high degree of autonomy and rights protections.

Au, 68, is one of Macau’s most prominent democratic campaigners who served for nearly two decades as a lawmaker in the former Portuguese colony. He served in Macau’s legislature for two decades before stepping down in 2021.

The police statement did not give Au’s full name, but local media outlets reported that the man arrested was the campaigner, and Au’s wife arrived at the prosecution’s office on Thursday and was listed as a “witness”, online outlet All About Macau said.

“The resident has allegedly been in contact with an anti-China organisation abroad since 2022, providing the group with large amounts of false and seditious information, for public exhibitions overseas and online,” the police statement added.

The police did not say which foreign entity Au was in contact with, but said he had also sought to incite hatred against Beijing, disrupt a 2024 election for Macau’s leader and “provoke hostile actions by foreign countries against Macau”.

Au and his wife could not be reached for comment.

Through the years, Au had championed democratic reforms and helped foster civil society initiatives in the tiny gambling hub that returned from Portuguese to Chinese rule in 1999 – two years after the nearby former British colony of Hong Kong was handed back to China.

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Unlike Hong Kong, which has seen big social movements challenge Chinese Communist Party rule in 2014 and 2019, the democratic opposition in the China-ruled former Portuguese colony has always existed on the fringes amid tight Chinese control.

Through the years, Au had led protests and railed against opaque governance and rising social inequalities, even as gambling revenues exploded in the city, which is home to about 700,000 people.

Au was one of the founders of several pro-democracy groups, including the New Macau Association, and had worked as a schoolteacher.

The arrest comes as authorities in neighbouring Hong Kong continue to crack down on dissent using two sets of powerful national security laws that have been leveraged to jail activists, shutter media outlets and civil society groups.

While Hong Kong’s democrats had actively challenged Beijing’s attempts to ratchet up control of the city since its return to Chinese rule, Macau’s government has faced far less public scrutiny, with authorities able to enact a sweeping set of national security laws as early as 2009.

This law was amended in 2023 to bring Macau in line with similar laws in Hong Kong and China and to bolster the prevention of foreign interference.