rare and severe in the history of Hong Kong. The Union criticized the search of news material as an abuse of power and to harass news media, and vowed to guard the post. Foreign Correspondents' Club stated the operation eroded the reputation of Hong Kong and signaled the end of press freedom in Hong Kong. Several groups from the media released joint statement, urging the police to elaborate on the aim and legal basis of this operation, or else the operation shall be suspended immediately. 22 Pro-democracy legislators strongly denounced the police as intimidating the media. Now-exiled former legislator Nathan Law described the arrest operation as "crazy". Pro-Beijing DAB and FTU supported the police operation as to guard the national security. People's Republic of China Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council firmly supported Hong Kong Police's operation and criticized Lai as a foreign political agent. Spokesman of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Zhao Lijian insisted China to be a society with rule of law, and supported the action by the Government of HKSAR. Editor-in-chief of Global Times, Hu Xijin, said in Weibo that Lai was obviously a hanjian, and described the sanctions from the United States as "a rotten egg hitting the rock". Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen strongly denounced the Hong Kong government of damaging press freedom, rule-of-law, human rights, and democracy, leading to a chilling effect within the media industry. The Mainland Affairs Council denounced the "evil" actions by the Hong Kong government, believing such acts would only shame the international image of CCP and Hong Kong. Premier Su Tseng-chang urged CCP to keep the promise of 50-year pledge. United Kingdom The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson said the arrest of Next Digital Group founder Jimmy Lai showed that the Hong Kong National Security Law is being used to silence opposition voices and reaffirms that Hong Kong must protect the rights and freedoms of Hong Kong people. Nigel Adams, Secretary of State for Asia at the UK Foreign Office, tweeted his deep concern over the arrest of Jimmy Lai and others. Former Governor Chris Patten said to Hong Kong Watch that the arrest of Jimmy Lai on charges of colluding with foreign powers was "yet another serious crackdown on Hong Kong's freedoms and way of life, and the most outrageous attack on Hong Kong's remaining freedom of the press in living memory." United States In a tweet,