2020. The Hong Kong government then disqualified twelve candidates on 30 July, nearly all of whom were winners from the pro-democratic primaries. The decision drew international condemnation for obstructing the election and the democratic process. On the following day, Carrie Lam, going against the public opinion, invoked emergency powers to delay the election, citing the pandemic as the reason. While the NPCSC allowed the four disqualified incumbent lawmakers to transition to the extended term in July, they decided to remove them from office in November 2020, resulting in the mass resignation of all of opposition lawmakers. The police continued to use the law to target local activists and critics of Beijing, including business tycoon Jimmy Lai. In January 2021, the police arrested more than 50 individuals, all of whom were candidates in the primaries for "subverting state power". This meant that most of the active and prominent politicians in the opposite camp in Hong Kong have been arrested by the authorities using the national security law. Arrest warrants were issued to exiled activists for breaching the national security law, including former lawmakers Nathan Law, Baggio Leung and Ted Hui. Twelve Hong Kong activists who were released on bail were captured by China's Coast Guard Bureau while fleeing to Taiwan on a speedboat on 23 August. Detained in Yantian, Shenzhen, they were subsequently charged with crossing the Chinese border illegally and were prevented from choosing their lawyers and meeting their families. As protest activities dwindled, the government continued to tighten its control in Hong Kong, censoring school textbooks and removing any mention of the Tiananmen massacre, arresting organisers of vigils for the victims of the massacre, removing public examination questions which the authorities deemed politically inappropriate, deregistering "yellow-ribbon" teachers, and declaring that separation of powers never existed in Hong Kong despite previous comments by the city's top judges recognising its importance in Hong Kong. It also attempted to reshape the narrative of the Yuen Long attack by claiming that the attack had not been indiscriminate, changing the officially reported police response time, and arresting Lam Cheuk-ting, a pro-democracy lawmaker who was hurt in the attack, for "rioting". Civil society faced a crackdown by authorities, which triggered a massive exodus from Hong Kong. Pro-democracy activists and lawmakers were among the first to leave the territory; the first wave of emigres also included young professionals, as well as families whose parents wanted to