Hong Kong's 'Apple Daily' vows to fight on

Hot off the presses, more than half a million copies of Hong Kong newspaper 'Apple Daily' were printed with a message of defiance -- after the arrest of owner Jimmy Lai.

Tuesday's (August 11) edition ran with the headline "Apple Daily must fight on" plastered on the front page above an image of Lai in handcuffs.

Lai was taken into detention the day before after police raided the pro-democracy tabloid's offices.

It was the highest-profile arrest made yet under a national security law imposed by Beijing.

Readers responded by lining up at newsstands across Hong Kong in the early hours of Tuesday morning itching to get their hands on a copy.

Some vendors even said they sold out of the newspaper during the a.m. rush hour.

Newsstand owner Judy Do:

"The news yesterday makes every youngster want to read (Apple Daily). They must read it. Some who don't usually buy newspapers said that they had to buy it."

Lai is one of Hong Kong's most prominent democracy activists and a staunch critic of Communist Party rule in Beijing.

Police detained for suspected collusion with foreign forces after about 200 officers searched Apple Daily's offices and collected boxes of evidence.

He was one of ten people they arrested on Monday including other Apple Daily executives and 23-year-old Agnes Chow.

Chow is one of the former leaders of young activist Joshua Wong's Demosisto group, which disbanded before the new law came into force.

Monday's arrests left 45-year-old Kim Yau concerned over the city's freedoms under the security law.

"What the police did yesterday brutally interfered with the freedom of press. All Hongkongers, all Hongkongers with a conscience have to support Hong Kong today, support Apple Daily, support Hong Kong."

International reaction to Lai's arrest came within hours.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday called Lai a quote "a patriot who wanted good things for the people of Hong Kong."

Britain claimed the arrest was further evidence that the security law was a quote "pretext to silence opposition".

China's embassy in Britain hit back, urging London to stop quote "using freedom of the press as an excuse to discredit" the national security law.

Meanwhile in mainland China, the Beijing-backed China Daily wrote in an editorial that Lai's arrest showed quote "the cost of dancing with the enemy".

In the past, Beijing has labeled Lai a 'traitor.'