CHINA OPENS OFFICE FOR SECRET POLICE IN HONG KONG.

Secret police open security office at hotel

HONG KONG • When China’s state security officials came to town, they needed a home — and fast.

So they did what any newcomer would do: They sequestered a 33-storey hotel with a rooftop pool and panoramic harbour views, then erected two-metre-high barriers to limit public access to their new digs.

Early Wednesday, under a heavy police presence and before any public announcement about the matter, officials inaugurated the Office for Safeguarding National Security of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region at a ceremony that took place behind barricades. They played the Chinese national anthem and raised the Chinese flag, though local media weren’t invited.

The Metropark Hotel will be the initial base for the new agency, tasked with collecting intelligence and implementing a new law that curtails political freedoms as Beijing takes fuller control of the territory after pro-democracy protests last year.

It’s the first time the Chinese government’s state security apparatus has been permitted to operate in Hong Kong, marking a milestone in officials’ efforts to dismantle the firewall that separated the city from the authoritarian mainland.

The security law, which took effect July 1, specifies four broadly defined crimes against national security that can invite punishment of up to life imprisonment: subversion, secession, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces. In practice, lawyers and other experts say, it extends mainland legal provisions to Hong Kong, ending the autonomy that China promised the financial centre would enjoy until 2047.

The new office is headed by Zheng Yanxiong, a senior Communist Party official known for quashing popular unrest on the Chinese mainland. Luo Huining, Beijing’s top official in Hong Kong, has been appointed as an adviser.

Addressing delegates at the opening ceremony Wednesday, Luo rejected criticism of Beijing’s moves. The United States and its allies have condemned the crackdown as a breach of the Sino-british handover agreement and a serious blow to Hong Kong’s autonomy and political rights.

Zheng told the few dozen attendees that his agents would abide by the law and wouldn’t infringe on “the legitimate rights and interests of any individual or organization.”

Workers overnight installed China’s national emblem on the hotel, a four-star brand by HK CTS Hotels, a wholly owned subsidiary of the state-owned China National Travel Service Group.

The hotel overlooks Victoria Park, a key protest zone and the starting point for many of the huge rallies last year calling for greater political freedoms and police accountability.