Minister: Iran to begin human COVID-19 vaccine trial soon
China approved a national security law for Hong Kong on Tuesday that aims to tackle subversion, terrorism, separatism, and collusion with foreign forces.
Many see the move as Beijing’s boldest yet to erase the legal firewall between the semiautonomous territory and the mainland’s Communist Party system, AP reported.
President Xi Jinping signed a presidential order Tuesday promulgating the law after it was approved by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the official Xinhua news agency said. It will be added to the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s Constitution.
Few details were given but China’s liaison office in Hong Kong issued a statement warning opponents of the law not to “underestimate the party center’s determination to safeguard Hong Kong’s national security” or its willingness and ability to enforce the new rules.
“We hope the law will serve as a deterrent to prevent people from stirring up trouble,” said Tam Yiu-chung, Hong Kong’s sole representative on the Standing Committee “Don’t let Hong Kong be used as a tool to split the country.”
He said punishments would not include the death penalty, but did not elaborate on further details.
Passage of the law came amid fears in Hong Kong and abroad that it would be used to curb opposition voices in the Asian financial hub. The US has already begun moves to end special trade terms given to Hong Kong after the former British colony was returned to China in 1997.
Iranian Health Minister Saeid Namaki announced that the country is nearing a phase of human trial for coronavirus vaccine as the country fights to contain the spread of the virus.
Namaki said on Tuesday that an Iranian vaccine for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, had shown promise in animal tests.
“We will soon begin clinical trial for human test of the vaccine,” said Namaki while attending a videoconference session to open a major pharmaceutical exhibition in Tehran.
The Iranian stock market on Tuesday made its biggest singleday gain in a half century, rising nearly 65,000 points and breaking the threshold level of 1.5 million points.
The Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) advanced on Tuesday with main index TEDPIX rising 4.38 percent to hit 1,546,849 points.
A total of 5.8 billion securities valued at nearly 104 trillion rials ($515 million) were traded at the over-the-counter exchange in some 1.16 million exchanges in the TSE.
Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company gave the biggest boost to the benchmark index, followed by Mobarakeh Steel
The minister did not provide further details, including the name of the Iranian drugmaker seeking to develop the potential vaccine. Several Iranian firms and research centers have been busy developing a vaccine for COVID-19 since the disease was spotted in the country in late February.
Namaki said he had personally followed efforts in Iran over the past four months to develop an effective and safe vaccine for the novel coronavirus.
Company, and National Iranian Copper Industries Company.
The main index at Iran Fara
Bourse, a subsidiary of the TSE for trading securities and other financial instruments, also climbed by 563 points to reach 16,516 points.
Middle East Mines Industries Development Holding Company had the highest number of traded shares and trade value as 27.4 million of its shares worth 486 trillion rials ($2.4) were traded.
Booming trade at the TSE comes despite expectations outside Iran that the country would face a dire economic situation because of a continued drop in the value of the national currency rial.
Money exchange shops traded the Iranian rial above 200,000 for a dollar on Tuesday.
The rial has tumbled from a rate of 32,000 rials to $1 at the time of the Iran 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The currency unexpectedly rallied after President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the nuclear deal and reimpose crippling trade sanctions on Iran more than two years ago.
The sanctions have caused Iran’s oil exports, the country’s main source of income, to fall sharply.
The government says prices would return to normal once Iran gets hold of a series of funds blocked outside of the country because of the US sanctions.
Governor of the Central Bank of Iran Abdolnaser Hemmati said Saturday that the CBI has injected hundreds of millions of dollars to stabilize the currency market.
The official exchange rate is 42,000 rials per dollar and is used mostly for imports of state-subsidized food and medicine.
The legislation is aimed at curbing subversive, secessionist, and terrorist activities, as well as foreign intervention in the city’s affairs. It follows months of often-violent anti-government protests in Hong Kong last year.
Speaking in a video message to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said the law would “only target an extremely small minority” of lawbreakers, would not be retroactive, and that mainland legal bodies would only have jurisdiction in “rare, specified situations.”
Critics say it is the most significant erosion to date of Hong Kong’s Britishstyle rule of law and the high degree of autonomy that Beijing promised Hong Kong would enjoy at least through 2047 under a “one country, two systems” framework.
Hong Kong protesters Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow and Nathan Law issued statements on Facebook saying they would withdraw from their organization Demosisto, which then announced that it would disband with the loss of its top members.
Wong said “worrying about life and safety” has become a real issue and nobody will be able to predict the repercussions of the law, whether it is being extradited to China or facing long jail terms.
More than a hundred protesters gathered at a luxury mall in Hong Kong’s central business district, chanting slogans including “Free Hong Kong, Revolution Now,” with several holding up a flag representing an independent Hong Kong as well as posters condemning the law.
Ahead of the law’s passage, the Trump administration said Monday it will bar defense exports to Hong Kong and will soon require licenses for the sale of items that have both civilian and military uses.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said his government was “deeply concerned” over reports of the law’s passage, saying that would be a “grave step.” Britain has said it could offer residency and possible citizenship to about 3 million of Hong Kong’s 7.5 million people.
China’s internal affairs
“This issue is purely China’s internal affairs, and no foreign country has the right to interfere,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said.
He said China would take necessary measures to protect its national interests in response to “the wrong acts of the United States.”
Under the law, Beijing will set up a national security office in Hong Kong to collect and analyze intelligence and deal with criminal cases related to national security.
Government critics fear Beijing will use the law to pursue political opponents. Some have questioned the legal basis on which China proceeded with the legislation, saying it undermines the Basic Law.
An earlier attempt to pass a security law in 2003 was dropped after hundreds of thousands of people marched in Hong Kong’s streets against it.
China for years had put off another such effort. Citing a new urgency after last year’s protests, it announced it would bypass the Hong Kong legislature and enact the law on its own.
Chinese officials have railed against what they say is foreign interference in the territory that they blame for encouraging the anti-government protests. Beijing condemned the protests as an attempt to permanently split Hong Kong away from China.