CHINA PASSES HK SECURITY LAW
Legislation’s contents kept secret from city residents, sparking alarm and anger
CHINA passed a sweeping national security law for Hong Kong yesterday, a historic move that critics and many western governments fear will smother the finance hub’s freedoms and hollow out its autonomy.
The legislation was unanimously approved by China’s rubber-stamp Parliament and signed by President Xi Jinping, according to the official Xinhua news agency, little more than six weeks after it was first unveiled.
Beijing’s Hong Kong office described the security law as a “sword” hanging over the heads of those who endangered national security.
The contents of the law had been kept secret from Hong Kong’s 7.5 million inhabitants, sparking alarm and anger.
“It marks the end of Hong Kong that the world knew before,” prominent democracy campaigner Joshua Wong tweeted as his political party Demosisto announced it was disbanding.
“With sweeping powers and illdefined law, the city will turn into a #secretpolicestate.”
The United States, Britain, the European Union and the United Nations rights watchdog had voiced fears it could be used to stifle criticism of Beijing, which wields similar laws to crush dissent on the mainland.
The law bypassed Hong Kong’s fractious legislature, and it was unclear when it would be published or enacted.
“The fact that Hong Kong people will only come to know what’s really in this new law after the fact is more than preposterous,” Claudia Mo, an opposition lawmaker, said.
In Geneva, Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam told the United Nations that China’s sweeping national security law for Hong Kong would target only a tiny minority, urging international “respect” for its right to protect national security.
Speaking via video message to the UN Human Rights Council, the Beijing-appointed leader insisted that Hong Kong had been living with “a gaping hole in national security”, and that the law was “urgently needed”.
Lam said the legislation would help heal a city “traumatised by escalating violence fanned by external forces”.
The legislation, she said, “aims to prevent, curb and punish acts of secession, subversion of state power, terrorist activities, and collusion with foreign or external forces to endanger national security”.
She downplayed fears it could be used to stifle criticism of Beijing.
“It will only target an extremely small minority of people who have breached the law, while the life and property, basic rights and freedoms of the overwhelming majority of Hong Kong residents will be protected,” she said.
As part of the 1997 handover from Britain, Hong Kong was guaranteed certain freedoms — as well as judicial and legislative autonomy — for 50 years in a deal known as “One Country, Two Systems”.
“Hong Kong is an inalienable part of China,” Lam said, accusing foreign governments or politicians who object to the legislation of “double standards”.
“All those countries which have pointed their fingers at China have their own national security legislation in place,” she said.