New law ‘not doom and gloom’; TikTok quits market
HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s national security law does not spell ‘‘doom and gloom’’, its leader said yesterday, as she tried to calm unease over legislation that critics say could end freedoms that have underpinned the city’s success as a financial hub.
In an illustration of worries about the law, video app TikTok said it was preparing to leave the Hong Kong market in response to it, and other tech firms said they were suspending processing Hong Kong government requests for user data.
The sweeping legislation that Beijing imposed on the former
British colony punishes what China defines as secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.
It came into force at the same time it was made public, just before midnight on Tuesday last week, and police arrested about 300 people in protests the next day — about 10 of them for suspected violations of it.
‘‘Surely, this is not doom and gloom for Hong Kong,’’ the city’s Beijingbacked leader, Carrie Lam, told a regular weekly news conference.
‘‘I’m sure, with the passage of time, and efforts and facts are being laid out, confidence will grow in ‘one country, two systems’ and in Hong Kong’s future,’’ she said.
The legislation has been criticised by Hong Kong democracy activists, as well as countries such as Britain and the United States, for undermining freedoms guaranteed under a ‘‘one country, two systems’’ formula agreed when Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
TikTok, a popular short video app owned by Chinabased ByteDance, said it would exit the Hong Kong market within days.
Facebook Inc, which also owns WhatsApp and Instagram, Google Inc and Twitter Inc suspended processing government requests for user data in Hong Kong. — Reuters