China blasts criticism of new HK security law

BEIJING (AFP) – China blasted critics of Hong Kong’s new national security law yesterday, after Western powers and the United Nations said it would further curtail freedoms in the finance hub. The city’s legislature passed the law unanimously on Tuesday, introducing tough new penalties for five categories of crimes, including treason and theft of state secrets.

Commonly referred to as Article 23, the homegrown security law will work in tandem with a 2020 Beijing-imposed version that has silenced nearly all dissent in Hong Kong and seen nearly 300 people arrested since its enactment.

Western nations, including the United States and former colonial power Britain were swift to criticize the new law, with British Foreign Minister David Cameron saying it would “further damage the rights and freedoms enjoyed in the city” and calling the legislation “rushed.”

Beijing’s Foreign Ministry spokesman

Lin Jian fired back yesterday, telling reporters that “attacks and smears” against the new Hong Kong law by other governments and outside groups were “doomed to fail.”

“Security is a prerequisite for development, and the rule of law is the cornerstone of prosperity,” Lin said.

China’s de facto foreign ministry in Hong Kong earlier blasted Britain’s “colonizer” mindset and accused it of “exercising double standards,” an apparent reference to its own national security laws.

The United States, United Nations, European Union and Japan have also publicly spoken out against the law.

And Australia’s top diplomat Penny Wong yesterday warned her visiting Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Canberra that the new law would “further erode rights and freedoms” and have implications far beyond China.

Under Britain’s handover agreement to China, Hong Kong was guaranteed certain freedoms, including judicial and legislative autonomy, for 50 years in a deal known as “one country, two systems.”