Beijing to impose Hong Kong security laws ‘without delay’

BEIJING has vowed to force controversial national security laws on Hong Kong “without the slightest delay” as police in the semi-autonomous territory fired teargas at protesters demonstrating against the unprecedented decision. Speaking in Beijing, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, said enacting the proposed anti-sedition law to stop anti-government protests that have persisted for the past year had become a “pressing obligation”. “We must get it done without the slightest delay,” he said. Wang said a legislative process to write the details of the law would begin after a proposed decision is approved next week at China’s National People’s Congress (NPC), known as the country’s rubber- stamping parliament where delegates pass already approved policies. As thousands of protesters in Hong Kong defied social distancing orders and confronted riot police on Sunday, Wang attempted to assuage concerns about how the law could be used against protesters, media and any critics of the government. “The decision targets a very narrow set of acts that seriously jeopardise national security,” Wang said. “It has no impact on Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and the rights and freedoms of Hong Kong residents or the legitimate rights, interests of foreign investors in Hong Kong.” Last Thursday, China’s NPC made the announcement that it would force a law banning subversion, separatism, and acts of foreign interference on Hong Kong – in what critics and legal observers say is one the most blatant violations of the “one, country, two systems” framework since the handover of Hong Kong from UK to Chinese control in 1997.