The Guardian view on Hong Kong’s future: China’s doublespeak
The most powerful indictments of Beijing’s plans to impose a national security law on Hong Kong have not come from pro-democracy activists, but from the authorities themselves. They have told the city’s residents all they need to know about the proposals which China’s rubber-stamp parliament is due to pass this Thursday.
Thousands have already protested against the plans, which will bar subversion,
separatism or acts of foreign interference. More are expected to take to the streets on Wednesday, as people oppose the second reading of a separate bill in Hong Kong that criminalises “disrespecting” the national anthem, with a penalty of up to three years in jail.
They believe that the national security law spells the end of China’s promise that Hong Kong could maintain its way of life – which has long included rights such as freedom of expression and protest – until 2047, under the arrangement known as one country, two systems. The city’s mini-constitution states that it should pass its own security law, but the unpopularity of the measure made authorities back off 17 years ago. Existing laws are more than ample if Beijing’s true concern is security: they have allowed the arrest of more than 8,000 people in less than a year. There is already a specific ordinance to deal with terrorism, the other spectre invoked by officials.
Authorities insist the legislation will not impact on Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy, while at the same time underlining that it will, in fact, destroy it. The very decision to impose it from above is one of those signals. (Hong Kong’s bar association has questioned whether Beijing has the legal authority to do so.) But others have followed last week’s shock announcement. China’s foreign commissioner in the region said that freedoms of the press and speech would be unchanged – before warning the media against using them as a “pretext” to undermine national sove