Russia backs law as aiding HK stability

China’s adoption of a national security law for Hong Kong is a necessary move by the government in Beijing to maintain regional safety and stability, Russian officials and experts said.

Mikhail Markelov, first deputy chairman of the United Russia party and a lawmaker in the national legislature, or Duma, said Russia gives its full support to the Chinese central government’s policies in relation to Hong Kong.

The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, or HKSAR, was passed unanimously by the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, on Tuesday.

“The new law does not conflict with the human rights system, because the law is aimed at protecting the interests of Hong Kong, preventing the blatant interference by external forces, and cracking down on the powers that had tried to ruin the stability of China. It will protect these interests in accordance with the law,” Markelov said.

He said that while Hong Kong society had for years shown a willingness to create a law protecting the SAR from the interference of some Western countries, it had not been able to realize this goal.

“The United States and some European countries ignored the domestic instabilities, and kept encouraging the violent protests in Hong Kong, which is incredible to me,” said Markelov.

He said the US had never given up on its interference in Hong Kong affairs, even as the US itself suffered from protests on the streets and widespread vandalism.

Domestic affair

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov agrees with Markelov, saying Russia views the HKSAR as China’s domestic affair.

During an interview with Chinese and Russian media, Lavrov said Hong Kong affairs fall within China’s domestic affairs and Washington’s threats to impose sanctions on China fully expose its sense of superiority and impunity. This is also not conducive to effective dialogue between the US and China on other issues, he said.

Sergey Sanakoyev, president of the Russian-Chinese Analytical Center, said the newly adopted law will not undermine Hong Kong’s status as an international financial center. Instead, it will provide a more stable environment for business operations and investment in the region.

Hong Kong used to be “a peaceful harbor of global investment”, but the violent protests — including the acts of vandalism — have undermined its fundamentals as a commercial center. The new law is a response to the external interference, Sanakoyev said.

He said that those Western countries that are threatening China with sanctions are hurting their own interests.

“The rest of the world will continue to trade with China, and they would be glad to have deeper commercial interactions with both the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong,” Sanakoyev said.

“In my opinion, the new law is a step that will boost the economic stability of Hong Kong,” the expert said.

Sanakoyev said the law is all about ensuring national security, a condition that is considered essential for any country.

“The external anti-China forces found an opportunity to interfere in the internal affairs of China due to the lack of appropriate laws and the destruction carried out by the rioters,” he said.

“The law will help allow Hong Kong to quickly resist external interference and maintain its stability.”

Let’s send Facebook a powerful message: Your profits will never be worth promoting hate, bigotry, racism, anti-Semitism and violence.” Stop Hate for Profit, a group

“Let’s send Facebook a powerful message: Your profits will never be worth promoting hate, bigotry, racism, anti-Semitism and violence,” “Stop Hate for Profit” said on its website.

Advertising test

Facebook said earlier this week it would submit to an audit of its hate speech controls, adding to plans to label newsworthy content that would otherwise violate its policies, following similar practices at other social media platforms such as Twitter.

One digital ad agency representative who participated in a call on Tuesday said Facebook executives referred repeatedly to the audit, without offering additional concessions.

Facebook executives have reached out to CEOs, board members and chief marketing officers of major advertisers to talk them out of the boycott, two people briefed on the discussions told Reuters.

The boycott will be a test for advertisers on how to reach billions of consumers without relying on the largest social media platform in the world, an executive at a major ad agency said.

Companies that run ads in order to promote their brand image rather than to make direct sales are less beholden to Facebook. Many of these, including the multinational advertisers who have joined up with the boycott, will begin to plot how they can achieve the same goals without Facebook, the executive said.

For Facebook, the boycott is unlikely to have a big financial impact. The top 100 brands on Facebook in 2019 likely brought in only 6 percent of Facebook’s total $70 billion in annual revenue, according to a Morningstar research note citing Pathmatics data, which measures most types of advertising on the platform. Facebook said last year its top 100 advertisers accounted for less than 20 percent of total ad revenue.