HK police makes first arrests under controversial law
Nearly 200 detained as thousands take to the streets to protest new national security law; ‘none of your business,’ China tells critics
HONG KONG: Hong Kong police made the first arrests under Beijing’s new national security law on Wednesday as the anniversary of the city’s handover to China was met by thousands defying a ban on protests. Police deployed water cannon, pepper spray and tear gas throughout the afternoon, arresting more than 180 people, seven of them for breaching the new national security law.
The law makes secessionist, subversive, or terrorist activities illegal, as well as foreign intervention in internal affairs. Any person taking part in secessionist activities, such as holding up banners calling for the city’s independence, is violating the law regardless of whether violence is used. Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam strongly endorsed the new law on Wednesday, saying it is “the most significant development in the relationship” between the central authorities and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
BEIJING/HONGKONG/LONDON: Hong Kong riot police fired water cannon and tear gas and detained nearly 200 protesters on Wednesday, making the first arrests a day after China passed a national security law for the city.
Scuffles broke out as thousands of protesters took to the streets on the occasion of the anniversary of Britain’s handover of the financial hub’s authority to China in 1997.
The arrests were made after crowds spilled into the streets chanting “resist till the end” and “Hong Kong independence”.
The new law, passed by
China’s rubber-stamp parliament on Tuesday, will punish secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with possible life in prison. It will see mainland security agencies in Hong Kong for the first time and allow for extradition to the mainland for trials.
On Wednesday, police cited the law for the first time in confronting protesters. “You are displaying flags or banners/chanting slogans/or conducting yourselves with an intent such as secession or subversion, which may constitute offences under the... national security law,” said a banner displayed by police.
Police fired water cannon to try to disperse the protesters and said they had made more than 180 arrests for illegal assembly and other offences.
The United States and its Asian and Western allies have criticised the legislation.
In Beijing, Zhang Xiaoming, executive deputy director of Beijing’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, said suspects arrested by a security office could be tried on the mainland.
He slammed international criticism, saying other countries should keep their noses out.
“What’s this got to do with you? It’s none of your business,” he said, adding it would have been simple “if what we want is one country, one system”, not ‘one country, two systems.’
UK: LAW IS A ‘CLEAR AND SERIOUS BREACH’
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday termed China’s new security law for Hong Kong a “clear and serious breach” of the agreement that preceded the 1997 handover, and offered a pathway to UK citizenship to residents of the former British colony.
Johnson told the House of Commons that the law violates the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration signed by the then Chinese premier Zhao Ziyang and former UK PM Margaret Thatcher, under which Hong Kong’s autonomy was guaranteed under the “one country, two systems” principle.