Hong Kong’s legal chief tells residents to stick with facts
Hong Kong’s top legal official warned residents to steer clear of criticism of the government that strays too far from the facts, as officials defend Beijing’s plan to overhaul the city’s elections.
Hong Kong justice secretary Teresa Cheng said on Tuesday that opinions were “no more than an utterance of no value” if the facts were not established.
Cheng was answering a question about what sort of criticism would be legal in the former British colony after Beijing enacts a wave of legislation including a national security law, as well as the electoral changes.
“Some of the statements that are sometimes uttered, that we hear, are actually not based on facts, or perhaps oblivious of the facts that exist,” Cheng told Bloomberg Television. “And I think that is what one has to be careful not to embark upon.”
In Beijing and Hong Kong officials are fanning out to defend changes in the city’s political system since its return to Chinese rule in 1997. Chinese legislators are expected to approve a sweeping electoral overhaul later this week that will require future candidates for elected office to be “patriots” and secure nominations from a proBeijing committee.
The moves, including Beijing’s imposition of a national security law on Hong Kong outlawing speech deemed subversive or secessionist, have been criticised by the US and UK as a violation of China’s treaty commitment to maintain the city’s “high degree of autonomy.”
On Monday, a bipartisan group of US legislators, including senators Ed Markey and Mitt Romney, called on the Biden administration to work with allies and partners to support the people of Hong Kong.
Cheng, one of the senior officials sanctioned by the US treasury in August on allegations of “undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy”, on Tuesday reiterated the government’s argument that the security law had restored stability. “Please look at the actual facts and then see what’s happening in Hong Kong,” she said in response to the legislators’ statement.