General calls China’s security key in Hong Kong
The commander of China’s military garrison in Hong Kong said in an interview posted Tuesday that forces stationed there would “resolutely” protect the country’s national security interests, a pointed reminder of Beijing’s ultimate power to enforce its rule over the semiautonomous territory.
The commander’s remarks came as Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, defended the central government’s plan to draft new national security laws to punish acts of dissent or subversion, even though the process sidestepped the territory’s own legislative process.
“Rights and freedoms are not absolute,” Lam said at her regular weekly news conference in Hong Kong.
“If a minority of people, indeed a very small minority of people, are going to breach the law to organize and participate in terrorist activities to subvert the state power, then of course they have to be bounded by the needed legislation,” she said.
She added that the new legislation, submitted to the National People’s Congress in Beijing last week, had a “positive response” in Hong Kong and would have
“the opposite effects of what overseas politicians have said,” bringing greater stability and confidence, not greater repression.
Lam said the move will not threaten the semi-autonomous territory’s civil rights, despite widespread criticism of the move as an encroachment on freedom of speech and assembly.
Lam told reporters that there was “no need for us to worry.”
“Hong Kong has proven that we uphold and preserve those values,” Lam said. “Hong Kong needs this piece of legislation for the bigger benefit of the great majority of Hong Kong people.”
The proposal touched off a new wave of protests in Hong Kong over the weekend, with thousands pouring into the streets Sunday, defying restrictions put in place because of the coronavirus epidemic. There were periodic clashes between protesters and police, and at least 180 people were arrested. Several were injured.
The garrison commander, Maj. Gen. Chen Daoxiang, addressed the situation in Hong Kong in an interview on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress in Beijing, where he serves as one of nearly 3,000 delegates to the annual legislative gathering.
Chen said the new legislation would deter “all kinds of separatist forces and external intervention forces,” echoing the view of Lam and others in China’s political leadership that the protests have international support intended to undermine the Communist Party’s rule over the city.
“Garrison officers and soldiers are determined, confident and capable of safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests and maintaining the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong,” Chen said in an interview with China’s state television network, CCTV.