Tag Archives: national security law

China passes national security law in turning point for Hong Kong

By Clare Jim and Yew Lun Tian

HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s parliament passed national security legislation for Hong Kong on Tuesday, setting the stage for the most radical changes to the former British colony’s way of life since it returned to Chinese rule 23 years ago.

Details of the law – which comes in response to last year’s often-violent pro-democracy protests in the city and aims to tackle subversion, terrorism, separatism and collusion with foreign forces – were yet to be released.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam nevertheless welcomed the law’s passage and said it would come into effect later on Tuesday, giving the city’s 7.5 million people little time to digest what is expected to be highly complex legislation.

Amid fears the law will crush the global financial hub’s freedoms, and reports that the heaviest penalty under it would be life imprisonment, pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong’s Demosisto group said it would dissolve.

“It marks the end of Hong Kong that the world knew before,” Wong said on Twitter.

The legislation pushes Beijing further along a collision course with the United States, Britain and other Western governments, which have said it erodes the high degree of autonomy the city was granted at its July 1, 1997, handover.

The United States, already in dispute with China over trade, the South China Sea and the coronavirus, began eliminating Hong Kong’s special status under U.S. law on Monday, halting defense exports and restricting technology access.

China said it would retaliate.

Lam, in a video message to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, urged the international community to “respect our country’s right to safeguard national security”.

She said the law would not undermine the city’s autonomy or its independent judiciary.

Authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong have repeatedly said the legislation is aimed at a few “troublemakers” and will not affect rights and freedoms, nor investor interests.

The editor-in-chief of the Global Times, a tabloid published by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party, said on Twitter the heaviest penalty under the law was life imprisonment.

As the law was passed in Beijing, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army garrison in Hong Kong held a drill which included exercises to stop suspicious vessels and arrest fugitives, according to the Weibo social media account of state-run CCTV’s military channel.

‘OVERPOWERING’

The legislation may get an early test with activists and pro-democracy politicians saying they would defy a police ban, amid coronavirus restrictions, on a rally on the anniversary of the July 1 handover.

At last year’s demonstration, which came amid a series of pro-democracy protests, a crowd stormed and vandalized the city’s legislature.

“We will never accept the passing of the law, even though it is so overpowering,” said Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai.

It is unclear if attending the unauthorized rally would constitute a national security crime.

A majority in Hong Kong opposes the legislation, a poll conducted for Reuters this month showed, but support for the protests has fallen to only a slim majority.

Police dispersed a handful of activists protesting against the law at a shopping mall.

Dozens of supporters of Beijing popped champagne corks and waved Chinese flags in celebration in front of government headquarters.

“I’m very happy,” said one elderly man, surnamed Lee.

“This will leave anti-China spies and people who brought chaos to Hong Kong with nowhere to go.”

This month, China’s official Xinhua news agency unveiled some of the law’s provisions, including that it would supersede existing Hong Kong legislation and that interpretation powers belong to China’s parliament top committee.

Beijing is expected to set up a national security office in Hong Kong for the first time and could also exercise jurisdiction on certain cases.

Judges for security cases are expected to be appointed by the city’s chief executive. Senior judges now allocate rosters up through Hong Kong’s independent judicial system.

It is not known which specific activities are to be made illegal, how precisely they are defined or what punishment they carry.

Britain, the European Union, Japan, Taiwan and others have also criticized the legislation.

China has hit back at the outcry, denouncing “interference” in its internal affairs.

(Additional reporting by Yanni Chow, Carol Mang, Joyce Zhou, Tyrone Siu, Jessie Pang and James Pomfret in Hong Kong; Writing by Marius Zaharia; Editing by Michael Perry, Robert Birsel)

Hong Kong police issue warning amid calls for new demonstrations

By Clare Jim and Noah Sin

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong police issued a warning late on Tuesday that they would not tolerate disruptions to public order after activists circulated calls online for fresh demonstrations on Wednesday.

A new national security law proposed last week by Beijing has revived mass protests by demonstrators who say China aims to curb the freedoms enjoyed in Hong Kong, a global financial center with broad autonomy.

Thousands of protesters clashed with police on Sunday in the first big demonstrations since a wave of violent protests last year. Financial markets have been alarmed by the prospect of a dramatic assertion of Chinese control over the city.

Calls were circulated on Tuesday on online forums for a general strike and protests on Wednesday against a national anthem law due for a second reading in the city’s Legislative Council. Such calls do not always result in protests. Police said gatherings must not disrupt traffic and warned of jail terms for those who cause illegal disturbances.

The anthem law would require schools to teach China’s national anthem, organizations to play it and sing it, and anyone who disrespects it to face jail or fines.

Protesters see it as a symbol of China’s encroachment on Hong Kong’s way of life, as manifest in the security law floated last week, which could pave the way for mainland security agencies to open up branches in Hong Kong.

“NO NEED TO WORRY”

Hong Kong authorities insist there is no threat to the city’s autonomy.

“There is no need for us to worry,” the city’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam told a weekly news conference. “In the last 23 years, whenever people worried about Hong Kong’s freedom of speech and freedom of expression and protest, time and again, Hong Kong has proven that we uphold and preserve those values.”

The United States has branded the security law a “death knell” for the city’s autonomy. Britain, which ruled Hong Kong until returning it to China in 1997, said it was deeply concerned by a law it said would undermine the “one country, two systems” principle under which Hong Kong is governed.

Hong Kong’s Bar Association said the draft had “worrying and problematic features”. According to the draft proposal last week, the legislation aims to tackle secession, subversion and terrorist activities.

On Sunday, police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse thousands of people who thronged the streets to protest against the proposed legislation. Almost 200 were arrested.

It was the first major protest since pro-democracy demonstrations rocked Hong Kong last year over an unsuccessful plan to introduce an extradition law with China, Hong Kong’s worst crisis since its return to Chinese rule.

More demonstrations are expected in the coming weeks as residents grow more confident about gathering with the coronavirus outbreak under control.

Investors’ concerns were clear in a sell-off on the Hong Kong bourse on Friday, though stocks regained some ground this week.

“Medium-to-long term it will still depend on U.S.-China relations and the political situation in Hong Kong,” said Steven Leung, executive director for institutional sales at brokerage UOB Kay Hian.

Beijing and city officials have toughened their rhetoric recently, describing some of the acts in last year’s protests as terrorism and attempts at secessionism.

While authorities scrapped the extradition bill that sparked that unrest, they dug in their heels against calls for universal suffrage, amnesty for arrested protesters, an independent inquiry into against police handling of the demonstrations and a request not to label the protests riots.

Opinion polls show only a minority of Hong Kong people support independence, which is anathema to Beijing.

(Reporting by Clare Jim, Noah Sin and Donny Kwok; Writing by Marius Zaharia and Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Michael Perry, Robert Birsel, Peter Graff)