Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee (李家超) yesterday said that the territory would create its own national security law next year, four years after Beijing imposed sweeping legislation aimed at silencing dissent.
The Beijing-anointed leader unveiled measures in a policy address aimed at revitalizing Hong Kong’s economy and flagging population growth, while asserting the need to protect the territory from “external forces.”
“Some countries are undermining China and the implementation of ‘one country, two systems’ in Hong Kong for their own benefits,” Lee said, referring to the governance model agreed by Britain and China under which the territory would keep some autonomy and freedoms following the 1997 handover.
Photo: Bloomberg
“External forces continue to meddle in Hong Kong affairs,” he said.
“We must guard against those seeking to provoke conflict ... and remain alert to acts of ‘soft resistance’ in different forms,” said Lee, using a phrase that Chinese and Hong Kong officials have used in speeches to denote anti-government actions.
Protests rocked the territory in 2019, bringing hundreds of thousands of people to the streets to call for greater freedoms and more autonomy from mainland China.
In response, Beijing imposed a National Security Law to punish four major crimes — secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces — with sentences of up to life in prison.
Lee — who is under US sanctions for his role in stamping out the protests — said that Hong Kong would “continue to safeguard national security.”
“The government is pressing ahead to draw up effective legislative options and will complete the legislative exercise in 2024 to fulfill our constitutional duty,” Lee said.
Under the Basic Law — the territory’s mini-constitution — Hong Kong is required to implement its own law combating seven security-related crimes, including treason and espionage.
The task, often referred to as “a constitutional responsibility” by the Hong Kong government, has yet to be fulfilled more than 25 years after its return to Chinese rule.
The last legislative attempt in 2003 was shelved after about 500,000 people took to the streets in protest.
Data from the Hong Kong Security Bureau showed that as of the end of last month, 280 people had been arrested and 30 had been convicted under the National Security Law.
The legislation has effectively snuffed out political dissent.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
RSS