China yesterday blasted critics of Hong Kong’s new national security law, after Western powers and the UN said it would further curtail freedoms in the territory.
Hong Kong’s Legislative Council on Tuesday passed the law unanimously, introducing tough new penalties for five categories of crimes including treason and theft of state secrets.
Commonly referred to as Article 23, the homegrown security law is to work in tandem with a 2020 Beijing-imposed version that has silenced nearly all dissent in the territory and led to nearly 300 people being arrested since its enactment.
Photo: AFP
Western nations including the US and the UK were swift to criticize the new law, with British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Cameron saying it would “further damage the rights and freedoms enjoyed in the city” and calling the legislation “rushed.”
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lin Jian (林劍) told reporters that “attacks and smears” against the new Hong Kong law by other governments and outside groups were “doomed to fail.”
“Security is a prerequisite for development, and the rule of law is the cornerstone of prosperity,” Lin said.
The law, which punishes treason, insurrection, theft of state secrets and espionage, sabotage, and external interference, is to plug “gaps” left by Beijing’s legislation, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee (李家超) said.
The government has said that its creation was a “constitutional responsibility.”
However, Cameron said the fast-tracked legislation undermined the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, the internationally binding agreement that underlies the “one country, two systems” principle.
“I urge the Hong Kong authorities to ... uphold its high degree of autonomy and the rule of law, and act in accordance with its international commitments and legal obligations,” he said.
US Department of State spokesman Vedant Patel said that the US was “alarmed by the sweeping and what we interpret as vaguely defined provisions” in the law.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called the law and its “rushed” adoption “a regressive step for the protection of human rights.”
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