Hong Kong’s top legal official told residents to steer clear of criticisms of the government that stray too far from the facts, as officials defend Beijing’s plan to overhaul the territory’s elections.
Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng (鄭若驊) said in an interview yesterday that opinions are “no more than an utterance of no value” if the facts are not established.
Cheng was answering a question about what kind of criticism would be legal in Hong Kong as it implements a range of legal changes, including a National Security Law and the electoral overhaul.
Photo: Bloomberg
“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 very careful not to embark upon.”
Officials in Beijing and Hong Kong are fanning out to defend the most significant changes to the territory’s political system since its return to Chinese rule in 1997.
Chinese lawmakers are expected later this week to approve a sweeping electoral overhaul that would require candidates for elected office to be “patriots” and secure nominations from a pro-Beijing committee.
The moves, including Beijing’s imposition of a National Security Law on Hong Kong outlawing speech deemed subversive or secessionist, have been criticized by the US and the UK as a breach of China’s treaty commitment to maintain the territory’s “high degree of autonomy.”
On Monday, a group of US lawmakers, including US senators Ed Markey and Mitt Romney, called on US President Joe Biden’s administration to work with allies and partners to support Hong Kongers.
Cheng — who was among senior officials sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasury in August last year on allegations of “undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy” — yesterday 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 lawmakers’ statement.
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