What China Really Wants From Hong Kong’s National Security Law: Former Governor
Chris Patten, Hong Kong’s last colonial governor, said China’s national security law on the city is an attempt to end “One Country, Two Systems.” The former governor said it is in breach of the agreement that Hong Kong should have a high degree of autonomy.
“Most of the things which they would talk about are actually already illegal under Hong Kong law,” says Patten. He says what China wants is to define issues like terrorism and treason “in a way which runs counter to most views around the world on human rights and international human rights law.”
China’s top legislative body approved a landmark national security law for Hong Kong, a sweeping attempt to quell dissent that risks U.S. retaliation and the city’s appeal as a financial hub.
The National People’s Congress Standing Committee voted unanimously to approve the law on the former British colony when it wrapped up a three-day meeting Tuesday in Beijing, multiple Hong Kong media organizations reported, citing unidentified people. The official Xinhua News Agency will publish details of the law this afternoon, marking the first time the law will be fully disclosed to the public, the South China Morning Post reported, citing a source familiar with the situation.
Speaking shortly after the reports, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said she couldn’t confirm whether the law had been approved. She acknowledged that residents in the city had many concerns about the measure before pivoting to discuss job-support subsidies.
“The National People’s Congress is still in a meeting and on the agenda today there’s the relevant national security law for Hong Kong,” Lam said. “At this moment it is inappropriate for me to respond to any questions or give any explanations.”
The measure to punish acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces comes on the eve of the July 1 anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule in 1997. The organizer of the march is making a last-minute appeal to hold the event, after being denied permission by police, who cited coronavirus risk and the potential for violence.
The new law will shape the future of Hong Kong, whose civil liberties, free markets and independent judicial system have attracted hundreds of international companies. President Donald Trump warned last month the U.S. would start rolling back Hong Kong’s preferential trade status, while the U.K. and Taiwan have offered new paths to residency for the city’s 7.5 million inhabitants.
Hong Kong’s freedoms have become increasingly tenuous as President Xi Jinping grows more confident in China’s ability to withstand foreign pressure and Hong Kong protesters embrace more radical positions such as independence. Beijing’s steady moves to better integrate the city boiled over into historic and sometimes violent protests last year, after Hong Kong’s leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, attempted to pass a bill allowing extraditions to the mainland.
The new law goes further toward revising the “one country, two systems” framework designed to protect Hong Kong’s liberal institutions and Common Law legal system. The legislation will let Chinese security agents operate in Hong Kong, allow China to prosecute some cases and give Lam the power to pick judges to hear national security matters.
“You have in Hong Kong the Common Law system and imposing on it what passes as the law in China will produce chaos which will be intolerable for the people of Hong Kong and eventually will be intolerable for business, as well,” Chris Patten, the territory’s last colonial governor, told Bloomberg Television on Monday. “Hong Kong represents all those aspects of liberal democracy which Xi Jinping so hates.”
Chinese officials have said the law is necessary to ensure peace following last year’s chaos, which included vandalism of subway stations, regular use of Molotov cocktails and a brief occupation of Hong Kong’s international airport. China has also said that only an “extremely small” number of people will be affected by the law.
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