Hong Kong Passes Tough Security Law Limiting Liberties
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
HONG KONG (Worthy News) – Critics feared losing more civil liberties in Hong Kong on Wednesday after local lawmakers unanimously approved a new national security law that grants the government more power to quash dissent.
The city’s Legislative Council, packed with supporters of mainland China’s Communist government, passed the Safeguarding National Security Bill during a special session.
The law will expand authorities’ ability to prosecute citizens for offenses including “colluding with external forces to commit “illegal acts.”
Citizens can also be charged with “treason, insurrection, espionage, and disclosing state secrets,” among others.
In China, these charges have been used against devoted Christians and others deemed dangerous to the government’s communist ideology, Worthy News established.
The law would raise the penalty for these offenses to potentially life in prison.
Western officials and human rights activists saw the legislation as the latest step in a political crackdown triggered by pro-democracy protests in 2019.
BEIJING LAW
It comes on top of a similar security law Beijing imposed in 2020, which has already largely silenced opposition voices in Hong Kong, which has long been Asia’s leading financial hub.
Dissidents worry the new legislation will further erode civil liberties that Beijing promised to preserve for 50 years when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Yet Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee called it “a historic moment” for the densely populated territory of 7.4 million people, adding the law would go into effect on March 23.
Beijing, which imposed the law on Hong Kong, and the local authorities argue the law is necessary to maintain stability and deny it has weakened autonomy.”
However, it came after Hong Kong actor Gregory Wong and 11 other people were jailed Saturday for their role in the storming by hundreds of the city’s legislature during pro-democracy protests in 2019.
Wong was jailed for just over six years – one of the longer sentences handed down by the district court on Saturday, trial observers said.
Activists Ventus Lau and Owen Chow were also among those given prison terms linked to the pro-democracy protest, while two journalists were fined.
EXTRADITION CONTROVERSY
The incident happened in July 2019, a pivotal moment in the pro-democracy protests that erupted over a controversial law allowing the extradition of people to mainland China.
While officials say Tuesday’s legislation is part of broader measures to prevent similar violence, the law has raised concerns in the West.
The United States believes the passing of the new bill can accelerate the closing of a once-open society, said State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel. He added that a lot of the phrasing, including on external interference, was “incredibly vague.”
“We’re analyzing this legislation, and we are taking a look at what the potential risk could be to not just U.S. citizens but other American interests that we might have,” Patel told reporters.
Britain said the legislation would impact
Hong Kong’s reputation as an international city that respects the rule of law has independent institutions and protects its citizens’ freedoms.
“This new law, rushed through the legislative process, will have far-reaching implications for all of these areas,” Foreign Minister David Cameron said. He added it undermined the terms of the 1984 agreement under which Britain handed back its colony to China.
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