China’s Communist Party Plans National Security Laws for Hong Kong

China’s communist party will propose national security laws for Hong Kong in response to last year’s pro-democracy movement. China’s communist party has also been using COVID-19 to silence and arrest pro-democracy leaders.

The South China Morning Post newspaper, citing unnamed sources, said the laws would ban secession, foreign interference, terrorism and all seditious activities aimed at toppling the communist government. Also to stop any external interference in the former British colony.

The legislation, which could be introduced as a motion to China’s parliament, could be a turning point for its freest and most international city. Potentially triggering a revision of its special status in Washington and likely to spark more unrest.

Online posts have already emerged urging people to gather to protest on Thursday night. Hong Kongers were seen shouting pro-democracy slogans in a shopping mall as riot police stood nearby.

China’s Communist Party tightening its grip

Hong Kong people took to the streets last year, sometimes in their millions, to protest a now-withdrawn bill that would have allowed extraditions of criminal suspects to mainland China. The pro-democracy movement broadened to include demands for broader democracy amid perceptions that Beijing was tightening its grip over the city.

“If Beijing passes the law … how [far] will civil society resist repressive laws? How much impact will it unleash onto Hong Kong as an international financial centre?” said Ming Sing, political scientist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

The Hong Kong dollar weakened on the news

The technical details of the proposals remain unclear but an announcement will be made in Beijing later on Thursday, one senior Hong Kong government source said.

China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress, is due to begin its annual session on Friday. After being delayed for months by covid-19 that started in Wuhan, China.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on May 6 he was delaying the report assessing whether Hong Kong was sufficiently autonomous to warrant Washington’s special economic treatment that has helped it remain a world financial centre.

The delay was to account for any actions at the National People’s Congress, he said.

Tension between the two superpowers has heightened in recent weeks. Because China refuses to take responsibility for the COVID-19 virus that started in Wuhan, China. China’s arrogance is souring an already worsening relationship over trade.

China’s Communist Party Determined to Silence Hong Kong

A previous attempt by Hong Kong to introduce national security legislation. Known as Article 23, in 2003 was met with mass peaceful pro-democracy movement protests and shelved.

Hong Kong has a constitutional obligation to enact Article 23 “on its own”. But similar laws can be introduced by the communist party separately into an annex of the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution.

That legal mechanism could bypass the city’s legislature as the laws could be imposed by promulgation by Hong Kong’s pro-communist government.

“Some people are destroying Hong Kong’s peace and stability. The communist party also sees all that has happened,” pro-establishment lawmaker Christopher Cheung, who is not part of discussions in Beijing, told Reuters.

“Legislation is necessary and the sooner the better.”

National security legislation has been strongly opposed by pro-democracy protesters. They argue it could erode the city’s freedoms and high degree of autonomy. Guaranteed under the “one country, two systems” formula put in place when it returned to Chinese rule.

A senior Western diplomat, who declined to be identified, said the imposition of such laws from the Communist party, without any local legislative process, would also hurt international perceptions about the city and its economy.

Protesters also denounce what they see as the creeping meddling in Hong Kong by China’s Communist Party rulers. Beijing denies the charge and blames the West. Especially the United States and Britain, for stirring up trouble.

Source: Reuters, Washington Post