Workers work on a board after the opening of a temporary national security office in Hong Kong
Hong Kong:
On Wednesday, China opened its powerful national security office in Hong Kong, transforming a hotel near a downtown park that has been one of the most popular venues for pro-democracy protests in its new headquarters.
The office, which operates beyond examining local courts or other institutions, will oversee the Hong Kong government’s enforcement of the imposing national security legislation that Beijing imposed on the city last week.
The legislation gives its agents, operating openly in the global financial center for the first time, enforcement powers.
It allows them to drive suspects across the border to trials in Communist Party-controlled courts and grants them special privileges, including the fact that the Hong Kong authorities cannot search or detain them , or even inspect their vehicles.
It was not known how many agents from the mainland will be stationed in the former Metropark Hotel, a 266-room, 33-story building in the commercial and commercial district of Causeway Bay, near Victoria Park.
At the opening ceremony, head of the security office Zheng Yanxiong said that he would apply the law strictly “without prejudice to the legitimate rights and interests of any person or organization”.
Luo Huining, head of China’s liaison office in the city, Beijing’s main representative office, said the office was “the guardian of national security” and that the people who loved China and Hong Kong have welcomed.
“Those who have ulterior motives and who are anti-China and seek to destabilize Hong Kong have not only stigmatized the office, but have also soiled the legal system and the rule of law on the Chinese mainland in order to stir up unnecessary worries and fears among Hong Kong residents, “said Luo.
Red line
The new security law has pushed China’s freest city on a more authoritarian path and has attracted condemnation from some Western governments, lawyers and rights groups.
He punishes acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces that can go as far as life imprisonment. Police arrested at least 10 people, including a 15-year-old boy, for alleged threats to the national security of China.
Critics fear it will crush coveted freedoms in the Chinese-run city, while supporters say it will bring stability after a year of sometimes violent protests that plunged the former British colony into its greatest crisis in years. decades.
Officials in Hong Kong and Beijing insist that rights and freedoms would remain intact, but say national security is a “red line”. New security legislation has already started to change life in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong authorities banned students from singing “Glory in Hong Kong”, the unofficial anthem of the pro-democracy protest movement, on Wednesday.
Education Secretary Kevin Yeung said students should not participate in class boycotts, chant slogans, form human chains or sing songs containing political messages, specifically referring to the popular anthem of protest.
Books by some pro-democracy activists and politicians have been removed from public libraries. The slogan “Liberate Hong Kong! Revolution of our time” is now illegal. The activists dissolved their organizations or fled. Stores have removed protest-themed products and decorations.
Director-General Lam said security law was soft compared to that of other countries, without naming them, but supporters of democracy say its content is vague and worried that Beijing authorities will have it right of final interpretation.
Due to widespread unease with the law, major US Internet companies, including Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Twitter and Zoom, have announced that they have suspended processing of user data requests from Hong Kong authorities for that they were studying it.
The United States has started to remove Hong Kong’s special status from U.S. law because Washington no longer considers the global financial center to be sufficiently independent from mainland China.
(Report by Donny Kwok, Yanni Chow and Anne Marie Roantree; Writing by Marius Zaharia; Edition by Michael Perry, Robert Birsel)
(This story has not been edited by GalacticGaming staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
