My Take | Compromise with Beijing now or suffer later
Hong Kong’s intransigence on enacting a national security law means reforms on the political and economic fronts are also being held back. Isn’t it time we met the central government half way?
You can call Wang Zhimin and Yang Yirui all kinds of names, but they are just messengers.
The liaison office director and deputy commissioner of the foreign ministry office in Hong Kong said the city needed a national security law while hitting out at local activists for “colluding with external forces” and challenging China’s sovereignty.
“Hong Kong is the only place in the world without a national security legislation,” Wang said. “It’s a major weakness in the nation’s overall security, and it has a direct impact on residents.”
Criticise all you want but the central government is not a liberal democracy, so you are barking up the wrong tree demanding that it behave like one.
But this doesn’t mean Hong Kong can’t negotiate to preserve its freedoms and high degree of autonomy, but to do so only wisely.
Filter out the noise, and the message from the mainland is simple. There can be no political progress or improvement in governance without enacting the national security legislation as outlined in Article 23 of the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution.