Using a local security law to fight ‘soft resistance’ may put at risk what makes Hong Kong unique
- The city’s political elite seem to be having an internal debate as to whether the crackdown in the wake of the 2019 may have gone on too long and too far
Ahead of the impending legislation of a local security law, Hong Kong’s political elite seem to be finally having a serious internal debate. A few have raised legitimate questions about whether the post-riot crackdown since 2019, while completely justified and necessary, may have gone on too long and too far.
Professor Chen is one of the few prominent local legal scholars Beijing takes seriously.
“So soft resistance … my own view is that the government should use its own means to counteract what it considers to be the wrong view of history, China or whatever, instead of using the law to do so,” he told a public forum last week.
He might have been responding to Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung, who said the government had to take “full action” against soft resistance against authorities.
Now that the most serious crimes and violent offences stemming from the 2019 riots have been mostly dealt with, dealing with “soft resistance” seems to have become a dominant theme of the work carried out by Tang’s bureau and the security apparatus under it.