Coronavirus gave China the opportunity to make controversial policy moves, experts say

Health crisis has been a ‘catalyst for existing trends, accelerating … the deterioration of Hong Kong’s autonomy’, US academic says on Beijing’s plans for a national security law for the city

Beijing took the decision despite risking ‘further alienating the general public in Hong Kong and the rest of the world’, former US deputy assistant secretary of state says

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Beijing’s proposed national security law for Hong Kong has put the city’s autonomy under threat. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 3:00pm, 6 Jun 2020Updated: 11:05pm, 6 Jun 2020

The Covid-19 pandemic created a window of opportunity that allowed China to introduce a national security law in Hong Kong and overreach in other areas, both internationally and domestically, experts said on Friday.

According to Susan Shirk, a former US deputy assistant secretary of state under Bill Clinton, Beijing took the decision to introduce the legislation despite risking “further alienating the general public in Hong Kong and the rest of the world”.

The move was made as Europe and the United States were preoccupied with combating the spread of the deadly pathogen and reviving their economies, she said at an online seminar organised by the University of Hong Kong (HKU).

David Arase, resident professor of international politics at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, said that “in some ways, the virus has been a catalyst for existing trends, accelerating by one or two years the deterioration of Hong Kong’s autonomy … and allowing China’s security agencies to openly operate in the city”.

Chen Zhiwu, director of the Asia Global Institute at HKU, said that the coronavirus – which has sickened more than 6.7 million people and claimed nearly 400,000 lives – had amplified many tendencies in China that existed before the pandemic started.

“We’re living in a very confusing world, with the leaders of the free world all doing things that seem to make the attractiveness of democracy go down. I think that has definitely contributed to the rise of the leadership style in China,” he said.

“We’re going to see Hong Kong’s autonomy and its role in the financial and trade world either reduced or eliminated,” he said.