Chinese diplomats defend Beijing’s move to introduce national security law for Hong Kong
- Chinese embassy in Berlin says ‘separatists were exploiting the legal loophole’ in national security and it needs to be fixed
- But Chris Patten, Britain’s last governor of the former colony, describes proposal as a ‘comprehensive assault’ on city’s autonomy
China has mobilised its diplomats to defend a controversial move to enact a national security law for Hong Kong.
Under the Basic Law – Hong Kong’s mini-constitution – the city’s legislature is required to enact a national security law, but has yet to do so.
So now the legislation will be decided by Beijing rather than Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, and will be added to the annex of the Basic Law. The process will effectively circumvent any efforts by Hong Kong lawmakers in the opposition camp to try to block or filibuster the bill.
In a gesture that underlined the issue’s controversy and Beijing’s anticipation of resistance from overseas, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged its senior diplomats late on Thursday to defend the move, according to diplomatic sources in Beijing.
The envoys were told that opposition politicians in Hong Kong had long “colluded with external forces” in acts of secession, subversion, infiltration and destruction against the Chinese mainland, the sources said.