Look into enacting national security law and ensure fair Legco elections, head of Hong Kong affairs office tells Carrie Lam
- HKMAO director Xia Baolong and city leader are said to have met in Shenzhen, amid backdrop of Beijing’s agencies asserting right to comment on local affairs
- Xia reportedly also raised incident of RTHK reporter questioning WHO on Taiwan’s membership
The head of China’s cabinet-level office that oversees Hong Kong affairs has urged the city’s leader to examine possible ways of enacting a national security law and to ensure that elections for the legislature this year are conducted in a fair manner.
The meeting between Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO), and Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was held in Shenzhen at the end of last month, according to sources.
Hong Kong is facing mounting pressure from Beijing to introduce its own national security legislation as stipulated by Article 23 of the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution.
Xia’s office and Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong have recently asserted their authority to comment on the city’s affairs, just months before the Legislative Council elections in September, which could redefine the local political landscape for the coming four years.
A mainland source familiar with the situation told the South China Morning Post that Xia, also a vice-chairman and secretary general of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the nation’s top advisory body, reminded Lam of the big picture of growing trade tensions between the United States and China, as well as the spectre of the Covid-19 pandemic.