Two Sessions 2020: new law will ‘prevent, frustrate and punish’ acts in Hong Kong that threaten national security, top official says

Name: Hong Kong faces China imposed national security law
Uploaded: 2020-05-22T06:52:18.000Z
Duration: 31 s
Description: Hong Kong faces China imposed national security law

Document put before mainland China’s top legislative body says legislation will require city’s government to set up specific organisation to handle security issues

National People’s Congress Standing Committee vice-chairman Wang Chen says Beijing is trying to protect Hong Kong residents from ‘small minority of criminal acts’

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A figure in the shape of a hand with the colours of the Chinese national flag for fingernails and a '23' on its palm in reference to Article 23 is carried by protesters at a National Day rally in Hong Kong in 2018. Photo: AFP

Tony CheungandKimmy Chung

Published: 2:52pm, 22 May 2020Updated: 7:17pm, 22 May 2020

A new law to prevent, frustrate and punish acts in Hong Kong that threaten national security will require the city’s government to set up a specific organisation to do the job, according to a document put forward at China’s legislature on Friday.

Speaking at the opening of the annual session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), Wang Chen, vice-chairman of the NPC’s Standing Committee, confirmed that the law would proscribe secessionist and subversive activity as well as foreign interference and terrorism in the city – all developments that had been troubling Beijing for some time, but most pressingly over the past year of increasingly violent anti-government protests.

Wang said a fundamental consideration behind the resolution was that Beijing would not allow Hong Kong to be turned into a “base of infiltration”.

“Using Hong Kong to infiltrate and sabotage the mainland touches on our bottom line, it is absolutely not tolerable,” he said.

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Hong Kong faces China imposed national security law

He also stressed that by making the new law, Beijing had been trying to protect the legal rights of the city’s residents: “To prevent, frustrate and punish the small minority of criminal acts that harm national security is to offer better protection to the safety of life and property of the vast majority of Hong Kong people, as well as their basic rights and freedoms.”

Wang added that the law would help China implement the “one country, two systems” principle, govern Hong Kong in accordance with the law, and firmly object to “external meddling”.