British foreign secretary tells Beijing to reconsider Hong Kong’s national security law and ‘step back from the brink’
- Dominic Raab writes in report that solution to city’s unrest and underlying causes must come from Hong Kong
- His comments come as the Law Society in the city issues statement calling for Beijing to exercise restraint
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has urged Beijing to reconsider its plan to impose a national security law on Hong Kong, as well as to “step back from the brink and respect” the city’s autonomy.
Raab, writing in the foreword of a six-monthly report that covered incidents in Hong Kong from July to December last year, also said the proposed legislation would undermine the “one country, two systems” framework, and raised the prospect of prosecution in Hong Kong for political crimes.
But in a statement issued on Friday morning, the Hong Kong government called the report “inaccurate and biased”, and a government spokesman said speculation that the law would undermine the city’s freedoms was “alarmist”.
“We firmly oppose and express deep regret over the report’s inaccurate and biased remarks on the national security law and the high degree of autonomy enjoyed by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region,” the statement read.
The government said it was “absolutely wrong and totally groundless” for the report to suggest the enactment of the national security law was in direct conflict with Article 23 of the Basic Law, in which Hong Kong was authorised to legislate national security law.