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Hong Kong national security law
Hong KongPolitics

Hong Kong, Beijing authorities ramp up calls for patriotic education, warn against National Day protests

  • Director of liaison office Luo Huining stresses to civil servants and youth that loving country ‘not a choice but a duty’, noting new security law had ‘ended madness’
  • Police arrest two men over online messages inciting violence or unauthorised assembly

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A man takes a picture of the flags of the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong. Photo: Felix Wong
Ng Kang-chung,Jack LauandDanny Mok

Beijing and Hong Kong authorities ramped up calls for patriotic education and warnings against banned anti-governments protests over the mid-autumn festive season, as police made more arrests on the eve of China’s National Day amid fears of potential chaos.

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Luo Huining, director of the central government’s liaison office in the city, stressed on Wednesday the urgent need to step up national education for civil servants and youngsters, saying loving the country was “not a choice, but a duty” and noting that the new security law had “ended the madness” of last year’s civil unrest.
Beijing’s top envoy to the city was speaking at a celebratory event three months after the imposition of the sweeping law banning acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, as authorities braced for possible trouble stemming from threats of radical action spreading online.
Luo Huining, director of Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong, says the city’s civil servants and young people are in need of strengthened national education. Photo: Sing Tao Daily
Luo Huining, director of Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong, says the city’s civil servants and young people are in need of strengthened national education. Photo: Sing Tao Daily

Police officers from the Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau on Wednesday arrested two men, aged 20 and 30, for allegedly posting messages on internet platforms, including the Telegram messaging app and LIHKG forum, to “incite others to commit wounding with intent” or “incite others to take part in unauthorised assembly”.

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Some of the posts mentioned “killing police officers” and “setting police vehicles on fire”, Chief Inspector Fan Chun-yip said. The arrested pair had been active in spreading hate messages online inciting others to take part in illegal activities since mid-2019, he added.

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