Beijing’s top man in Hong Kong blames colonial mindset for ‘chaos’ in city, but says national security law has restored order
- Luo Huining, director of the liaison office, also says clinging to colonial legal system lay at heart of last year’s social unrest
- Some residents ignored ‘fundamental change’ in the city’s constitutional basis after the handover, he says at forum marking National Constitution Day
Hong Kong is moving from a period of chaos to order with the new national security law in place, Beijing’s top man in the city said on Friday, but much more needs to be done to set up “comprehensive mechanisms” to ensure compliance.
Luo Huining, director of Beijing’s liaison office in the city, also said the ideological source of the chaos in recent years could be traced to those still clinging on to the colonial legal system, who failed to recognise and accept the changes to the city’s constitution that took place when China resumed sovereignty in 1997.
At a forum to mark the fourth anniversary of Beijing designating December 4 as National Constitution Day, Luo said: “Without national security, there will be no ‘one country, two systems’. Neither will there be prosperity and stability for Hong Kong.”
Speaking before Luo to open the event, city leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor pledged to strengthen national education for children, teachers and Hong Kong’s civil servants.
Responding to Luo’s remarks, one pro-establishment figure said there were indeed elements of the national security law that needed to be clarified, though another suggested the speech bordered on putting undue pressure on the judiciary. Opposition leaders, meanwhile, renewed their criticism of the sweeping, Beijing-drafted legislation, accusing the central government of tightening the screws to “crush dissent”.