Beijing’s foreign ministry office in Hong Kong fires double-barrelled blast at top US newspaper after editorial on domestic national security law
- China’s foreign ministry arm in Hong Kong sends second letter to The Wall Street Journal biting back after editorial criticises domestic national security law
- Hong Kong security deputy permanent secretary, takes aim at Britain’s The Guardian after ‘gross distortion’ of effects of new law
The commissioner’s office of China’s Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong on Friday issued its second statement in eight days that took a swipe at the news outlet’s editorial “Hong Kong’s Giant Leap Backward”, published earlier this month.
The news came as an official from Hong Kong’s Security Bureau sent a letter to rebut an article in The Guardian, an influential UK newspaper, which highlighted warnings by the city’s justice chief that “online criticism” could breach the legislation, mandated by Article 23 of the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution.
A spokesman for the commissioner’s office said its statement, which included the text of the letter to The Wall Street Journal, again rejected the editorial that criticised the national security legislation and its “bad remarks that pour cold water on Hong Kong’s developmental prospects”.
“The editorial asserts that the chief executive of Hong Kong can ‘now turn his attention to the economy, but it may be too late’,” the commissioner’s office letter said.
“Don’t be a worrywart. None of the doomsaying has come to pass.”
The letter, published in the newspaper on Thursday, blamed The Wall Street Journal and other Western media for the distortion of Hong Kong’s image overseas.
Beijing hits back at US criticism of Hong Kong’s Article 23 security law
The US paper’s editorial that attracted the double whammy of condemnation from the commissioner’s office was published on March 20.
The editorial accused the law of making the city “a more dangerous place for foreign businesses, lawyers, journalists and local citizens” and warned readers to “enter Hong Kong at your own risk”.
The latest blast was similar to another letter sent to the journal on March 21 after the publication of the editorial which covered much the same ground.
Apollonia Liu Lee Ho-kei, the deputy permanent secretary for security, has also written a letter, to The Guardian, to “strongly disapprove of and condemn” a news article headlined “Hong Kong official warns online criticism could breach new national security law”.
‘Clumsy efforts by foreign forces won’t upset Hong Kong’s path to prosperity’
The article, published on March 25 and originally from French news agency Agence France-Presse, reported on a television interview with Paul Lam Ting-kwok, the justice secretary.
The piece said he warned that “posting and sharing criticism of the city’s newly enacted national security law could be in breach of the legislation”.
Liu wrote that Lam had clearly explained the difference between incitement to hatred against the city and central governments and objective criticism.
She said the article’s headline was a “gross distortion” of Lam’s remarks and misled its readers into the belief that criticism of Hong Kong’s government was banned.
“We strongly urge The Guardian to ensure that reports concerning Hong Kong are fair and just, and stop making scaremongering remarks,” Liu wrote.
