Security laws ‘most important’ creation for Hong Kong since handover: leader
Hong Kong’s innovator on Wednesday hailed a sweeping nationwide security laws imposed by Beijing as the “most significant development” since the city was handed back again to China.
“The legislation of the national security law is known as the most important production in relations between the central government and Hong Kong because the handover,” LEADER Carrie Lam told dignitaries at a ceremony marking the 23rd anniversary of the city’s return to Chinese rule.
“The nationwide security law is a turning point for Hong Kong from chaos to staying governed well,” she added.
Lam was speaking a good working day after China unveiled the law to semi-autonomous Hong Kong’s 7.5 million residents, a historic move decried by many Western governments as an unprecedented assault on the finance hub’s liberties and autonomy.
It outlaws subversion, secession, terrorism and colluding with overseas forces to undermine countrywide security with sentences of up to life in prison.
The new suite of powers radically restructures the partnership between Beijing and Hong Kong, toppling the legal firewall which has existed between the city’s judiciary and the mainland’s party-controlled courts.
China will have jurisdiction more than “serious” circumstances and its own security agencies will also be in a position to operate publicly found in the city for the very first time, unbound by local laws and regulations as they perform their duties.
Twenty-seven countries, including Britain, France, Germany and Japan, urged Beijing to “reconsider the imposition” of the legislation, saying in a statement to the UN People Rights Council that it “undermines” the city’s freedoms.
AMERICA has threatened fresh countermeasures.
But Lam - a good pro-Beijing appointee - rejected concerns regulations will end Hong Kong’s freedoms.
In her speech on Wednesday, she said regulations “won't undermine Hong Kong’s judicial independence and high amount of autonomy, and won’t affect the Hong Kong people’s freedoms and rights.”
She described criticism of regulations by foreign governments as “smearing and vicious attacks” and she thanked China’s leaders for keeping faith in her soon after last year’s huge and frequently violent pro-democracy protests.
