• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Sunday, February 5, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home World

Outrage in Hong Kong as China Pushes Security Law

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
05/22/20
in World
Protesters in masks and goggles chant slogans outside the Legislative Council in Hong Kong on June 12

Protesters in masks and goggles chant slogans outside the Legislative Council in Hong Kong on June 12, 2019. Photo: Philip Fong, AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Pro-democracy campaigners in Hong Kong vowed Friday to take to the streets in protest over what they said was China’s fiercest assault on the city’s treasured autonomy with its move to impose a security law.

The proposal for the legislation — expected to ban treason, subversion, and sedition — was introduced into China’s rubber-stamp parliament at the opening of its annual session on Friday morning.

It followed repeated warnings from China’s communist leaders they would no longer tolerate dissent in Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous city that endured seven months of massive pro-democracy protests last year.

“This is the largest nuclear weapon the Chinese Communist Party has used in its mutual destruction of Hong Kong,” Jimmy Sham, leader of the Civil Human Rights Front, which organized the million-person rally that kicked off last year’s unrest.

Sham appealed for millions to again take to the streets, while other activists used internet threads and chat apps to call for protests on Sunday.

Prominent democracy activist Joshua Wong said China’s message to protesters was clear. “Beijing is attempting to silence Hongkongers’ critical voices with force and fear,” Wong said on Twitter, while also expressing defiance. “HKers will not scare off in the face of wolf warrior policy.”

3/ [And how is the mood in HK?]

3.1/ This is the critical moment of the beginning of the end for every single citizen in HK. In the face of this draconian law, HKers will not be scared off from telling truths and fighting for our justice.

— Joshua Wong 黃之鋒 ? (@joshuawongcf) May 22, 2020

Amnesty International warned the legislation posed “a quasi-existential threat to the rule of law in Hong Kong”, and said it was “an ominous moment for human rights in the city.”

While China put forward its proposal as vital to reinforcing stability in the global financial hub, Hong Kong’s share market plunged on Friday with a drop of more than five percent in afternoon trade.

Eroding Freedoms

Hong Kong has been allowed a limited form of autonomy since returning from British to Chinese rule in 1997, with those unique freedoms enshrined under a “One Country, Two Systems” handover agreement. However, a huge pro-democracy movement has built in the face of fears China has been steadily eroding those freedoms.

The Communist Party made clear Friday the planned law was aimed at quashing the democracy movement.

“We must take powerful measures to lawfully prevent, stop and punish them,” vice chairman of the National People’s Congress’s (NPC) Standing Committee Wang Chen said, referring to “anti-China” forces.

Article 23 of Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, says the city must enact a law to prohibit “treason, secession, sedition (and) subversion” against the Chinese government. But the clause has never been implemented due to opposition from the Hong Kong people fearful it would destroy their cherished civil rights.

An attempt to have Article 23 pass through Hong Kong’s legislature in 2003 was shelved after half a million people took to the streets in protest against it.

China’s move would circumvent Hong Kong’s legislature by having it imposed by the national parliament.

Wang said Hong Kong’s delays in implementing the security law had forced the Chinese leadership to take action. “More than 20 years after Hong Kong’s return, however, relevant laws are yet to materialize due to the sabotage and obstruction by those trying to sow trouble in Hong Kong and China at large, as well as external hostile forces,” Wang said.

Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam vowed Friday to “fully cooperate” with Beijing, saying the government would “complete the legislation as soon as possible.”

She added at an evening press conference in Hong Kong — flanked by ministers and her cabinet — that the law would not affect the “One Country, Two Systems” framework or the city’s high degree of autonomy. “Hong Kong will remain to be a very free society where freedoms of protests, freedom of journalism will stay.”

US Warnings

In a statement, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: “The decision to bypass Hong Kong’s well-established legislative processes and ignore the will of the people of Hong Kong would be a death knell for the high degree of autonomy Beijing promised for Hong Kong.”

President Donald Trump gave a vague initial response that nevertheless warned of a stronger reaction. “I don’t know what it is, because nobody knows yet. If it happens, we’ll address that issue very strongly,” Trump said.

US President Donald Trump speaks at the Rotunda of the Utah State Capitol on December 4, 2017, in Salt Lake City, Utah.
US President Donald Trump. Photo: George Frey, AFP

The U.S. Congress late last year angered China by passing a law that would strip Hong Kong’s preferential trading status if it is no longer considered autonomous from the mainland. The State Department warned China’s actions could impact its decision on that status.

U.S. senators on Thursday also introduced legislation to impose sanctions on any entity involved in curbing the city’s autonomy.

That could include police cracking down on demonstrators and Chinese officials involved in Hong Kong policy — as well as banks that conduct transactions with anyone involved in curbing the territory’s freedoms.

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

A woman undergoing COVID test in China
Featured

Soaring Covid Cases Shine Light on China’s Healthcare Gap

by Staff Writer
January 11, 2023
Donald Trump
National

US Supreme Court Freezes Release of Trump Tax Returns

by Staff Writer
November 1, 2022
Donald Trump
National

US Capitol Riot Probe Votes to Subpoena Trump to Testify

by Staff Writer
October 13, 2022
Members of the Muslim Uyghurs minority demonstrate
World

EU to Ban Products Made Using Forced Labor, Risking China Anger

by Staff Writer
September 14, 2022
Steve Bannon
National

Former Trump Advisor Bannon Charged With Fraud in New York

by Staff Writer
September 8, 2022
China Uyghurs
World

US Says UN Report Shows Xinjiang ‘Genocide’ as China Irate

by Staff Writer
September 1, 2022
Next Post
Costa Rica is the first Central American country to legalize same-sex marriage

Costa Rica Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage in First for Central America

A man wearing a mask tries to catch a taxi at Times Square amid the COVID-19 pandemic on April 30, 2020 in New York City

COVID-19's Climate Gains: What Will Be Left If Economies Open Again?

Please login to join discussion

Recommended

Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
A supporter of nurses' strike and NHS holds a placard

UK Faces Fresh Mass Strikes as Wage Talks Derail

February 1, 2023
Israeli security forces in Jerusalem

Palestinian Gunman Kills 7 in East Jerusalem Synagogue Attack

January 30, 2023
The Doomsday Clock reads 100 seconds to midnight, a decision made by The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, during an announcement at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on January 23, 2020

‘Doomsday Clock’ Moves Closest Ever to Midnight

January 25, 2023
Police work near the scene of a mass shooting in Monterey Park, California

California Lunar New Year Mass Shooter Dead, Motive Unclear: Police

January 23, 2023
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

Race on To Replace Ardern as New Zealand Prime Minister

January 20, 2023

Opinion

Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
George Santos from the 3rd Congressional district of New York

George Santos for Speaker!

January 16, 2023
Commuters waiting for buses in Metro Manila. Philippines

Eight Billion and Counting…

November 29, 2022
Mahsa Amini protests

Imagining a Free Iran

October 24, 2022
Vladimir Putin

How 18th Century International Law Clarifies the Situation in Ukraine

September 29, 2022
Vladimir Putin

Falling for Putin

September 15, 2022
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post